While it is about communicating, it's more than that. It's about creating communities. And while we normally think of that phrase in the positive sense, it's not always so.

I remember when the World Wide Web first came into existence, and I found a forum dedicated to my favorite college football team. I'm someone who felt like a weirdo even when I was going to school there because of how passionate I was about the team. It felt like a revelation to be in a community of people who felt just like me. It felt empowering, and while it was okay being an outlier in all kinds of settings (including going to high school in another state a few miles away from the rival), it was nice to finally find a place where I was "among my people." My best friends in life and highly successful business partners ended up developing from those interactions. It was a powerful experience for all of us.

But this is true for nearly any interest you can name. Pedophiles who have to hide their inclinations can find communities of like minded people. Racists can find others who believe skin color determines aspects of who we are. Religious fanatics who feel violence and repression is an appropriate manifestation of their beliefs.

I would like to believe that the Internet gives us tools to communicate across boundaries, but my personal experience, in a vast array of public forums, is that the most strident voices drive discussion.

Think of a crowded room where a group of people are having a civil discussion about a polarizing topic. If there's no limitation or heavy moderation regarding who can speak and in what manner, eventually someone with the loudest voice tramples all over the conversation, and everyone ends up reacting to that. Then the person's behavior is rewarded in different ways by gaining the attention he/she sought, so others begin emulating it.

And it's effective. The most extreme positions transmitted the loudest end up driving the conversation.

When I've been effective at combatting it, it's been so exhausting. It just takes a huge amount of personal resources - time, patience, persistence, quick responses, an articulate and accurate presentation of views - and the battle is never won.

I think the state of the country is a manifestation of this in many ways. But it's not just the Internet. Politically it's the shift from boll weevil conservative southern democrats to solid republicans, along with the gerrymandering to make appealing to a party's base all that matters.

The only thing that's truly going to change all this is the country going through a catastrophe. 9-11 wasn't enough, and neither was the financial collapse of 2008. So it will have to be something much worse than either of those two events. And speaking personally, I'd actually prefer to kick the can down the road until after I'm dead I don't want to live through a Great Depression, a civil war, or WWII.