A New Attitude
I can't promise I'll never talk politics again.
It has been 17 months since I gave up the blogging and I might give it up again, but for now I am back with a new look (isn't it pretty?) and a new attitude: it is a waste of time to debate politics on the web.
I set out in 2004 to have a blog that tried not to take sides and most of the time I got accused of taking sides.
Yeah, I was a failure.
Sure, I had a couple of really good conversations with my limited readership, but for the most part a "respectful dialog of ideas" did nothing to nudge neither me nor my readers to a different point of view.
I know people do change their political alliances--I've met actual converts--but it doesn't occur because somebody witty and intelligent wrote something on a blog. It doesn't occur because I wrote something either.
Life is by nature political and we all have our distinct worldviews that filter how we assess situations and events. I remember being a young teen, not knowing what conservative and liberal meant, but I somehow related to one commentator over the other in the days with actual editorials on the local Eyewitness News. It's like I was born that way.
So I am giving up talking politics as in candidates and issues. I will talk about life and my opinions and things that don't make sense to me and anybody is welcome to help me out, but I really want to leave out the Republicans and Democrats and the us and them.
I promise I will try.
It has been 17 months since I gave up the blogging and I might give it up again, but for now I am back with a new look (isn't it pretty?) and a new attitude: it is a waste of time to debate politics on the web.
I set out in 2004 to have a blog that tried not to take sides and most of the time I got accused of taking sides.
Yeah, I was a failure.
Sure, I had a couple of really good conversations with my limited readership, but for the most part a "respectful dialog of ideas" did nothing to nudge neither me nor my readers to a different point of view.
I know people do change their political alliances--I've met actual converts--but it doesn't occur because somebody witty and intelligent wrote something on a blog. It doesn't occur because I wrote something either.
Life is by nature political and we all have our distinct worldviews that filter how we assess situations and events. I remember being a young teen, not knowing what conservative and liberal meant, but I somehow related to one commentator over the other in the days with actual editorials on the local Eyewitness News. It's like I was born that way.
So I am giving up talking politics as in candidates and issues. I will talk about life and my opinions and things that don't make sense to me and anybody is welcome to help me out, but I really want to leave out the Republicans and Democrats and the us and them.
I promise I will try.
3 comments:
I m with you on this :-)
Pri:
Thanks for stopping by again. I had a brief chance to check out your blog the other day and meant to leave a comment, but I have to go back and take some time to digest what you were saying. You were getting into some pretty heavy stuff that I needed to examine more carefully.
Very true. That is the point to my blog. I wish people examined things more deeply. They have a lot of time to do it, you know :)
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