One of the perks—and perils—of having one's own blog is the lack of pressure to conform to a particular topic or writing style. I feel like I've been doing a lot of soapboxing recently, so I think it's time to geek out a little more, or at least get more abstractly philosophical.
It's hard to tell sometimes whether silence in the comments section indicates that folks have nothing to say, have nothing kind to say, or that they've stopped reading altogether. While I do thrive on feedback, I'm not begging for comments; even if I had a hundred comments on the last several posts saying, "Yeah! You tell 'em!", I'd probably still be looking for a change of pace. I'm wary sometimes about posting opinions that aren't isolated to the realm of entertainment; posts like yesterday's have a tendency to get people in trouble, no matter how earnest or even-handed they try to be.
As far as political and social issues go, I find I'm not as passionate about the particulars as I am about the way we go about deciding on the particulars. I've said before that I really don't care if you've got a different opinion from me, as long as you clearly understand why you have that opinion. We get into arguments based on gut feelings, or opinions inherited from other people that we haven't formed for ourselves—I live for that Mega Man X4 moment when someone finally examines what they're arguing about, and shouts, "WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOOOOOORRRR!?!?!?" Actually, that's an exaggeration; I just wanted to make a Mega Man X4 reference.
All I'm getting at is that I've seen and heard a lot of vicious arguments—and a lot of the same arguments—over the past year or so, and I'm weary of vitriol and deadlock. From my perspective, the issue is more that we're communicating poorly than that we disagree. If even one person takes to heart my obnoxious urgings that we need to step back, think about what we're saying, and remember that we're all human beings here, then maybe we're one step closer to resolving these conflicts and going back to playing Minecraft, or whatever it is the rest of the world does when they're not yelling at each other.
Still, I think it's time for me to step back and start writing different things for a while. Away you go, soapbox. Let's try escapism for a change—write about anything but politics and social issues, and see if that's enough to clear the mind.
It's hard to tell sometimes whether silence in the comments section indicates that folks have nothing to say, have nothing kind to say, or that they've stopped reading altogether. While I do thrive on feedback, I'm not begging for comments; even if I had a hundred comments on the last several posts saying, "Yeah! You tell 'em!", I'd probably still be looking for a change of pace. I'm wary sometimes about posting opinions that aren't isolated to the realm of entertainment; posts like yesterday's have a tendency to get people in trouble, no matter how earnest or even-handed they try to be.
As far as political and social issues go, I find I'm not as passionate about the particulars as I am about the way we go about deciding on the particulars. I've said before that I really don't care if you've got a different opinion from me, as long as you clearly understand why you have that opinion. We get into arguments based on gut feelings, or opinions inherited from other people that we haven't formed for ourselves—I live for that Mega Man X4 moment when someone finally examines what they're arguing about, and shouts, "WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOOOOOORRRR!?!?!?" Actually, that's an exaggeration; I just wanted to make a Mega Man X4 reference.
All I'm getting at is that I've seen and heard a lot of vicious arguments—and a lot of the same arguments—over the past year or so, and I'm weary of vitriol and deadlock. From my perspective, the issue is more that we're communicating poorly than that we disagree. If even one person takes to heart my obnoxious urgings that we need to step back, think about what we're saying, and remember that we're all human beings here, then maybe we're one step closer to resolving these conflicts and going back to playing Minecraft, or whatever it is the rest of the world does when they're not yelling at each other.
Still, I think it's time for me to step back and start writing different things for a while. Away you go, soapbox. Let's try escapism for a change—write about anything but politics and social issues, and see if that's enough to clear the mind.
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