Throwing Fame to the Winds
There's an old philosophy question: Between writing a book resolving a long debated philosophical question, or writing something you knew was wrong but would be debated for the next 100 years, which would you choose?
Renaissance Ruminations briefly laments the loss of Chad Dotson to promotion to better things. For one, I wholeheartedly agree... though I wonder if the venerable Mr. Dotson had been forced to wait one more year whether he (and his blog) could have survived today's blog climate.
There was a time when I could have argued "the Virginia Way" would triumph.
The blogosphere that was a forum for nuanced argument and competing ideas has yielded to the "splash and trash" style organizations like the Sorenson Institute and Blog United were originally attempting to curb. True, there are some really outstanding competitors out there... but how quickly they are drowned out by the get-attention-quick blogs who scramble for the leftovers the MSM offers them.
I'm not ranting... but I'm quickly realizing that the fragile porcelian of our digital public square has very few champions.
I have always believed individual responsibility would trump collective action. Is it? Is the attention of the MSM too terrible to resist? Have we sold out so badly to visits and hits that we've lost our authenticity?
Answering the old philosophy question, many freshmen opt for the latter... they opt for fame. Everyone wants their 15 minutes, but few are astute enough to realize the consequences. Only the rare few are content enough with themselves to throw fame to the winds. After all, isn't that the nobility so many respect in people like Senator Warner, despite how vociferously they disagree with him?
Perhaps that's what I'm realizing.
Have a great Labor Day weekend!
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Doogman 
4 Comments:
OH! I get it!! Such a sense of humor you have!!
Thank Shaun, nice to start the Labor Day weekend with a good laugh.
Cheers!!
Just keepin ya on ya toes boah!!
First, congratulations on your new nephew!
Second, not sure I agree with your lamenting bloggers' losing their authenticity. That implies that formerly good, thoughtful bloggers have gone downhill and become sensationalistic. I'm not sure I can name one like that.
On the other hand, if you can name one or more like that (and if you can, don't name them please), it may be that it is their fame-seeking way that for them is in fact more authentic. Perhaps for some the high-minded tone they may have started with was too much of a strain. (And I really _don't_ have a particular blog in mind as I write this).
That said, keeping a Va. blogosphere temperature warm enough to be an incubator of ideas but not so hot as to burn will have to be the work of a few blog leaders. And some such leaders will leave or have to reduce their blogging due to life's other obligations. New leaders will come along.
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