"Smile and wave boys!" - musing on

One of the great benefits of being a grand parent is that you can watch cartoons without a need for excuses. The series of Madagascar dvd's is a regular source of amusement, when Emily and Harry are in our custody - I'm sure you know the score? I simply have to watch them in order to keep the kids happy. The penguins, for me, are the real stars of the show and their "Smile and Wave" quote is particularly relevant to my own experiences whilst in the process of commissioning our new "Marco" packing machine. Those of us, who were charged with the successful pioneering of this new technology were frequently under the scrutiny of any number of management groups - "Smile and wave boys - smile and wave" was our collective response whenever we felt that we were in the spotlight; good times.
This blogging lark seems to produce similar situations only, this time of my own making, instead of one produced by the industry in which I work. Having a thick skin is the basic requirement within a factory - it is a brutally honest environment where mercy is very rarely found. Blogland, also, is a rather unpleasant world where total strangers can make personal insults, safe in the knowledge that they are able to remain anonymous. Spineless wankers, who'd last less than a shift in a factory - there's no hiding places in there. It matters not; it's simply a symptom of technological advancement (progress?). The world is a much smaller place today than when I was a child - sadly I see very little progress as a by-product of the massive advances in information technology. Stupid bickering - it is the route cause of religious, racial, homo-phobic and political intolerance; this new technology means that it can be perpetuated at a speed that was previously unthinkable.
I don't use Facebook or Twitter - a techno-phobic dullard being the best description of my understanding of social networking. (My dad is on Facebook!) I have no "crystal ball" or insider information, yet I fear for where this ease of communication will take humanity. Radicals are able to spread their poison (single-subject fanatics are the very core of all that is going wrong with our world) without regard to the rules of civilisation, as defined by the United Nations. What point, two world wars, if humanity has not the collective intelligence to learn from that insane waste of life? For once I don't think that "Smile and wave" will help this situation?