Another stupid "Gas Strike" e-mail in my inbox

And, you know, it's pretty aggravating. The idea (and if it sounds familiar it's because it's made the rounds for at least the last three years, if memory serves) is that on a particular day, everybody abstains from purchasing vehicle fuel, which will thus cripple the Big Bad Oil Companies and that nasty old ogre, "The Government."

Some nuggets of breathless stupidty include:

If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day, 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next eight days!

No. If each of us sends this junk out to ten more people within one day, each of us will have succeeded in seriously annoying ten more people.

This is imperative for everyone to participate to show the government (who is making a huge profit from us) that we are not going to stand for this!!!!

What is imperative is not to flood my mailbox with junk like this.

Now, I know you aren't dumb enough to fall for this, but in case you know somebody who is -- and you have the patience to deal with this person -- tell him or her this:

1.) It won't work. "Boycotts" organized via e-mail never have worked. Why? Because they're not organized.

2.) The "one day" aspect is absurd. If I virtuously abstain from buying gas on, say, September 5 (the date manadated on the note I just received), I'll probably buy it on September 6.

How do things like this get started, anyway?