“yes. in the past, there were authors who wrote under pen names. and if people wanted to smear others anonymously, this was called a "poison pen letter." a great dramatization of this exists in Clouzot's Le Corbeau (1943). i think the most obvious difference between now and then is the barrier to entry is so much lower. essentially, humans haven't changed. only now it requires so much less effort to be a poison pen writer, or invest in an alter or even multiple-egos online. but instead of conforming or bringing these egos together in a solid narrative structure , we can simply have multiple blogs or websites. we all have several social networking sites, don't we? and each one is a little different in the way we present ourselves. we can actively cultivate the different personas, or we can let them slip and slide into one another, either because we become lazy, or because at times we simply don't care. again, before the internet, you had different personas you adopted for different friends and family, did you not? the difference is the barrier (and thus incentive) to actually putting these behaviors and feelings on public display has been altered. and only bill o'reilly is truly upset by all of these developments. for my part, i think it's incumbent on me to put all of these concerns away and focus my energies on visual arts, and ice cream. will you join me?”