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Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Styrofoam

I recently received a chain letter email from a friend of mine that promises the fulfillment of any wish if I simply pass on copies of that letter to 7 of my friends in the next hour. Interesting was the fact that unlike most other chain letters, this one didn't plague me with some misfortune that would occur if I failed to continue the chain.

The original writers of these email chain letters must find some kind of weird satisfaction by propagating these messages. Perhaps the same kind of satisfaction achieved by those people that write codes for computer viruses. I can't imagine how exploiting and preying upon the vulnerabilities and insecurities of the general population would generate anything other than the sick feeling you might get from stomping on a bunny.

I've never passed on a chain letter because I just don't buy into that bullshit. Sure you can get lucky and things happen, good or bad, and perhaps God does exist to control your destiny, but I can't imagine that there is this outlying force that can be persuaded to make things go my way... simply because I passed on 7 copies of some dumb letter to my friends within a certain time period. Persuasion with prayer and faith? Possible. Persuasion by spamming my friends? I pity the diety that can be bought so cheaply.

But perhaps that is exactly what happened: "Moses, I will grant you one wish and save your people if you pass on 100 copies of that Ten Commandments tablet to 100 of your friends within 1 day. If you fail, you will suffer the worst of possible consequences!"

I guess Moses didn't do so well, considering he had to wander around the desert for 40 years.