Consumed by or Consumation of Choices

Obviously, I like playful titles.  It's like the book's cover.  We're told not to judge by it, but ultimately, we do on some level; after all, it's what draws us in; otherwise, we would still be stuck in the "A's" section of any given library or music/book/video/comic store.  But as I do so well, I digress. 

One of the harder issues for me to resolve around composing and trying to continually update a blog is what to talk about.  What do I choose to talk about and what do I avoid.  How do I provide a subjective but not obnoxious point of view about things that are important.  While it's not hugely important that I don't come off as arrogant, obnoxious, or what have you, I would rather on the whole that I don't.  I want people to think about what I say, not dig in their heels in vehement opposition. That is, I want dialogue and discussion.  Too much of what I see in the blogosphere and beyond is yelling; either in chorus or in a cacophony against.  Too much of it feels like what seems to drive some elements of the Tea Party movement.

See, I made a choice right there to position myself.  First, just by using this particular article and what it implies about my positionality.  Initially, I wrote the above statement without the phrase “what seems to drive some elements of the Tea Party movement” instead of “what drives the Tea Party Movement” (though, I certainly also thought about referring to them as Tea-baggers, as I have trouble not associating the two). 

Back to my larger point, which I’ll sum up easily, though redundantly, everything’s political.  What I choose to talk about, what I choose to write about, what links I choose to put up, and who I choose to support or discourage.  And I won’t say “we live in an age of extreme bipartisanship” because given the history of the world, that’s pretty much every “age.”  I do believe our differences are heightened and dramatized increasingly by mass media which seems to inevitably have to draw upon narrative angles in order to draw in consumers in order to satisfy advertisers and the like.  This does make our buttons quicker to push and often makes us easier to corral; which many did in the wake of 9/11 as did so many others around Obama in the run up to the 2008 election. 

With that mass media comes more ways of gaining knowledge, but not more wisdom.  Much like Victor Frankenstein, we have the knowledge, but not the foresight or rather insight to understand what we’re doing, viewing, or choosing.  I make no claims to have such wisdom.  I’ve been smacked in the face with my own stupidity by a great deal of events in my life and people, sometimes caring-sometimes spiteful, willing to show me the error(s) of my ways.   But do I stand here on my virtual soapbox expounding lessons (as others may choose to do) or do I find some other way of engaging in “the dialogue” of life?

So there’s my dilemma.  In wanting to talk and start discussions, I feel a wee bit of performance anxiety in deciding what to talk about.  In talking about one thing, I’m not then talking about another thing.  What’s more relevant:  my interest in how audiobooks work with listeners; the value of comics in modern society; my (limited) view of world affairs and politics; my attempts and interest at being a better human on social, cultural, environmental, and spiritual levels; or whatever other ephemeral thoughts spring from my hands to the keyboard?    What do I talk about?  The wisest of bloggers will say; all of it.  And maybe that’s just what I’ll try to do, but my thoughts still linger. 



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