I know that one has the option not to read a blog and its fellow links and linkers. However, a brush with duplicity and meanness in the human spirit makes me feel tainted. I have often thought of myself as tolerant and neutral but the recent readings have left me shaken to the core. The knowledge of the existence of such virulence is there, but it still packs a punch when I am faced with the physical reality of such mean-spiritedness.

Even though reading and writing are separate activities, I cannot seem to write much because of this shakiness. My writing is tainted, associated with such bad feelings about the online blog community. Logically, I don't see why I should let one bad apple spoil the whole barrel. But conversely, you are talking about someone who throws away the whole punnet of strawberries when one strawberry is white and fuzzy.

Ignore the difference in treatment when dealing with spoiling "hard" fruit and "soft" fruit. The proverb is only a metaphor. To me, a community is full of soft fruit; we are all easily bruised and battered, and one weak link in the community is all it takes to destroy the equilibrium of the whole.

Well, I'm still writing aren't I? But I feel uneasy and paranoid. Above all, I feel vulnerable and unsettled about the whole blogging environment.