What's so strange about pyramid schemes?
Okay, I admit that the novelty wears off very quickly. Maybe the first two times
that we receive a chain letter that promises us riches when we get to the top
of the list it perks our interest. Not because we think that there might be something
actually workable about the scheme, but because we're aware that we're witnessing
the development of a phenomenon - the transfer of get rich quick schemes to digital
technologies. I have a collection of copies of the
Nigerian scam, and always feel a certain pang of delight when a new one arrives.
(Douglas Cruickshank has written a wonderful examination of this scam
as a literary genre.) I've won numerous lotteries that I not only never entered,
but that I didn't know existed. Many well meaning people have forwarded me messages
about sick children to which only someone with a heart
of stone could turn a deaf ear - though the vast majority of these have been
bogus.
But these can offer a bit of pleasant comic relief. The same can't be said for
ads for cheap Rolex watches, viagra and other sexual aids, every possible sort
of computer equipment, and just about everything else imaginable. Yes, I even
receive spam that advises me to buy a product that will stop me from receiving
spam (similar to the pop-up ad that advertises a pop-up blocker) - as though someone
thinks that I'd buy a product from someone who sneaks into my inbox. When these
become the vast majority of spam items, and when the average guy in the street
(or in front of his computer) realizes that spamming offers a
workable business model, it becomes clear that the days of being able to enjoy
spam are far behind us.
Go to: Me too, or
Go to: We can learn to love it too, or
Go to: Fort PC.