Kathleen Parker: If We Don’t Ignore Blogs, We’ll Die
Each time I wander into blogdom, I’m reminded of the savage children stranded on an island in William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies.” Without adult supervision, they organize themselves into rival tribes, learn to hunt and kill, and eventually become murderous barbarians in the absence of a civilizing structure.
It never ceases to amaze me…so many of those who have managed to carve their niche in the mainstream media seem to be of the mind that they are the Chosen Ones, the Rightful Dispensers of Information and Opinions. Yes, don’t try this at home, kids; we’re Professionals, and We Know What’s Best For You…yes, we do.
If Parker doesn’t enjoy weblogs. that’is not my concern. In fact, I couldn’t care less. There’s plenty of porn out there if you’re looking for something to occupy yourself. Just spare us the self-righteous, pseudo-intellectual opinionizing…unless you have something positive to add, which clearly Parker doesn’t.
The mind boggles at the myriad ways in which people who have nothing to say manage to find ways to get paid for saying exactly that- nothing. If it was Parker’s intent to insult those of her readers who are avid bloggers, she has certainly exceeded beyond her wildest expectations. I can sympathize with her plight- it’s not easy being a supercilious jackass with nothing of any value to say. Of course, Parker still has to fill her allotted column inches, so if it takes gratuitiously and needlessly insulting those of us not fortunate enough to make a living off our writing as she does, so be it. After all, as a full-fledged member of the Mainstream Media, she can do that, because, well, membership has it’s privileges, no?
Of all the stories leading America’s annual greatest hits list, the one that subsumes the rest is the continuing evolution of information in the Age of Blogging.
Not since the birth of the printing press have our lives been so dramatically affected by the way we create and consume information — both to our enormous benefit and, perhaps, to our growing peril.
What is wonderful and miraculous about the Internet needs little elaboration. We all marvel at the ease with which we can access information — whether reading government documents previously available only to a few, or tracking down old friends and new enemies.
It is this latter — our new enemies — that interests me most. I don’t mean al-Qaida or Osama bin Laden, but the less visible, insidious enemies of decency, humanity and civility — the angry offspring of narcissism’s quickie marriage to instant gratification.
There’s something frankly creepy about the explosion we now call the Blogosphere — the big-bang “electroniverse” where recently wired squatters set up new camps each day. As I write, the number of “blogs” (Web logs) and “bloggers” (those who blog) is estimated at between 50 million and 60 million worldwide.
Oh, right…journalism and punditry are best left to “those who know”: the Mainstream Media and those who have been anointed by the MSM as “acceptable” channels for disbursing “acceptable” opinions. For, if we allow the unwashed and unruly rabble represented by bloggers to get out of hand, where will the American Sheeple go for their news? Who will these drones believe, some unkempt nutjob sitting in his studio apartment in his unwashed pajamas, or a huge international media conglomerate shiling for Madison Avenue?
I mean no disrespect to the many brilliant people out there — professors, lawyers, doctors, philosophers, scientists and other journalists who also happen to blog. Again, they know who they are. But we should beware and resist the rest of the ego-gratifying rabble who contribute only snark, sass and destruction.
We can’t silence them, but for civilization’s sake — and the integrity of information by which we all live or die — we can and should ignore them.
And perhaps we can repay the favor by ignoring Parker’s self-righteous, supercilious, self-superior view of her craft, which differs from so many bloggers only in that she is paid for her labors. For most bloggers, like myself, what we do is a labor of love. Whether or not that is legitimate in Parker’s estimation is something I care not a whit about. The next time I want to read a writer with the surname “Parker”, I’ll stick to Dorothy:
If you don’t have anything good to say, come here and sit next to me, my dear….
