Wednesday, August 13, 2003
The STFU syndrome
I'd hardly classify myself as an experienced blogger, and the whole "blogging about blogging" thing seems to be so much recursive navel-gazing, but I have noticed a peculiar effect that thinking about this page has had on me, and it seems worthy of note.
Often against my better judgement, I keep up with the news. In general, I will have read, or heard of, a story some time before it inevitably becomes blog-fodder. At first I suffered the urge to opine on these matters via this blog, since I almost never find myself at a loss for an opinion about the events of the day.
But the more blogs I read, the more that urge went away. At this point, the thought of writing anything about the California recall, or Howard Dean, or the heat wave currently afflicting Europe, or almost any other current event strikes me as being something that transcends futility, and rises right up into the realm of the counterproductive. The political climate in this nation has become wildly, outrageously, and almost comically polarised. I'm experiencing a powerful urge to not add my voice to the cacophony.
An obvious exception here was the recent windows-based RCP worm, now variously named "LoveSAN" or "blaster". I suppose the difference was the fact that the thing reached right out and touched me, as it were. I had direct knowledge of the thing. Even then I resisted the urge to spew invective about Microsoft. I mean, you can go out and read slashdot for that, right?
So I guess I'm wondering if this is inexperience, cowardice, or wisdom. Some combination of those, and perhaps others?
And of course, I have discovered that my previous classification of the bloggers hosted by this service as people whose boundless hatred for the President only marginally eclipses their slightly-more-bounded hatred for themselves was, indeed, too generalized. Apparently the conservative, politically neutral, well-adjusted, or simply more topic-engaged bloggers do their updates earier in the week. Maybe if by Friday all the updates occuring are of the "I HATE GEORGE BUSH HE IS THE DEVIL OH GOD I WISH I COULD TELL THEM I'M DYING INSIDE" variety, I can conclude that there may be a pattern.
Often against my better judgement, I keep up with the news. In general, I will have read, or heard of, a story some time before it inevitably becomes blog-fodder. At first I suffered the urge to opine on these matters via this blog, since I almost never find myself at a loss for an opinion about the events of the day.
But the more blogs I read, the more that urge went away. At this point, the thought of writing anything about the California recall, or Howard Dean, or the heat wave currently afflicting Europe, or almost any other current event strikes me as being something that transcends futility, and rises right up into the realm of the counterproductive. The political climate in this nation has become wildly, outrageously, and almost comically polarised. I'm experiencing a powerful urge to not add my voice to the cacophony.
An obvious exception here was the recent windows-based RCP worm, now variously named "LoveSAN" or "blaster". I suppose the difference was the fact that the thing reached right out and touched me, as it were. I had direct knowledge of the thing. Even then I resisted the urge to spew invective about Microsoft. I mean, you can go out and read slashdot for that, right?
So I guess I'm wondering if this is inexperience, cowardice, or wisdom. Some combination of those, and perhaps others?
And of course, I have discovered that my previous classification of the bloggers hosted by this service as people whose boundless hatred for the President only marginally eclipses their slightly-more-bounded hatred for themselves was, indeed, too generalized. Apparently the conservative, politically neutral, well-adjusted, or simply more topic-engaged bloggers do their updates earier in the week. Maybe if by Friday all the updates occuring are of the "I HATE GEORGE BUSH HE IS THE DEVIL OH GOD I WISH I COULD TELL THEM I'M DYING INSIDE" variety, I can conclude that there may be a pattern.
