To Blog or not to Blog
I'm a blogging virgin - and that's a statement I never thought I'd make in this incarnation. I'm not new to writing or even publishing, but I fell off the world 12 years ago, and now I've made it back I've found that everything has changed. No more laboriously double-spaced manuscripts sent off with trepidation to publishing houses, no more compliment slips with "Please never contact us again" by return of post. Nowadays, I write a poem or an essay, post it online and voila! At least 3 people read it. Sometimes even 4. And now there's blogging; any fool can do it, and many of us do. Some people have something to say, some people just seem to like seeing their opinions in print, others seem to want to change the world. I'll be honest - I'd like to change the world, too. I'd like to take it back and get a new one. However, since nobody elected me God (as far as I'm aware), I'll just have to put up with commenting on it like the rest of us.
What I like most about the wonderful new world of the Net, which evolved whilst I was "away", is the total freedom to read and write whatever you feel like, for no other reason than that you can. Imagine a world where everyone blogged (imagine a world where everyone had clean water!), imagine if every single one of us could add their voice and opinion to every debate, and those voices were heard. Imagine if there were so many of us that the media and governments couldn't drown us out. Imagine the blogosphere (available to everyone, not just us rich Westerners) becoming the informal international parliament, a techno-crucible of ideas and opinion and (most of all) information. I wonder what would happen if, instead of just accepting whatever information we're spoon-fed by the media and politicians of every ilk, people decided en masse to find out for themselves the facts behind the spin and propoganda. What would happen if nobody could lie to us any more, unless we wanted them to? If there were so many of us that repression was simply impossible? Shall we try?
What I like most about the wonderful new world of the Net, which evolved whilst I was "away", is the total freedom to read and write whatever you feel like, for no other reason than that you can. Imagine a world where everyone blogged (imagine a world where everyone had clean water!), imagine if every single one of us could add their voice and opinion to every debate, and those voices were heard. Imagine if there were so many of us that the media and governments couldn't drown us out. Imagine the blogosphere (available to everyone, not just us rich Westerners) becoming the informal international parliament, a techno-crucible of ideas and opinion and (most of all) information. I wonder what would happen if, instead of just accepting whatever information we're spoon-fed by the media and politicians of every ilk, people decided en masse to find out for themselves the facts behind the spin and propoganda. What would happen if nobody could lie to us any more, unless we wanted them to? If there were so many of us that repression was simply impossible? Shall we try?
posted by holojojo at 1:27 AM
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