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Every once in a while I get a chain email forwarded to me from this lovely old auntie of mine from Yorkshire.  These are not some the facile good luck tokens, my typical Yorkshire auntie would not hold truckle to such missives. No, these chain emails brook serious moral content.  They usually contain a poignant story about some domestic or third world outrage invoking decent people make sensible, democratic type comments and feeling a genuine community based need to make a positive contribution.  Because the email has a serious message, my old auntie feels that these particular chain emails warrant special consideration and therefore forwards them on, adding her name to the plethora that have gone before, and ignoring the consequences for her and the cabal of addresses added by her.

Why would I want to stop such virtuous behaviour?  Because in the majority of cases it is a waste of space and time, not condoned by the official parties that may be involved in the tragedies, and perpetuates the myth and practice of chain letters and emails.  The latest email I got contained prose about a young girl going to a party and ending up a hit and run victim of a drunk driver.  This is a sad event that touches many people who have had first or second hand experience of family or friends.  Indeed there are such community groups based around the world whose aims and objectives strike a resonance with all of us.  The email I got purported to originate as an official petition from Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD), a group based in Texas.  MADD had nothing to do with the circulating email and did not condone the action, principally because it did nothing for their cause.  In fact that email with its thousands of names and growing list of previous email addresses was of such a size and number that it choked various mailboxes around the world.  Worse still it is almost certain that at some stage at least one recipient will use the engorged list of valid email addresses to line their pocket or in sheer perversity send the email to some spamming company.

It is homage to our global community that people all over the world feel a need to acknowledge and contribute to the shared experiences of others.  So I now contradict myself by posing the question that although the passing of these chain emails are not in themselves useful, the act of contribution and the melding together of disparate groups in addresses may benefit the individual that does it.  It makes us feel better and that in itself is a positive aspect.  The real question is does the positive outweigh the negative?