Blogging a Blogtastic Blogoversary
A few weeks ago, I hit my second blogoversary. And I’ve only quit once during that time. That’s a good record for a person of my predilections.
Most moderate/centrist/middle-of-the-road blogs last a very short time. Blog readers, like cultists, prefer absolutes. Moderates and centrists provide lots of grey. The result is poor readership numbers and too much hate mail from the roving packs of nimwits who demand conformity to their narrow worldviews.
There just aren’t a lot of readers who want analysis outside the left/right chambers of discourse. And those readers who would appreciate such blogs never find them because media accounts of blogs focus solely on the partisan fearmongers whose hubris is matched only by their idiocy.
So most of us here in the center and quasi-center toil in our own little world, referencing one-another, commenting on each other’s blogs and sustaining a community of people who agree on little more than the innate fallibility and potential wisdom of both left and right.
We’re not any more or less prescient or intelligent than our more-partisan brethren. Indeed, we talk out of our asses with the best of them. We can be shallow, crude, stupid and startlingly wrong. But what we don’t do is preach orthodoxy. We have no dominant ideology. No tenants. We each individually have our own worldviews and adhere to them with varying degrees of passion. But, as a group, we suffer no structure more rigid than a mutual tolerance for/mutual disdain of traditional liberal and conservative mindsets.
That makes us outsiders. That results in low readerships. But it ain’t a bad place to call home. I’d rather have 100 readers and preserve my integrity than have 100,000 and be a sycophant.
So on this second blogoversary I make only one promise: I’ll keep writing what I think, regardless of how few even know I’m here.
Most moderate/centrist/middle-of-the-road blogs last a very short time. Blog readers, like cultists, prefer absolutes. Moderates and centrists provide lots of grey. The result is poor readership numbers and too much hate mail from the roving packs of nimwits who demand conformity to their narrow worldviews.
There just aren’t a lot of readers who want analysis outside the left/right chambers of discourse. And those readers who would appreciate such blogs never find them because media accounts of blogs focus solely on the partisan fearmongers whose hubris is matched only by their idiocy.
So most of us here in the center and quasi-center toil in our own little world, referencing one-another, commenting on each other’s blogs and sustaining a community of people who agree on little more than the innate fallibility and potential wisdom of both left and right.
We’re not any more or less prescient or intelligent than our more-partisan brethren. Indeed, we talk out of our asses with the best of them. We can be shallow, crude, stupid and startlingly wrong. But what we don’t do is preach orthodoxy. We have no dominant ideology. No tenants. We each individually have our own worldviews and adhere to them with varying degrees of passion. But, as a group, we suffer no structure more rigid than a mutual tolerance for/mutual disdain of traditional liberal and conservative mindsets.
That makes us outsiders. That results in low readerships. But it ain’t a bad place to call home. I’d rather have 100 readers and preserve my integrity than have 100,000 and be a sycophant.
So on this second blogoversary I make only one promise: I’ll keep writing what I think, regardless of how few even know I’m here.
posted by Alan Stewart Carl at 11:33 AM
3 Comments:
Please keep doing what you do. I am a great fan and reader of Center blogs because they look at issues and arguements on their merits, not the political spectum. I do some commenting on some center blogs and think the 'spere is a far better place with a center than without.
God Bless and keep up the good work.
It's a shame that more people (even those at the far ends of the spectrum) can't be more measured and critical of their own views. We share your vision of a reasonable and open community. Keep up the good work!
Keep up the good reads, Alan. God most certainly gave you the gift of write...
Come to think of it... I’ve been at this blog stuff for just over two years myself. In fact... you're the first I meet out there in the blog world and it's been an honor to know you.
Keep on Blogging!!!
AubreyJ.........
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