Today the Internet will speak of many fictional news stories, misleading the general public to beleive that whatever it is has happened, or is available, and April Fools!! So we all shut up into our little worlds and try to think tht nothing will happen today. Several people will remain diligent, plugging away at their jobs managing data backups and network activity. Cops will go about their daily beat, cautious of the fact that most of their 911 calls are pranks.
But WHAT IF it wasn't a prank?
I know I am not the first to mention this, but how about the fact that we have a half-assed party day that people play jokes on each other, from friends and family to corporations and media. We tell fibs, and hope that nobody beleives them, and if they do.. we just laugh.
What if the Joke wasn't a joke? What if April Fools Day you woke up and there were news reports of planes crashing and bombs blowing up? Would yuo think it was a large scale disaster, or a very big joke? Really think about it. The first broadcast you would think it's a joke. You would switch channels and see the same report, and start wondering, laughing subtly to yourself to make yourself think it's not all that bad.
We have really taken our reliance of media and so-called "accurate and reliable" sources to a limit, showing exactly why the concept of April Fools Day can be a target of massive outages, switch controller overrides, and general mayhem. We sit aside and laugh at ourselves, laugh at our ability to be made fun of. But really, what we are breeding is an acceptibility of untruths. Jokes are jokes, but today we must be careful to not let our fun get in the way of common sense.
I would expect that getting on a plane dressed as a suicide bomber would not be funny for anyone involved. But what if we just don't notice the little things lining up during a 12 hour period. First the alarm goes off early. Then the news says something blew up. Then the other news says something else blew up. All across the country different news stations are reporting on events that are largely viewed as fictional.
Just imagine that it never happens.