…dirty mirror.
Thought for a boring Thursday.
I think blogging used to be primarily a pastime of self indulgent tossers – people who fervently believe the rest of the world needs to hear what they have to say.
And a lot of it still is, especially in the so-called political blogosphere. But not any more. There are some good blogs out there outside of that, a lot really – here’s one I found via the trusty next blog button (pet hate – wankers that remove that bar from their template so you can’t skip from their blog). http://4thavenueblues.blogspot.com/
Some get a bit wanky, but most are okay.
But in the political world, people tend to think they’re smarter than everyone in the room (and I by no means exempt myself from that – not that I can make any real claim to actually being a political blogger). As an example, there is a particular Australian blog which epitomises everything the proletariat dislike about the latte swilling intelligentsia - which is to say in their language they have quite a reasonable world view but carry on like wankers at every opportunity. Frankly, it gave me the shits every time I read it – the Castle comes to mind “Get your hand off it, Daryl.”
The problem is, though, people are so desperate to speak they’ll say anything. And, even worse, people want you to know how smart they are, so they use obscure words and concepts they secretly hope others won’t really understand.
That said, there are many political blogs which aren’t chock full of insular academics.
Blogocracy, on the news.com.au site is not bad – especially given its location. It is somewhat anti-conservative, but still pretty balanced. Some of the American blogs are good – Huffington Post, etc – and onlineopinion (more of a forum, really) is good too.
There’s plenty, really, even if some of them you go to have zero comments – and no one ever wants to be the first person at the party, do they?
Now, back to work.
PS. I completely forgot to talk about the best act at Bluesfest - CW Stoneking. I have pictures - wait till then.
7 comments:
stop wasting the taxpayers' money and get back to work!
and i agree. there are many wanky blogs out there. lots of thought-provoking ones too. why didn't i get into this blog thing YEARS ago?!
p.s. i have 6 days off starting tomorrow. jealous?
i thought you only read news.com.au to send me links to goat secks and marital ewephoria.
And I thought coming over sheepish was bad!
More on CW Stoneking, please. The plebs are waiting.
I know what you're talking about. Taking a look at Larvatus Prodeo (Latin for "the sleep of reason brings forth enigmatic wankers"), I find many of their posts miss the real significance of the public events they enquire into. And the "wanking" metaphor is apt because it is such an insular exercise.
Though one would hesitate to ascribe to such people the title of "members of the Australian intelligentsia" ('cause there isn't one), they do represent what's wrong with the intellectual elites of almost every country: they are aristocratic in outlook. Leftish is one thing, but when it comes to what they feel is their only source of power, i.e. knowledge, they are contemptuous of anyone outside the loop. By this attitude, they have been helping to keep the right in power.
An example: a few weeks ago they had a look at something a pair of QUT Academics had written in the Australian about a PhD student's thesis, and how it exemplified the manner in which poststructuralist thought as taught in universities basically results in PhD theses of no interest to anybody. Their take on it: academics bitching in public. And it might have been ... but the proposition that the readers of the Australian might actually seriously care what goes on in arts faculties (and not just enjoy a good, hard reactionary kneejerk) was bypassed completely. To top it off, in considering whether the thesis itself was objectionable the author of the Larvatus Prodeo post said: "I don’t feel myself qualified to write a theoretical treatise on humour and difference." (code: unless you are qualified, you can't form an informed opinion), and then: "The op/ed doesn’t really need parsing, but it’s worth noting in passing that the so-called concerns expressed appear to deny all agency to people with disabilities, and construct us as poor souls in need of protection."
I did parse it (that is I read it), and I did not feel any of that. The LP author's concluding argument was the kind of wandering, noncommittal fluff one would expect from a teenager.
Sorry to go on ... you touched a nerve.
Fiver - you said it :)
That's sort of the one I was referring to - I made a comment once before I really knew what it was about and really felt like the poor kid at school who goes up to speak to the cool kids in the quadrangle and...well, you know the rest.
This post was brought on by an exchange i read on there recently in which an interloper dared to dip a toe into their insular little world - and got similarly blown away.
I was jsut a bit scared to name names - there seems to be a bit of a blogging mafia evident in this town at times.
Rocketsmiths - huh, sherd?
Shaz: You don't do anything when you're here, so why not be at home, I say :)
SNF has it right. Unfortunately the wankers dominate some of the more popular political blogs. Heartening though that contributors seem to be generally academics rather than practitioners. Would worry me more if I thought this type of analysis was actually being applied.
I have always really enjoyed the academic analysis of things I have done or been associated with, only occasionally resorting to threats of violence.
Do NOT get me started on the frikkin' Rocketsmiths, beehotches.
ps SNF, your Latin is.. well... hilarious.
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