Picking up on my kvetch from last night…

There’s a common theme running through the conservative and evangelical sides of the blogosphere — the two aren’t necessarily identical, but at worst they’re branches on the same family tree — exemplified most recently by a commonly held view during the recently concluded presidential campaign.  The statement repeated so often it reached near mantra status was, “Yeah, the media is doing everything it can to throw the election to Obama.  Doesn’t really matter.  This is the last election it’ll be able to do that.  By the next one, everyone will recognize its bias, reject it, and cone running to us for information.”

Really.

I mean, really.

For real?

A brief riposte of reality.  On the basis of which spectacular success in recent times do the high flying conservative and evangelical blogs base this assumption that mainstream muscle awaits them at the next bend?  A Reagan Republican currently preparing to move into the White House next January?  Ditto for Congress?  This nation’s wholehearted embrace of Christ-like deeds?  Check up on these and get back to me when you locate them.  I’ll be waiting… in the same manner I’m still waiting for someone to lay out a case based on experience and qualifications why Barack Obama is a spiffy-doodle choice to occupy the Oval Office.

Folk, in the sense of general public awareness no one knows we exist.  No one.  We’re not losing the struggle for hearts and minds.  We’re not even on the battlefield.  Traditional media occasionally makes gestures of good will in our direction while whenever possible treating us with scorn and contempt because that’s all we’ve earned.  99 44/100% of what we pass off as an alternative to traditional media is playing the cut and paste game with said media’s output so we can respond with either “me too” or “F.U.”  Which adds exactly what to public knowledge?  Oh, wait, let me answer that for you.  Nothing.  We’re not reporting the news.  We’re offering 24/7/365 editorials based solely on information provided by the same media we love to pillory at every turn.

What, we’re the only people out there with access to the online editions of CNN and the New York Times?  Why should anyone read regurgitation when the original is readily available?  Do people really need us to tell them what the news is actually saying?  How dense do we believe they are to be in need of such assistance?

There is original thought in the blogosphere.  There is genuine reporting.  There is original content of value.  But there are very few Victor David Hansons or Michael Yons out there.  Very, very few.  The overwhelming majority is vapid parroting.

We hold conventions and online popularity contests, then herald the glories of speakers and winners as though something has been accomplished above yet another sermon to the choir with a generous love offering from the congregation on the side.  We prattle and pose and preen for each other, blissfully and deliberately ignorant of the truism that if one speaks in the forest and there is no one there to hear them, they’re talking to themselves because quite frankly the flora and fauna aren’t listening.

Adding insult to illegitimate boasts of legitimacy is how these elements of the blogosphere indulge themselves in a thorough replication of the caste system cyberspace style.  Seriously.  These people practice insular insolence at such a high level you’d think they were convinced they were the second coming of Obama.  It’s not what you say that matters.  It’s how many readers does it draw.  It’s the amount of heat you can generate.  It’s the size of your sycophantic wolfpack lavishing you with tongue baths disguised as comments.  Don’t rank?  Don’t rate.  Don’t bother me.  I speak only to my shallow sneers… uh, fellow peers.

Where is the genuine in all this?  Where is that which is real?  Where are the words of comfort and encouragement for a friend, or the joy of sharing what the Lord has pressed upon your heart?  Where is the offering of not mere words but direct involvement, of compassion and empathy that opens the door to healing?  Without these things, what is actually accomplished?  Without these things, what is there?

Jesus didn’t need a convention to get His message out.  Whenever a large crowd would gather around Him He’d usually say something that made them walk away disappointed.  Instead, He spoke primarily to His disciples, preparing them for the work that lay ahead of them after His return to heaven.  If the Son of God preferred dealing on a low-key local basis, speaking One to one, then why do we preach mass acceptance as a sign of value and/or something to be sought?

Again I say it.  Really.  I mean, really.  For real?  Is what we’re showing all we’ve got?  If this is true, then not only are we not providing a viable alternative to traditional media, we’re not even providing the viable, vital information about Christ crucified and risen traditional media isn’t much for trumpeting.  We’re not offering the open hand of personal interaction with those we otherwise would have never encountered in our lives but now know through blogging.  If this is true, we offer nothing.  Traditional media at least offers something.  And who sets aside something in favor of nothing?

Be something.