Apologies for the alliterative outburst last night. i've had to teach several classes on adjectives this week and obviously they overran my thought processes.

Yesterday i read this article about the non/use of blogs, which in some ways characterizes my own internet habits right now (write more than read - tho i read a fair amount - list links i rarely check, etc). Pondering it all, i was reminded that while it's good to be evaluating what we do with our time here (within limits) i personally need to avoid using philosophical dilemmas as justification to stop whatever project is or could be at hand. Neither healthy nor intelligent. The author's position is that blogging has become pretty much a wash out - most people writing about shopping lists, weekends on the lake - so, unless you are a pro who'd be publishing anyway, don't waste anymore of our bandwidth/your time, it's all too self-reflective and inertial. To me, this doesn't seem so different from telling people they've got to vote for Obama, Abbas or MSZP if they want to be part of the liberal solution. It appears that in the US, if you don't go where pollsters would like you to go, then you'll screw things up for everyone (on top of being totally shunned by all your favorite celebs). i'm asking (for example): why shouldn't people vote for Ralph Nader if he offers them a platform they want to endorse? 'Oooh, nooooo, don't do that - we must we must have Obama!' Besides, Ralph can't possibly win you're wasting your vote.

ERGO

Why shouldn't i or anyone else send our thoughts out into the virtual void? Does it diminish my thinking them if i'm not able to write a 2000 word treatise on each (any) idea? As my grad school advisor used to say Keep It Short and Simple. Given the current zeitgeist simple probably isn't doable, but otherwise... this pressure to be at the top of the class - the winner - or don't bother at all is not a healthy one for any society but especially a world in crisis. It's everywhere and feels so global, permeating nearly everything i come in contact with in the public sphere.

i'm tired of that and of course i'm continuing on with the blog, hopefully with more frequency. If nobody reads it that's ok. i can't play the piano, but i still have the right to make noise, no? The whole point of this is to find our voices and make them resonate. How many drummers would it take to make the wall around Palestine crumble? Aspiring to write like Salmon Rushdie or Margaret Atwood is always going to be a ridiculous aim, that's just never going to happen. Blog on, i say, and alliterate at will!