What do we know? What do we need to know? Over 69 million people voted for Barack Obama knowing nothing about him. He could be a three dimensional Max Headroom, a gag contestant on some reality show that got loose. They voted for him because they want to “believe again.” In what is up to the viewer to decide. If they are disabused in their faith, if it turns out that they have Jerzy Kosinski when they had convinced themselves that they were getting a combination of FDR, Jefferson and Lincoln then their fury will be directed at the messenger of the bad news.

We know what we are told and it is terribly easy to tell lies. One reason for that is that it is relatively risk free. For 40 years now it has been considered routine practice for comedians to humiliate the self important and respectable in public. At first this was considered a harmless even useful window into behavior when done by Candid Camera. Later it was pushed by shock jocks like Howard Stern whose army of cretins perfected the technique of the prank call on bosses, and low level public figures. Now we have people insinuating themselves into communication with an American Vice Presidential candidate and the President of France. Real damage is being done here. Not just to reputations but in fact reactions or over reactions in response to false information or public offense could be triggered. State actors can take state actions, that is to say that wealth can be expended and violence can be unleashed.

If the reply had always been a disproportionate one to discourage anyone interjecting false information into the system then we would all be safer. Howard Stern and his minions should have been locked up enough to get the message out. The idea that real harm is harmless and responses should be proportionate or even rewards in the form of publicity, if the target was a social outcast, leads eventually to Hamas tossing “harmless” missiles at Israel.