A short while ago I joined Twitter as the suggestion of a friend, who explained that the more people I “followed” the more “followers” I would have and the more people would visit this blog. Maybe some of them would leave comments, dear Reader.

I set about this task with gusto, “following” all the philosophers I could find, along with the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Dalai Lama, the Rev. Al Sharpton, and Pope Tawadros II.

I then discovered that my account had been suspended for being “too aggressive”. I oasked the folk at Twitter what was meant by this, and was told that all of a sudden I had “followed” about 500 people.

I apologized deeply, pleaded ignorance, promised I would never do this again on pain of excommunication, and then added a post-script. I said:

“I hope you have a sense of humour. I spend a lot of my day running the Epicurus Blog, which preaches moderation and non-aggression. Ouch!”

None of us are perfect.