(This was my reply on another blog which featured in its' header an overly optimistic quote of the great Mohandas Gandhi.)
Sometimes it is inspiring quotes, soundbites from notable, even heroic and inspiring people like the Mahatma that can lead us astray.
Genocidal monsters do indeed die of old age without ever being brought to justice. One could argue that it has happened more in the twentieth century than any previous time.
And this new century shows every indicator of outstripping the last, not only in terms of genocide, but in the multiple ecological disasters which now threaten ALL life on the planet.
Mr. Greenwell is certainly correct in his one phrase comment that the world's amphibians are endangered. A quarter of the beehives on the planet have also disappeared recently and we are still clueless as to why. Bird populations too are being decimated. I could go on in this vein for a chapter or two and just scratch the surface.
The blogosphere has the potential for being a great tool for dialogues which could address many of these issues. It is currently being used mostly for asinine one-way chit-chat.
The forums too propagate volumes of nonsense. All the jabbering just drowns out reason and sense. In the half year that my blog has been in existence, not one single ongoing dialogue of any importance has developed. Lamentable. We had better start using these marvelous Internet tools more effectively folks. We are running out of time.
About Me
- Anthropositor
- Deep South, United States
- Consultant, inventor, mentor, chess coach,. Current projects involve No Till Farming and staving off blindness due to cataracts among other projects. I also do confidential ghost writing (without taking any published credit. My current blindness makes me put this on hold for a while. I should have one eye working again in about four months. Fact, fiction, all subjects considered. I have heard My daughter Jennifer is alive. I would love it if she were to contact me here. I understand she would like to know me. I have sent a message by circuitous route. I can only hope. My posted Email works as well. We have four decades to catch up on.
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9 comments:
I generally agree with all you've said - except the asinine part. I supose we all come to blogging for different reasons. I came to raise small, everyday matters and attitudes that lots of people can easily relate to and think about in a fun way, poking fun at myself to get repsonses. Personally, I like your content and your aproach but for many it could be a tad serious and preacher(ish), which lots of folk don't want at breakfast. That said, I'll be back to your site and will list your site among my favourites.
Well DX, I think the mostly may be a slight exageration. The really asinine ones may actually be in the minority but they certainly take a lot of valuable time to wade through and are rather more tedius and annoying than commercials. I think I originally wrote the post after seeing quite a continuous spate of them.
Since I am agnostic most people regard me as pedantic if they regard me at all. My father was a preacher though. If anything he was less zealous than I am about the things I feel strongly about.
I try to make fun of myself now and then. I think humor is really exciting. I would have liked to be a comic, but easier said than done. People not only do not always "get" what I said to be funny, they often don't even realize I was trying to be funny.
That is not a good sign for a comedian.
When I do use humor it tends to be more toward the droll or wry side. Perhaps the best time to read my perspectives is not during breakfast.
Thanks for listing me in your favorites list. I do have a lot of favorites too, but haven't yet mastered how to list them on the blog yet.
I've been brainstorming about a new kind of eye surgery for the past few hours. I'm going to sleep now and see what gels.
I have found myself with similar lamentations. Sadly, I think I have developed quite a callous ignorance of the many current major issues. It's particularly dissapointing when you have to sift through mounds of asinine drivel even when performing a directed search on specific topics. Additionally, the vast numbers of the misguided are somewhat louder than those who seem to understand.
At times I find myself wondering what the real issues are, what can be done about them, and to be painfully honest, if I would be willing to do anything at all.
In the grand scheme of things, I believe I will contribute to the solutions of the deepest questions and problems.
I would like to engage in meaningful dialogue; however, I'm not sure to the extent which I can contribute with regularity.
I'm completely bewildered by politics but I feel compelled to know what is going on in the world around me. I am just as responsible for this world as anyone else.
PS:
When I came to this site after a long time away and I first saw the picture of the woman, I was initially afraid the site was gone. Now, however, I see that it is a black satire.
You have made your unhappy point quite well. It is a very valid and pertinent one.
Adamlp, we are ALL misguided to one extent or another. The medical ideas of Galen held sway for many centuries, and were largely worthless, dangerous, or deadly.
Our mistakes are important to our ultimate progress, but only if and when we recognize them. If instead we embrace the mistakes as we so often seem to do, disasters proliferate.
Politics IS bewildering! But it is because so many of its' participants are extremely bewildered in contrasting ways. And they often believe fervently that their perspectives are the only rational ones, and that those on the other sides of the question are completely wrong. Things are rarely that simple.
I have stopped trying to characterize myself as a liberal or a conservative. I have come to believe that the two party system falls short of the needs of the country. But our politics are formed by complex issues and our responses to them.
We have many different crises to deal with, not just politically, but environmentally and across the spectrum of human needs. In the larger scheme of things, within our very disasters lay the potential keys to our future.
The immensity of the World Wars of the twentieth century, the incredible carnage and waste, the suffering, the direct devolution into our present strife, the roots of our eventual (possible) success(es) are within these disasters.
Before I go on with this thought, it just occurred to me that, just as numbers of readers are sharply reduced once posts are scrolled off into archives, the same sort of reductions occur with regard to comments and replies. So before continuing I'm going to copy this and put it in the main body of the blog. Look for Failure and Success
I mainly use my blog as a way for relatives and friends to keep in touch with me and so they can see what I've been up to without me having to email them all individually--lazy of me, but true.
I also have made some good friends through blogging and that's always fun.
I do feel very strongly about various topics but sometimes I end up feeling too strongly so my blood pressure shoots up and my hands actually shake while typing. I don't think that is good, so for the most part I try to avoid debates and controversy.
I do have an agnostic friend who fervently tries to convert me to his views. I told him he's an agnostic missionary. We have had many debates but I always lose since I'm rather illogical at the best of times. Then our debates end up with statements like: so there. LOL
Jeannine,
Yours are certainly good reasons to have a blog. Not everyone wants to change the world or do something of intrinsic impact that will change things for the better.
I am responding to your post before going to your blog. As a matter of fact, perhaps I would be an intruder since I have not been invited and your blog is for family and friends.
I'll give the ethics of that a little thought before I finally succumb to curiosity. From your post, I am quite sure yours is not one of those to which I disparagingly referred.
You can view my blog anytime. I try to keep very personal details out of it. All are welcome, just don't expect great things from it and you won't be disappointed. :-)
Well, maybe not.
You and your blog are charming. ...Not in the least among those I disparaged earlier.
I have posted a skeleton or two here and there on my blog and on Skin Cell Forum. I make revelations when I think they may have a cautionary or instructive value of some sort. I certainly do not advocate it, particularly when your primary purpose is to commune with family and friends.
And I expect that one or two of the search engines will be keeping everything everybody writes in perpetuity. I also expect that almost none of it will ever be read again except by prowling robotic spiders and the occasional surveilance bureaucrat.
For all practical purposes, whether on a forum or a blog, once things have scrolled off the active screen into the archives, they are pretty much gone forever. The stuff is there but nobody is going to read it.
I expect that my family and friends get quite enough of me without reading my blog. I am after all an acquired taste, and they are a relatively captive audience.
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