By: Jim Taylor

Mental spam filters


Spam—that is, unsolicited e-mail—has had some unexpected effects on me.

        About a month ago, I began getting e-mails that announced, “You’ve received a greeting card from…” I didn’t open them, fortunately. My spam filter quarantined most of them for a potential virus—officially known as W32/Zhelatin.gen!eml

        If you get one of these, don’t open it.

        Since then, the trickle has become a deluge. I now receive almost as many “greeting card” e-mails as I do about sexual-performance drugs.

        I used to enjoy occasionally receiving electronic greeting cards from friends. But these new ones always come from an anonymous source—a “school mate,” a “neighbour,” an “old friend…”

        So I’ve developed a policy. If it doesn’t come from a name I recognize, I trash it.

        As the tide of unsolicited e-mail rises, I do the same with other e-mail. Unknown name, unknown subject? Gone!

        Now I find I react similarly to mail delivered by the Post Office.

        Once upon a time, I ripped open every letter, eager to see who had written to me. Not any more. If it has a return address, I’ll decide whether to open it. If it comes from a charity I support, I’ll probably read it. If it comes from anyone else, I’m likely to toss it unopened.

        And if it comes in an envelope addressed in fake handwriting, from a celebrity who has no reason to know me, I don’t even bother finding out which bloodsucking agency sponsored the mailing.

        As for anonymous letters—forget it! If you’re not willing to put your good name behind it, I’m not willing to read it.



Mental triage

Unfortunately, I realize, there’s a temptation to apply spam triage to unfamiliar ideas and theories.

        When a casual conversation drifts into economics, education, or politics—or, more rarely, religion—I start checking to see who originated that message.

        Did this economic analysis start with Milton Friedman or Karl Marx? With the Fraser Institute or the United Auto Workers?

        Do these educational views reflect the B.C. Teachers’ Federation or the Campbell government?

        Do the politics deify George Bush or Hugo Chavez?

        Is the theology closer to Marcus Borg or Jerry Falwell?

        I’ll listen to almost anyone’s personal views—as long as they are truly that person’s own views. But whenever I suspect that I’m standing at the wrong end of a sewer delivering pre-digested feces, I quit paying attention. Mentally, I have already dragged that message off my screen into the Recycle Bin.

        I shouldn’t. Growth and change do not result from limiting my thinking to concepts I already agree with. Growth and change come from having my preconceptions tested, from discovering new perspectives, from being exposed to unfamiliar possibilities.

        I should pay extra attention to viewpoints that differ from my own, not less.

        But when I’m inundated in self-serving propaganda, I have to develop some way of winnowing the wheat from the chaff.

        Unfortunately, some good grain may get lost in that process.

*****************************************
Copyright © 2007 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
*****************************************