Helloooo, is anybody out there? ..Bloggers are free spirits (except in Egypt or Malaysia), but the Internet's impersonalism can incarcerate them behind impersonal glass walls of silence.I frequently reflect on the fact that there are 800 million blogs whirling through cyberspace. Some even show signs of intelligence. In a good week, we FunkyPixers might get to read (superficially scan?) maybe 15 or 20 (maximum). By definition, therefore, we are well and truly out-of-touch on a percentage basis.
It begs the question: why continue to slave so diligently on this blog? It merely brings the total to 800,000,001. What drives me to continue it? Ego? Creativity? Getting a message over? Yes, all the above. Although FunkyPix2 is officially an Ego-Free Zone (see the header message), it was never a 'John Howard' core promise [*grin*]. Secondly, blogging is certainly an outlet for creativity… in my case, it’s aligning cool pictures with text in a semi-coherent manner. A fabulously funkylicious photo can sometimes explain SO much more than words if you choose it well and paste it in just the right spot. And lastly, I have things to say which I do (personally) think are worthwhile putting out there (ibid 'Ego').
Sometimes I feel eerie isolation behind the Internet’s walls of soundless glass, like a mime artist trapped in a silent suffocating nightmare, desperate to feel his way to an exit.
It’s all too easy not to connect with real people, or even other bloggers, from inside the cosy comforts of your own home page. In a zoo, who is the observed, and who the observer? Who the potter, and who the clay? Both them and us are trapped in mental cages of other people’s making:
Being a Progressive Left-leaning Humanist Atheist Cynic, there is no shortage of insane moral issues presenting themselves to me to bong on about - the world is a crazy and unfair place. For a start, it contains John Ducklips Howard.I'm not trying to imagine that any blogger can single-handedly save the universe…
…but I'm more about shaking people out of their apathy and unquestioning acceptance of 'normalcy'. Presenting compassionate alternatives. Logic. Fairness. Re-fashioning the world using nothing but your own bare thoughts. I am a product of the Enlightenment, patriarchy, and the hippie movement. I blog, therefore I am. OK, OK, I confess... I am a BABYBOOMER... there, I said it. Most people I meet have been ruthlessly taught to believe what they’re told, to swallow propaganda, obey, obey, obey.....
Sure, the world could do with a little assistance in becoming a better place, but sometimes even FunkyPix2's great mentor Batman can’t produce the goods on demand when Gotham City Hall beams up for help:
I can sympathise with the condition known as Blogger Burnout:
We bloggers can’t pretend to be more than we really are…
...you know, One Swallow Doesn’t Make a Spring, etc. But on the other hand, many swallows make a flock, and lots of small raindrops can become a mighty river. I can contribute just a little: my glassful makes a tiny contribution to History. It might influence the thinking of a few people.Consider the moral fable in this sequence of 4 quite remarkable photos of the construction of a large dyke wall in Dubai. Note the outcome of the tiny leak (bottom left):
Ooops. I often wonder what bloggers could do if there were some kind of web service which could allow us to team up, join forces, submit articles under categories. It's easy to snap a twig, but much more difficult to snap a bunch of twigs bound tightly together. But - oh dear - that might compromise individuality... and whose criteria to use for categories?
And so to blogge, perchance to dream...
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