The Return
I noticed today that the blogsphere had grown cold. The friends I blogged with are gone, and in general - much of the writing done today seems to be one or two line - easily mine-able snippets of text traded back and forth on social media. In fact, I see much more of this writing than I ever did on the blogsphere... Someone might have taken two, three days to write a one page blog post - but the social media types are constantly going back and forth with three lines here, one line there ... etc.
I am not sure if the blogsphere ever did leave. I think the circle of friends I used to blog with have changed, and no longer blog as avidly as they did before. I suppose part of the drive I felt to blog - had to do with feelings about my country during a time of war of convenience. I struggled, as an American - with the idea that my country was simply taking an opportunity to get involved in a conflict and send our soldiers into harms way for the weak justification of false intelligence and innuendo.
Then again, I suppose part of that rationale was "if you don't fight them over there, you'll eventually be fighting them over here" . In any case, we have long since moved on from all of that - the economy recovered and in general, our country stabilized.
I've also developed, as I've grown - a sort of distaste for the overtly political themes that danced during the election year... In particular I really dislike the scare ads that powerful lobbyist groups run. I think they distort candidacies to the point of misrepresentation and they undo the power of the free press to help people make informed decisions. Alot of people who run for public office have good intentions .. In fact, the vast majority of them are there to do a decent job.
But slowly, over time... our country has transformed itself - first through the Gerrymander - so that so many districts are not even given viable alternate candidates, and next through lobbyism - which distorts candidates and their records to the point of almost breaking... but also fuels a secondary industry around getting elected (one in which, you'll hire a member of the opposing party simply because you need to hedge your bet if one party falls out of power) ... that our country now basically runs a University System of Sorts... up in DC. One that , if you get elected.. you generally are using your public office as a kind of learning position to figure out how to deal with lobbyists and get paid their fees after you leave. In the past, nearly everyone who went to Congress ... left to return home.
Now they stay, nearly 70 percent of them... and they are all on the take.
I guess I'm glad, in a way - that I found a way to break free of all the "little" writing that has so dominated my world ... and to get back to exploring topics like these. But is the bigger question, what happens now? We have a country that I truly love.. how do I go about helping to make better decisions?
And where have all the flowers gone?
I am not sure if the blogsphere ever did leave. I think the circle of friends I used to blog with have changed, and no longer blog as avidly as they did before. I suppose part of the drive I felt to blog - had to do with feelings about my country during a time of war of convenience. I struggled, as an American - with the idea that my country was simply taking an opportunity to get involved in a conflict and send our soldiers into harms way for the weak justification of false intelligence and innuendo.
Then again, I suppose part of that rationale was "if you don't fight them over there, you'll eventually be fighting them over here" . In any case, we have long since moved on from all of that - the economy recovered and in general, our country stabilized.
I've also developed, as I've grown - a sort of distaste for the overtly political themes that danced during the election year... In particular I really dislike the scare ads that powerful lobbyist groups run. I think they distort candidacies to the point of misrepresentation and they undo the power of the free press to help people make informed decisions. Alot of people who run for public office have good intentions .. In fact, the vast majority of them are there to do a decent job.
But slowly, over time... our country has transformed itself - first through the Gerrymander - so that so many districts are not even given viable alternate candidates, and next through lobbyism - which distorts candidates and their records to the point of almost breaking... but also fuels a secondary industry around getting elected (one in which, you'll hire a member of the opposing party simply because you need to hedge your bet if one party falls out of power) ... that our country now basically runs a University System of Sorts... up in DC. One that , if you get elected.. you generally are using your public office as a kind of learning position to figure out how to deal with lobbyists and get paid their fees after you leave. In the past, nearly everyone who went to Congress ... left to return home.
Now they stay, nearly 70 percent of them... and they are all on the take.
I guess I'm glad, in a way - that I found a way to break free of all the "little" writing that has so dominated my world ... and to get back to exploring topics like these. But is the bigger question, what happens now? We have a country that I truly love.. how do I go about helping to make better decisions?
And where have all the flowers gone?
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