Grassroots psy-ops.

We found this idea rather appealing. Granted, it would be even nicer to see the Amerikansan public for once well-informed, but honestly, what are the odds of that?

It is in the nature of governments to trade in misinformation. In the intent to deceive, there's tragically little difference between the US government and, for example, Stalin -- now, hold on a moment -- before we hear outraged squeals, we are certainly not claiming that the United States is murdering millions of people (although that would be an amusing rumor to spread). We merely suggest that the US leadership would be quite happy having the sort of control over information that Stalin did. They don't, thank goodness, but we feel sure if they happened to find a genie in a lamp....

With that in mind, admit for a moment that it would be rather fun to play at what the CIA used to call "psy-ops" right back at the powers-that-be. How often does the average citizen get a chance to make his or her superiors tremble? Not nearly often enough, we feel. The historian Stanley Hoffman said in 1987 that we face "the reality of a capitalism and a technology that render the individual powerless, except if he is a thief and a terrorist." We're non-violent types ourselves; mightn't it be enough simply to be a skillful liar?

Of course, we have all become so accustomed to the masses of misinformation perpetrated via the Internet that Mr. Z.'s scheme would most likely fall flat. But organized misinformation, we suppose, might be able to, as Terry Southern's Guy Grand was fond of saying, "make it hot for them."