Saturday, May 21, 2005
As if the world needed one more opinionated loudmouth
I can't believe I'm doing this.
Until about a year ago, I had never even heard of a weblog. And the more I heard about it, the less impressed I was with the very idea. What a bunch of crap, I thought upon learning that anyone anywhere could post daily personal reflections for public consumption. As if anyone anywhere else would give a rat's behind.
To be sure, I considered blogging to be the most self-absorbed, self-important waste of time for losers of all stripes. Now fringe conspiracy kooks could deny the Holocaust or rant about returning to the gold standard. Limbaugh dittoheads could mouth off screeds against Barbra Streisand and Jane Fonda. Star Trek geeks could write verse in Klingon. And wannabe urban hipsters could name-drop and show off pictures of their black-clad friends.
Yet, here I am, joining in as another voice in the cacophany. You see, I'm mad as hell, and I want to make a lot of noise.
We live in a country in which all but a small elite group are cheated by a government that caters only to the megawealthy and large corporations. We're getting screwed by grossly regressive taxes, the theft of Social Security, a governement bureaucracy actively indifferent to the needs of average Americans, and history's largest bottom-up redistribution of wealth. Too few of us seem to either know or care.
Some sell out their vital interests to platitudes and fake outrage over nonissues like school prayer, tenured radicals and wardrobe malfunctions. Others overestimate their position on the food chain; I make $80,000 a year, they say, so I must be a Master of the Universe. Still others aren't even tuned in, opting instead to focus their attention on watching Survivor, playing video games and doing God-knows-what-else while their family's future is at stake.
Meanwhile a right-wing alliance of corporate money, think-tanks and a vocal media propaganda machine have just about turned our country into an oligarchy. The bad guys are winning folks, and many of you don't even realize it.
I'm not sure what can be done. I know that offering up one more blog is but a pathetically small gesture. Yet I believe that if I make a little noise and you make a little noise and others join us, something really great could happen.
Maybe you don't give a rat's behind. Maybe you should.
Until about a year ago, I had never even heard of a weblog. And the more I heard about it, the less impressed I was with the very idea. What a bunch of crap, I thought upon learning that anyone anywhere could post daily personal reflections for public consumption. As if anyone anywhere else would give a rat's behind.
To be sure, I considered blogging to be the most self-absorbed, self-important waste of time for losers of all stripes. Now fringe conspiracy kooks could deny the Holocaust or rant about returning to the gold standard. Limbaugh dittoheads could mouth off screeds against Barbra Streisand and Jane Fonda. Star Trek geeks could write verse in Klingon. And wannabe urban hipsters could name-drop and show off pictures of their black-clad friends.
Yet, here I am, joining in as another voice in the cacophany. You see, I'm mad as hell, and I want to make a lot of noise.
We live in a country in which all but a small elite group are cheated by a government that caters only to the megawealthy and large corporations. We're getting screwed by grossly regressive taxes, the theft of Social Security, a governement bureaucracy actively indifferent to the needs of average Americans, and history's largest bottom-up redistribution of wealth. Too few of us seem to either know or care.
Some sell out their vital interests to platitudes and fake outrage over nonissues like school prayer, tenured radicals and wardrobe malfunctions. Others overestimate their position on the food chain; I make $80,000 a year, they say, so I must be a Master of the Universe. Still others aren't even tuned in, opting instead to focus their attention on watching Survivor, playing video games and doing God-knows-what-else while their family's future is at stake.
Meanwhile a right-wing alliance of corporate money, think-tanks and a vocal media propaganda machine have just about turned our country into an oligarchy. The bad guys are winning folks, and many of you don't even realize it.
I'm not sure what can be done. I know that offering up one more blog is but a pathetically small gesture. Yet I believe that if I make a little noise and you make a little noise and others join us, something really great could happen.
Maybe you don't give a rat's behind. Maybe you should.
