I'm writing again.

First of all, I performed my first rick-roll today. It was glorious. There was a message board on Facebook, chock-full of pro and anti seal-hunt sentiment. Emotions were high, arguments specious. I felt that I should do my best to add to the discourse on the board, so I found my favourite link to Rick, and pasted this message in:

I think anyone that supports the seal hunt should see this first hand to see how cruel you can be to small animals:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU

I then sit back, and wait for the replies to come - you know, someone would get it, and figuratively scream in agony as they get rolled. There will be general ROFLing. Instead I get nothing. I give up, and go to get a coffee. When I return, I'm the recipient of a message from some random person called Dylan:

I'm very curious as to whether or not that video is ANOTHER video made by PETA or the Sea Shepherd organization to spread their lies and propaganda. I'm also curious as to why you'd bother joining a group that supports the seal hunt when you so obviously do not. You should educate yourself

Yes, Rick Astley is a member of PETA.

Then, a random link appeared to me in my newsreader. It's a link to the exhibition for Stanley Donwood in Japan. Linked off there is a blog. It's about his creative process, and I save it in my newsreader to have a read of later.

And then I write this post. You see, I realised something. The internet is the great democratiser, it gives anyone with a browser a voice. It's communication on a massive scale. However, the truth of the matter is you don't want to talk to anyone. What you really want to do is listen to people who do know what they're talking about. People with some kind of authority. That's the real magic. Right now, I can read the musings of an artist, and learn about his creative process as it happens. It's there, available to me, raw and direct. It allows modes of communication between people that would never otherwise have existed. However, it also introduces noise. Noise like debates over seal hunting - essentially emotional and moral debates, which are repeated ad nauseum on an annual basis, when the latest flock of high school graduates decide they want a cause to give meaning to their life.

No, I'll care about sealing when I find someone whose business it is to know about this. Someone who is actually hunts seals for a living. A scientist who is caring for the ethical treatment of the animals. Until then, I could not care less about the ramblings of activists one way or the other. Unless someone is stupid enough to give them power, in which case, it's my business to make sure they don't screw me over.

I know, there's a great deal of irony about posting this rant up on the interwebs. But a) you don't have to read this and b) I wanted to gloat over a fantastic rick-roll.