"He Just Won't Sit Still Doctor!"

This is Howard Dully. At the age of 12 his father and step-mother decided that he should undergo a Transorbital or Prefrontal Lobotomy to help control his behavior. Since marrying Mr. Dully, the new Mrs. Dully had increasing trouble putting Howard to bed.

"He objects to going to bed but then sleeps well. He does a good deal of daydreaming and when asked about it says 'I don't know.' He turns the room's lights on when there is broad daylight outside."

The transorbital lobotomy is performed by slightly nudging the eyeball aside so an icepick can be pushed through the paper-like bone at the front of the skull, then into the frontal lobe of the brain. Once there the icepick is "jiggled" slightly destroying parts of the brain's frontal lobe that control behavior.

Ironically in Howard's case the parts of his brain destroyed by lobotomy were the ones that control critical thinking and impulse control, in turn making his condition worse. He was finally send to an institution so his father and step-mother could enjoy a quite evening at home.

There is a bright side to the story however. Because Howard was so young at the time of his lobotomy his brain was able to re-write new pathways around the damaged area, and today there are no physical signs of his having had been lobotomized. But as Howard explains it "It feels like there is a piece of my soul missing."

If a pill of Ritalin or a capsule of Zoloft looked like an icepick do you think people might think twice about using it to control the behavior of their children. Ummmm...probably not. There is much information out there on Howard Dully's experience. Please look him up and read about him. He is the only lobotomy patient to have had his brain scanned three dimensionally by high resolution MRI.

Beware The Animal Lover

Those who look into the dead eyes of an animal and see love have a fundamental misunderstanding of emotion. If the blind robotic movements of a cat are seen as genuine expressions of emotion, than the infinately more complex emotional responses of a human being must be too much to endure.

Of course I don't mean anyone who has and loves a dog is an emotionally dead automaton who could slash a child's throat without flinching. But anyone who I have ever known with an above average love for animals has had difficulty with human relationships.

They crave that tail wagging enthusiasm, that silent stroking and cuddling unobstructed by thoughts, words or any other higher brain function. Obedience, loyalty and dependence these things are seen as a sign of love to the emotionally crippled animal lover.

By the time Hitler's war in Europe was ending 25 million Russians had died. Six million Jews, Gypsies, political prisoners, homosexuals, and POWs had been systematically murdered in industrialized death camps. 32,000 Britons were killed by the indiscriminate bombing of London. Yet, Blondi, Hitler's loyal German Shepard stayed by his side until the end. He only ordered Blondi put to sleep hours before he and Eva Braun took their own lives.

For the record Hitler was also a non-smoking, non-drinking, vegetarian. I'll end here tonight.

The Extensions of Man

Marshall McLuhan described all media as an extension of man. Tools are extensions of our body, if you don't think so try hammering in a nail with your forehead. They allow us to do things our bodies can't do. In the same way media: writing, painting, photography, telecommunications, television, are extension of our mind.

These media carry our thoughts into a wider realm, a collective consciousness, a vast artificial memory system. Like the late and great Carl Sagan said, "Information has gone from DNA, to brains, to books." Well, we have gone far beyond books in the systematic collection of human thoughts.

We can immediately think of the internet as this system, but it is, in fact, much much wider and older than that. Media begins with the first cave paintings, the first written word, the first sculpture, the first photograph and so on. We dump the contents of our brains into a vast reservoir of ideas that is growing exponentially. The latest innovation, the internet, simply makes it easy for everyone to dump memories and thoughts into this reservoir, which was for so long reserved for the most privileged and learned of people.

What is the danger in collecting all this information and making it public? McLuhan calls it a Media Narcosis, a narcotic like numbing effect at being faced with ourselves in this fashion. A good example is Television. It is totally one way. You sit, the television preaches. You may say the internet is different, we all have the opportunity to contribute. True, but one kid sets his farts on fire and 2,250,400 of us watch it in silence.