In my last post I made some mention of the Ocean Marketing debacle that unfolded like live theater over the week after Christmas. If this is new to you, a quick search will set you straight. The Examiner had the most complete play-by-play I could find. (Scroll down 2/3 of the page to "Original Article" to start at the beginning.) You can also see how it all started on Penny Arcade.
The phrase "a tragedy without a hero" came to my mind in reference to the affair, so I Googled it to see where that phrase has come up before. Thanks to one Waldo F. McNeir, the first few hits are in reference to Shakespeare's Julius Ceasar. A parallel or two come to mind. Entertaining as it was, the story of Ocean Marketing did have some resemblance to a group stabbing.
To recap: Paul Christoforo was in charge of distributing a product, and revealed himself over the course of an e-mail conversation with a customer to be a rude, petty, egomaniacal idiot. This was put out on the internet, at a moment when a large number of people had more free time than normal (and, I might hypothesize, some holiday frustrations to vent). The result was an information-age combination of the pillory and the Roman Colosseum. The internet ate Mr. Christoforo alive.
I come to bury Paul Christoforo, not to flame him. Did he deserve what happened? As it became clear that the man's name would be thoroughly demolished within a week, I found myself wondering that quite a lot. Clearly Mr. Christoforo has certain glaring personality flaws which make him unfit for any position which gives him even the illusion of power over other human beings. He had that position, though, and we can presume it was his livelihood. Is it possible to not deserve to lose something that you had no business having in the first place? What are the ethics of training the internet's Disproportionate Response Beam on someone? Is there a lesson to be learned here, and does anyone have the self-awareness to learn it?
What fascinated me about the story was the gradually developing portrait of Mr. Christoforo as a man with a seriously flawed worldview. He is apparently obsessed with contacts and status. When he wanted to make himself out to be a big man, he fabricated contacts for himself. When Mike Krahulik laid him low, he imagined that Krahulik had formidable contacts.
Christoforo's interview with MSNBC is particularly illuminating of this pathology. Here's what I consider the crown jewel of the interview: "Ultimately, if I was able to control the customer, it never would have happened. I've dealt with thousands and thousands of customers with similar complaints, they were all asking the same question. When is it big enough that it hits the news? When it hits Penny Arcade, when it hits a guy who has the biggest affiliations in the industry." "You never know who knows who," he says later, "and lesson learned." See above re: self-awareness. Mike Krahulik's big affiliation is with the internet, not the Freemasons. "Customer Dave" didn't have any special strings to pull either. He just sent an email to somebody he had never met.
Personal contacts will always count for something, but easier, freer communication is eroding their power. The smoke-filled rooms where men of consequence used to chortle and plot look more and more like bunkers where they hide from the organic, chaotic powers at work in the larger world.
At least, I hope it's that way.
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