Most people would agree that our world has changed dramatically over the past year. In the eye of our immediate political tornado is a growing drumbeat for an invasion of Iraq, rampant corporate corruption, the erosion of civil liberties, a crashing stock market, pedophile priests, and the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the most traumatic American news event in at least 50 years.
Have you read the one about corporations planning to charge you hundreds of dollars a month for your tap water? Or the one about military "psychological operations" specialists manipulating viewers of CNN? What about the highly skilled programmers in Silicon Valley who, because they are immigrants, are laboring under sweatshop-like conditions? If none of these stories rings a bell, it's not because you've missed the latest e-mail hoax.