Aren't you the dour little elf?

Bitter editorial in the Cape Cod Times today about the "flash mob" phenomenon.

I have mixed feelings about flash mobs. I think gathering in a public place to do something surreal is hilarious. However, I think it's the height of arrogance to make some poor retail clerk deal with a flash mob.

If the flash mobs consistently stuck to public meeting spots, I'd want to participate in them myself. (Well, they'd have to have one occur on Cape Cod, but you know what I mean.)

But the sourness of today's editorial is too much. I quote,

"For the life of us, we can't see how converging around a rug at Macy's, or the greeting cards at the Harvard Coop in Cambridge, another flash mob site, empowers anybody."

Unless the phenomenon can be transformed into something more useful.

Indeed, our first reaction, after reading about the new craze, was to wonder about the "what ifs."

What if the high-tech tools used to organize such brainless activities could be used to create a social good? What if hundreds of people, contacted by e-mails, instant messages, Web sites and blogs, converged on Boston Common to pick up litter, help the homeless to shelters, and visited their state legislators on the Hill?

Uh-oh. Must have uplift! Must have a purpose! Can't have any aimless fun!

What an unwelcome insight into a pinched little life.

I will bet the author of this piece tried to tell their kids that "raisins were nature's candy".