Been an interesting week at hotwheelscollectors.com, hasn’t it? There’s been an influx of people who frequent the rec.toys.cars newsgroup coming in and making all kinds of noise. And there have been some at HWC.com going the other way. Prior to the “RTC” people there were some bombs being hurled back and forth between the regulars at diecastillustrated.com and HWC.com.

     The question is generally “why”? Why do the people who frequent a particular website feel the need to go to another website and put it down? Do the owners of a particular brand of refrigerator go door to door insulting the owners of other kinds of fridges? Would this battle then escalate to toaster ovens and microwaves? After Kitchen appliances, would we move into Laundry appliances? Hot Tubs? What?

     This is something I have been thinking about for some time, actually. I cannot say I have any answers, but it has been a question that I have pondered often. It all started on a trip to Target several years ago. My three year old (at the time) had to go potty. As she did her business I noticed, scrawled in marker, the words “Wal Mart Rules”. Underneath someone else in an equal scrawl had written something that rhymed with “Duck Shoe”.  Underneath that there was a third scrawl; “You can't even walk through Wal-Mart’s isles because of trash”.

     Two things occurred to me at that moment:

1) I realized I was reading a thread on the predecessor to modern internet newsgroups (and bulletin boards), the bathroom wall.

2) We as a society have an unnatural obsession with competition. And from that moment on, I pondered both thoughts.

      Regarding the competition, I have come to realize where it comes from. We have degenerated to the point where we as a society have been conditioned to view other people's strengths as a threat instead of an asset. If someone is better than you at something you learn to hate them and attempt to fight them rather than saying “hey, you are good at that. I’m good at this, let’s join up and we will both be stronger”. That is called unity. All too often unity is lost to us. Look at the top of the TV ratings and you’ll see what I mean. The premise of “Survivor” is that if you are stranded in a remote location the only thing that matters is being the ONE who survives. It’s deeply disturbs me that at no point does it occur to anyone that if they stuck together they’d ALL survive. Try watching the movie “Alive” to see how it’s supposed to be done. All for one, one for all. Not one guy saying “I don’t care if you survive, I want to go home”. It’s the same with “The Weakest Link”. “That guy knows more about trivia than us so let’s vote him out so we can win all the money”. It’s a sickness. And it doesn’t affect just a few people. It affects us as a whole. That small group known as “humans”.  For a man raising a child and bringing another one soon, this troubles me. Deeply.

       How many times have you approached a rack of Hot Wheels and there is someone there already? Does that person say “hi” to you or do they try to get between you and the rack? If you are the one already there, do YOU say “hi”? Or do you view them as some other dog that wants your dinner? If you don’t talk, did you ever consider that this person may have one car you have been seeking for years and would be willing to trade it to you for something you have 5 of? What of that? Could this guy be an ally? I traded an older TH for four “ordinary” cars with the admin of this site. Why? I had a few of that TH and I needed those four cars. Do I see Joe as a threat to my collecting? No. He is an excellent resource. Where could I go to get those cars if I viewed Joe as a threat? Ebay. And I would have paid up to 6 bucks a piece for them. I bought the TH for 94 cents. Therefore, to me I got four ! ! cars for 94 cents. A Bargain. Joe got a TH for the four bucks he spent on the cars. Also a bargain. No threat. Just two guys who value other collectors making a deal that benefited them both. Why is it that our behavior has become so abnormal?

       The other thought about how the Bathroom Wall was the predecessor to modern Internet Newsgroups is more amusing than troubling. It has given me a very cynical view of the web and as such has truly allowed me to sit back and laugh at the goings on lately online. I have been online for about 10 years. I have seen the “web” grow from a few pages to this giant, uncontrollable mass of random images all designed to either give you something or take something away from you, sometimes both. Short attention span theater at its finest. And the dark underbelly of the Internet is the Usenet newsgroups. They were there before the web, and will be there forever. They are a veritable “wild west” of  people who exchange everything from software to porn to advice on how to get your dog to stop sniffing your crotch. And there used to be a time when “trolls! ! ” were minimal. Occasional outbursts would happen, but for the most part everyone was decent, knowledgeable and tried to help.

       Then AOL put the web in everyone’s house. And eventually people who USED to communicate via bathroom walls had keyboards in front of them. And there it went, down the proverbial drain.  People who don’t see the profound stupidity it takes to actively GO to a Target and write how Wal-Mart Rules instead of just, well, STAYING AT WAL-MART. And then people who lack the basic social skills to ignore such a profoundly STUPID statement like that, but unfortunately also lack the vocabulary to come up with anything better that the aforementioned rhyming words. Then there are people who have the right intention and want to set the record straight, but for whatever reason don’t see how moronic it is to respond to such idiocy on their level.

       But this is the way of the web. People who have an allegiance to one entity will try to degrade another entity in order to make themselves feel bigger instead of realizing that each has its merits and trying to learn from each.

        And there is no way to close this writing. I can’t offer a solution, because as long as there is communication, there will be people without the sense and decency to use it properly. As long as there is a web, there will people will have some perverse allegiance to one site over another and then feel the need to try and trash the other one instead of just staying where they are. And as long as people try and trash something, some well meaning person will try to defend it. And as long as there are words that rhyme with “Duck Shoe”, there will NEVER be constructive debate.

         Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go onto Maytag’s site and let them know they suck and they should have bought a Kenmore.

--43Goalie