The Lunatic Fringe

The Lunatic Fringe By Elton Camp Once it was a wild-eyed man carrying a sign “Tomorrow, all but me will be left behind.” Now we have far more from which to choose To find those people with really extreme views Makers of silly conspiracy theories are an example That Osama bin Laden is now dead, proof is ample Yet there are those who insist that the man is living As proof, sightings of him walking about are giving Political views is another source of some weird nuts To promote much mistaken ideas, they have the guts And there are always many people so easy to deceive Not matter how strange an idea, they quickly believe The lunatic fringe has folks you don’t expect to see Example: the founder of Heaven’s Gate had a Ph.D. On the faculty of an American university he served Until into total madness, illogic and murder swerved The Unabomber was surely not some ignorant dunce He had a doctorate and worked at a university once But he developed ideas just as wild as they could be Then he decided sending bombs would make all see So all of us should guard against what we may accept At deceit, a fair number of people have become adept So, to avoid folly, one of the best things that we can do Is to demand proof that anything odd we’re told is true