“I said to a guy, ‘Tell me, what is it about cocaine that makes it so wonderful,’ and he said, ‘Because it intensifies your personality.’ I said, ‘Yes, but what if you're an asshole?’"                    

           - From Bill Cosby: Himself

Replace the word “cocaine” with “the Internet” and it’s still true.

We all know the wonders of the Internet – rapid access to all of the world’s information at your fingertips, the ability to post your writing, video or music for others to see, instantaneous communication with your loved ones, networking with strangers hundreds or thousands of miles away.  It allows you to bond with people who share your political views, your health problems, your sports fandom, your cultural tastes or your personal obsessions.

However, the Internet can also be very isolating for the very same reasons.  When you are bonding with people who share your opinions or interests, you can safely shun those who have distinctly different views.

The result is that leftists hang out at left-leaning websites, while right-wingers hang out at right-leaning sites.  We only seek out the information that reinforces our existing opinions, making them more rigid.

In his book, Going to Extremes, Cass Sunstein, a Harvard law professor who is now head of President Obama’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, wrote about the phenomenon of “group polarization.” In an experiment, he asked participants to write down their views on several political issues, and then divided them in like-minded groups for discussion.  The result was that each group’s view hardened and became more dogmatic.

I’m as guilty as anyone.  The news-oriented websites I have bookmarked feature mostly a left-leaning agenda - Salon, Slate, Huffington Post, The Nation.  Since I no longer work in an office with a diverse cross-section of views, I have also limited my exposure to real people with opposing views, making it easier for me to see my side as the Enlightened Ones and the other side as the Delusional Ones.  I am aware of this and I am uncomfortable with it.  I have actively tried to avoid writing that preaches to the choir – there seems little point to me reading, or writing, another “Sarah Palin is an idiot” post.  Reading it won’t change my view; writing it won’t change anyone else’s.

This weekend, there were many posts on OS about the Arizona shooting.  While it’s safe to say that my views correspond with those expressed in posts by Greg Correll and Dr. Spudman, who put much of the onus on the rhetoric of the right, I was happy to see posts by others, like Stellaa and Oryoki Bowl, which questioned our rush to judgment.  I think it is healthy when a group’s orthodoxy is challenged by one of its own.  I hope that conservative websites are also going through some orthodoxy challenging this week.  Frankly, I wouldn’t know because, in the spirit of group polarization, I avoid their sites. 

I’m not sure how this applies to Jared Loughner.  We do not know which websites he frequented.  I have no idea if he was a regular at rabidly anti-government sites.  I just know that, if he sought them, there were plenty out there to intensify his extremist views and reassure him that Congressional representatives like Gabrielle Giffords were indeed a danger to his freedom.

However, I am haunted by the image of Loughner, as described by his neighbors, walking his dog while plugged into his iPod.  It is a fairly common image, of course, but in light of what happened this weekend, it is also the image of a young man who has shut out all of the noises and voices that exist outside his own head.  But doesn’t that describe most of us?