I find myself becoming increasingly disenchanted with the blogosphere. It’s not that there isn’t a ton of great information and discussion out there. It’s not that I don’t think it’s valuable, quite the opposite. However, so much of what you read is just, well, petty pearl clutching.
It’s sort of a packaged “daily dose of outrage” (or more accurately, depending on how many RSS feeds you follow, a by-the-minute dose of outrage).
It’s not that there isn’t actually truth in what is written, though again it is often pumped up, however I’m not sure it does anyone much good to read this stuff. Sure, when someone has a long well thought out opinion on some topic of importance that is one thing, but so much of what we see is essentially, “X said something stupid,” “Y did something stupid,” and “Z did something stupid”.
Of course each of these raise our pulse rate and convince us the people on the “other side” are evil, but I don’t think it really does much to raise the level of conversation, educate, or ultimately move toward solutions. In fact it rather divides us.
Worse, I’d think it’s really what Aldous Huxley was concerned about – distractions from anything real.
I say this in part because I also read conservative blogs now and then and it’s funny, if you just substitute liberal names with conservative names and vice-versa, it’s pretty much the same crap. This is particularly true lately as we see conservatives attack Obama for what liberals attacked Bush for (and conservatives defended Bush against) and liberals support Obama for what liberals attacked Bush for. It’s only an outrage when it’s not your “team”.
This helps no one and is ultimately, well, comical (in the “it’s so sad you have to laugh”, kind of way).
I don’t know I’m paranoid enough to believe that this is exactly what the powers that be want – us ruminating on petty disagreements and tribal alliances, but it sure works to their benefit and not ours.
And if that all doesn’t get you outraged, well just remember every outrage pumps you up and makes you miserable. Sure, it’s an emotional high (and probably a sign of our “addictive” American psyche), but it sure does make the world a bad place to live.
UPDATE:
I left off an important detail – I am most definitely part of the problem, or at least have been. There is plenty to be found in this blog that in my mind constitutes a “daily dose of outrage”. Sad but true.
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