Bioethicists – the people who specialize in deciding the thorniest moral issues of this ever-changing world in which we live in – all agree that, if genetic testing reveals the propensity of a patient to develop a life-threatening catastrophic disease, that patient should not be told. The burden of such knowledge is too great for people to handle.

This is basic common sense, of course, and human beings have known this since time immemorial. One needs only look at the Bible, in which Adam and Eve are admonished by no less an authority than God himself to not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Too much knowledge, you see, can be a dangerous thing. Even if you are in a crowd of merely one or two people.

Human beings are blessed with a number of virtues. Unfortunately, the ability to handle information in ways that I find acceptable is not one of them. “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” a famous person once said. Also, “Alas, how terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the man that’s wise.” Sophocles said that, in Oedipus the King. That is a play about a man who learns something very disturbing, and he puts out his own eyes as a result. I won’t burden you by revealing what it is that Oedipus learns in that play, that causes him to put out his own eyes, because it is very disturbing, and trust me, you don’t want to know that kind of thing. I’m not even going to “link” to it. I am trying to protect you by not telling you.

I wish I didn’t know, myself.

At the beginning of the recent unrest in Egypt, the president of that great country, Hosni Mubarak, “turned off” the internet. His country was so efficiently planned that the very infrastructure of the information superhighway had a single “off” switch that the leader was able to pull. This kept the full extent of the unrest a secret from much of the country, and therefore prevented a great deal of chaos that would no doubt have ensued, had the internet been kept “on.”

Alas, the internet did not stay “off” for the entirety of the period of unrest. We saw the horrific effects that resulted from the return of the internet. Chaos. Journalists were attacked. People were killed. And the unrest has now spread across the Middle East.

Senator Joe Lieberman, one of the visionary lights of “the world’s greatest deliberative body,” has proposed legislation that would empower the president of the United States “turn off” the internet in times of crisis. The timing of such legislation could not have been better, except if it had been proposed sooner, which it was, but it should have been passed sooner, possibly it should have been included as part of the PATRIOT Act, that most patriotic act that has done so much to keep us safe.

To be sure, people now have access to far too much information, and are confused as to how it should be processed. An “internet kill switch” would be just the thing to periodically give us time to decompress as a nation. Events are moving so fast. Too fast to process in ways that are beneficial. For instance, does anyone really need to see images of the unrest in Wisconsin? Do you really need to see this photo?

Of course you do not.  It does nothing to give you the full story of a complicated fiscal and political situation. All this does is inflame. And unfortunately, there are many images, and much information, that does nothing to advance good citizenship. This information does not help, it harms – the way you will be harmed to learn you might develop some bone-rotting disease in the future.

Naturally, the time has come for congress to empower the president with an “internet kill switch.” It’s much better than everyone putting out their eyes.

The way Oedipus did. In that play. The one I won’t tell you about. Because it would burden you too much.

“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”

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Ricky Sprague

Ricky Sprague occasionally writes and/or draws things. He sometimes animates things. He has a Twitter account and he has a blog. He scripted this graphic novel about Kolchak The Night Stalker. He is really, really good at putting links in bios.

Latest posts by Ricky Sprague (Posts)

• Meet the start-ups that are thriving in the current economic recovery - May 27, 2016
• How a Wonder Woman comic from 1942 led to the Great California Cow Exodus of 2012, maybe - November 28, 2012
• A common-sense approach to restoring economic prosperity - November 19, 2012
• New Philip K. Dick novel too absurd to be believed - September 17, 2012
• My 90 Days, 90 Reasons submission - September 12, 2012

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