With
an innumerable amount of flashy, take-forever-to-load mainstream
websites teeming with must-read items about pseudo-people like Paris
Hilton, Tom Cruise, Bill O'Reilly, and Michael Moore ... why do so
many bother maintaining a blog that's read by (maybe) 75 outcasts?
In some ways, blogs -- an epigrammatic
name that encompasses an ever-widening aggregation of personal
websites dedicated to a fabulously broad range of subject matter --
have replaced the dog-eared notebook into which we scribbled our
deepest thoughts ... shunning attention, fearing perhaps, we were
alone. Now, with a blog-inspired sense of community, many of us are
baring our souls and finding that others share the same concerns --
something we could never discover from traditional media outlets.
Our mainstream media is like watching Saturday morning cartoons-only
with real blood; it is a wonderful distraction machine. Sports,
politics, crime, entertainment, sex, culture, public relations,
advertising, education, religion; everything becomes a show, a
marketable commodity aiming for the lowest common denominator. Life
itself is the grandest spectacle of all.
Buried under an avalanche of the latest consumer trends and other
self-destructive illusions, the result is inevitably a creeping
alienation and isolation. We all want something out of life, but the
opinion-makers and spin doctors have effectively cut off any
constructive avenues. Hence, we find other ways to belong, ways that
are outside the public arena. The function of the mainstream media is
to make sure we stay there.
Running parallel to the fads, trends, and crazes, the corporate media
is an equally potent impetus for the proliferation of blogs. More
specifically, it's the shrinking limits of debate within the
corporate-dominated elite media that have inspired many a blogger.
I know, in a land where freedom of the press is considered sacred and
the media is usually portrayed as a collection of closet Leninists
yearning to sacrifice Christian Coalition virgins on the altar of
Fidel Castro, this rationalization may at first seem odd. However,
once you recognize how narrow the parameters of media debate have
become, independent blogs suddenly appear downright seditious.
Whether you label them liberal or conservative, most major media
outlets are large corporations owned by or aligned with even larger
corporations, and like all good little capitalists they share a common
goal: to make a profit by selling a product to a given market. What's
the market? That's easy: advertisers. The product? Since any
advertiser worth his graying ponytail lusts after an affluent
audience, the product is obviously an elite clientele with an
unencumbered cash flow. Therefore, we shouldn't find it shocking that
the image of the world being presented by a corporate-owned press
reflects the interests of the elite players in this sordid love
triangle.
With blogs, writers with no chance of breaking into the mainstream
media have an outlet. Political thinkers fed up with the system have a
platform for much needed new ideas. Slackers have a place where they
don't have to apologize for not renting themselves out eight hours a
day. If you wanna run a blog about amputation, peak oil, dead
musicians, anarcho-syndicalism, grade-B female prison flicks, or the
bringing down of civilization as we know it, no one will ask why.
They'll be too busy wondering if you'll exchange links.
Why blogs? If they can challenge our self-induced stupor and provoke
some much-needed action, I ask: "Why not?" (But we better act fast
before blogs are co-opted, re-packaged, and sold back to us as the
latest "trend.")
Mickey Z.
is the author of several books, most recently 50
American Revolutions You're Not Supposed to Know (Disinformation
Books). He can be found on the Web at:
www.mickeyz.net.
Other Recent Articles and Poems by Mickey Z.
*
Winning
the War on Terror
* 175
Years Ago: Nat Turner Puts the South on Notice
* “I Have
a Right to Keep My House Safe”
* Jesus
is in my Computer
* In
Defense of Barry Bonds
* DON'T
Support Our Troops (Inform Them)
* “We
should always remember who makes the rules”: Derrick Jensen Sees the
Big Picture
* The 7
Habits of Highly Effective Corporations
* Haditha
and Rumsfeld's Ratio
*
Challenging the Auto-Dependant Lifestyle
*
Impeachment is Just One Tiny Step
* The
White Washing of Muhammad Ali™
* 15
Minutes of Radical Fame: America Meets Blum and Churchill
* Parenti
Does Culture
* An
Interview with John “Indio” Washington
* Target
Iran: A Day at the Arms Races
* Haiku
* Which
Wolf Will You Feed in 2006?
* GI Joe
Goes to Baghdad
*
Stillborn
*
Politics on Your Plate
* An
Occupation Worth Applauding: Celebrate Un-Thanksgiving
*
Stealing Veteran's Day from the Militarists
* Strike
for Peace: An Interview with Brian Bogart
* POW
Abuse: Nothing New Going on Here
* An
Interview with Thaddeus Rutkowski
* The
Lords of War: Arming the World at a Theater Near You
* Keep
the “Labor” in Labor Day: Remembering the Lowell Mill Girls
* The
Bonus Army
* Helen
Keller: Not Blind to War Crimes
* Vermin
and Souvenirs: How to Justify a Nuclear Attack
* “Karl
Rove Isn't the Only Monster Out There”: An Interview with Josh Frank
*
“Guilty Until Proven Innocent” An Interview with Dr. Walter M. Brasch
*
Politics and the Playing Field: An Interview with David Zirin
* Water
on the Brain
* The
Pentagon Papers, 34 Years Later