[I wrote this as the 'warbloggers' gradually overtook our original weblog network and turned the tech we built to their own narrow, tight focus on hawkish, conservative foreign policy goals (building their own A-lists, their own ratings systems, to support these goals), with the assistance of new-to-blogs journalists seeking newsworthy content. The drumbeats for war in Iraq were already underway. I think this post still holds water today, and serves as a reminder to not take political blogging to heart.]
I’ve been thinking about the concept of kenosis, as interpreted by James Hillman. Comparing it to political weblogging styles. He concieves there are three political states: passive on the sidelines, toeing the party line ... and kenosis, what Hillman defines as “empty protest.” Having no answers, not knowing the correct course to follow, but knowing there’s something rotten in the state of Denmark.
Politikblogs are as ineffective as Hamlet, worrying his desire for public justice like a dog with his favorite toothsome discard. They rage on impotently, endlessly, simply for the sake of releasing emotions. No utopia at the end of the journey; just neverending protests. Today, now, this link is the alpha and omega. When the issue drops from the public eye, the politikblog drops it as well. There are no threads to follow, no connection to a past or a future, no resolution, no responsibility.
Hillman calls empty protest ‘via negativa’, the negative way. I see no politikblogger achieving public justice for any major issue; what I keep coming across is simply a string of petty private revenges.
At the present time, politikbloggers devour each other over the actions of politicians who don’t even know they exist, by reinterpreting carefully selected articles and opinion pieces generated by one of a double-handful of monopolistic media machines, as seen through the rose-colored glasses of their particular political caste.
Truly, “empty protest” ... as is this entire paragraph. Politikbloggers are not alone; you see, I do Hamlet well too.
[wink]
[Why did I repost this? I don't need to shout at the landscape; I have no control over its contours. I needed this reminder to watch the stars.]