I learn things

i like to write and i like to read. it is what i do and it is actually, to a large extent who i am. i love reading older books for most of my adult life. in fact since about the age of 17 i had a self-conscious plan to read very few books that are less than 100 years old. of those that made the cut and got read while they are still young most of them were existential tomes. i was a philosophy major in college and one of the two foci i had was existentialism so i was required, and i wanted, to read most of the classics in that system of thought.

what i wish to talk about is the blogosphere and how it has degraded our communication and has torn down the visible walls in our lives and creates the false veracity that existentialist hoped for. not only that but it has given us well written drivel that lies with its truth.

when i read blogs i always find them startling in the nudity that the authors choose to give us. the best try to be psychologically naked and the better ones attain the appearance of it. but one thing about appearing naked draws the eyes from all that the writer doesn't want you to see. it bugs me that the slight of hand is the normal.

one of the things that bug me about our society is that we (particularly in the Church) think that authenticity and community is everybody having the ability and mandate to emotionally vomit on everybody else. and the blog is this enmasse, now you don't have to do it individually, now you can just vomit once and let whoever wants to to dip in it when they want.

in the end this degrades us into voyeurs and arrogants, both dehumanizing positions. the reader gets to see the thoughts that they expected to be there, and then to feel better that others are like them or worse. and the writer gets to hold out socially acceptable foibles and feel superior because they are "open" and at the same time see the degradation of others as they read a blog that is a simplistic smokescreen. in the end, "writing is both a mask and an unveiling."