Archive for February, 2009

Finishing what I started in the first three posts:

Before getting to the fourth, final, and to me most important tenet of the blogging evangel, indulge me for a minute while I remind you of something I said at the beginning:

We suck.

Seriously.  We absolutely suck.

We suck, because if we didn’t suck we wouldn’t be a marginal, marginalized minority.  We suck, because if our beliefs and philosophies are properly grounded and what we tell is the truth then we should be having an impact in society far beyond the walls of our phonebooth kingdoms.  We suck, because if we didn’t suck we wouldn’t be in this room striving with all our might to convince ourselves and each other everything is all right and we will once again rock you while the Democrats parade around town singing “We Are The Champions.”

Which leads to the fourth tenet of the blogging evangel.

Never become what you profess to oppose.

Never.

When blogging as a forum for political expression first emerged, it was eagerly embraced by conservatives as a vessel with which to counter the liberal bias of traditional media.  Here was the opportunity to, via direct action, establish a model of doing the right thing the right way.  By forsaking the elitist, snobbish and exclusionary mode of traditional media, the opportunity was now available to create a new media, one in which the previously unheard and unnoticed private citizen with something to say could offer news and commentary for consideration by other private citizens without the unspoken censorship of traditional media deciding which voices would be heard and which would be silenced.  There would be a new cooperative, a sharing of ideas and promotion in which all would write and work not for their own gain but on behalf of all for the good of all.  We, you and I together, would forge a covenant with ourselves and our readers; a covenant declaring we would be the antithesis of traditional media’s bigotry toward the principles and values we held to be true.

We lied.

We say we are of and for the people, yet we heartily endorse and promote ourselves as we form cliques the like of which would embarrass the silliest of schoolchildren.  We say we are solely about the message, yet we grovel for every dollar available and whine when they don’t come our way.  We say we are of and for the people, yet we do not speak to each other unless we consider the one attempting communication part of our social strata based on popularity and adherence to the mutual admiration society honor code.  We say we are of and for the people, yet we do not serve the people.  We seek only to be served and reassured that we are who we tell ourselves we are regardless of the evidence provided by our abject failure stating we are anything but who, and what, we pretend to be while admiring ourselves in a lying mirror.

We are what we profess to oppose.

And we wonder why God doesn’t bless us.

God has other plans.

I think of a friend, so burdened with the call to evangelize he has thrown him wholeheartedly into learning the language of another people so he might go to their country and speak to them about the Good News of Jesus Christ.  I think of a friend, one who has given so much in her life she has willingly opened her home to those who had no place to go, now staring into the face of every parent’s worse nightmare as she waits to find out the diagnosis of the lump her daughter found in her breast a few weeks ago.  Yet even with this clawing at her heart, she continues to give.

These are the ones God has blessed.

Meanwhile, we praise and promote Christopher Hitchens, Allahpundit and Charles Johnson.

We behave, in every fashion, in the exact same manner as the ones about who we insist we are the upright alternative.

Therefore, we suck.

And we need to stop.

Now.

Thank you.

Hopefully, next year I won’t have to again write this speech.  But I’m not holding my breath.

Resuming from yesterday:

The third tenet of the blogging evangel is quite simple, really: Answer your e-mail every time all the time.

No, I am not referring to the missives we all get from some grieving relative or financial expert hired to handle the affairs of same asking us to contact their bank in Nigeria.  Although I’ve often wondered when people in Nigeria get these e-mails what country the bank is located in they’re asked to contact.  But I digress.

I’m talking about actual communication, one person to another.

I mentioned a short while ago a saying my late father was fond of.  I inherited many things from him, the greatest man I have ever known.  Including a few I wish I hadn’t, such as his penchant for talking back to his employer and the reason why I have this lengthy scar on my left arm as a souvenir of relieving ulnar nerve entrapment!  The former doesn’t do much for your career advancement potential and the latter is self-explanatory.  But all in all, I’m eternally grateful to him for what he passed on to me.  And I do mean eternally, for he was a man of faith.  One of those things was an affection for creating sayings.  Not in any effort to obtain pop culture fame by coming up with something that would catch on for fifteen minutes, but rather as a vessel for communicating the truth in a succinct manner.  I’m going to now share one of these sayings with you.

If you’re too busy… yes.

We can all come up with any number of reasons why we don’t answer our e-mail.  We get too much, it would take away from our blogging time, blah blah blah.

Bull.

The truth is when we establish ourselves as participants in a social medium, then fail to participate in the social aspects of said medium aside from directly speaking solely to those we deem to be of stature either equal to our own or at a level to which we aspire, we’re not “too busy.”

We’re rude, condescending jerks.

I’d like someone to explain how we can claim to be purveyors of truth when this is the truth.

Who are we to dismiss others?

Remember how earlier I referenced exchanging e-mail with Maryscott O’Connor?  Assuming you can for at least a moment set aside the “what is a conservative doing writing the likes of her” aspect, which I’ll address in a bit, what part of the reference stands out?

We exchange e-mail.

We write each other back.

So what’s your excuse for not doing so with people you are wholly or the majority in agreement with?  Or for that matter, not doing so period?

Again I say it: if you’re too busy… yes.  Yes, you are.  And you are the only one responsible for this being the case.

The conclusion tomorrow.

Picking up where I left off the other day:

The second tenet of the blogging evangel is this: Blog from and for the heart, not the bank account. This should be quite self-explanatory.  And yet so many among us miss it.

Blogging for the bank account isn’t always about posting for pennies.  It also takes the form of blogging not as a means of communication, but rather attempting to assert the self-created image of oneself as being someone.  In this case, the level of “someone” one wishes to be is measured not in deed, or so much as quality of word, but rather by how great is the audience for said word.  Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.”  Today we say, “I am racking ‘em up on Sitemeter, therefore I am the alpha dog.”  One barking furiously at the caravan as it passes by.

Blogging, when it first came into vogue, was a means for individuals who otherwise would have remained forever unknown to the world at large to share their thoughts, observations and feelings on any given topic.  It was to be the great equalizer; the vessel through which all could come together on a level field for consideration based neither on social rank nor traditional media’s designation of who was and wasn’t worthy.  Rather, it would be on quality alone.  There was to be a new spirit of camaraderie and cooperation fused with an active dismissal of elitism.  We would be the living embodiment of strength in diversity.

Boy, were we full of it.

My late father oft repeated a saying that as I recall went, “Where the Vanderbilts speak only to the Rockerfellers, and the Rockerfellers speak only to themselves.”  That is today’s blogosphere.  We do not cooperate.  We only compete.  We do not support each other.  We snark and snarl.  There is no communion.  Only condemnation.  We acknowledge each other only when it gets us somewhere.  And the higher up the totem pole you are, the more dismissive you are of those you believe to be beneath you.

When did the original ideal behind what we do go away?  When did we decide our hobby should be our salary?  Where did the notion come from that we should imitate those we claim to be the antithesis of by classifying, stratifying and ossifying each other based on who does the best job of pandering to the crowd?

This is especially odious for those of us who claim the status of believer.  Or at least, it ought to be.  Have we forgotten the admonition of Christ when He said, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you?”  If you are a Christian and a popular blogger, it’s almost guaranteed you’re doing something very, very wrong.  There are many ways to become a hit on the Internet.  Preaching the Gospel isn’t one of them.  Porn, yes.  Christ crucified and risen?  Not so much.

Do we keep in our minds and hearts the next thing Jesus said?  “Love your enemies.“  Loving your enemy takes two forms.  First, you love them enough and care for them enough to tell them the truth about Christ no matter how it is received.  Second, and equally as important, you treat them like you yourself would like to be treated.  You might be surprised at what happens.  For example, although I in no way consider Maryscott O’Connor an enemy, she and I have approximately seven levels lower than zero in common with each other politically.  Yet we each have a link on our blog to the other person’s blog.  Why?  Because somewhere along the road, she and I talked to each other via e-mail like human beings ought to talk to each other.  Meaning, in case you missed it, we answered each others e-mail.

Which leads to the next tenet.

More tomorrow.

This weekend in Washington D.C., the annual gathering of CPAC will take place.  CPAC, which is short for Conservative Political Action Conference, is a vital cog in the well-oiled conservative political machine that has in recent years produced win after win on the national scene and… oh, wait, that’s right…

The conference,  judging by the hyperactive hyperbole bordering on hyperventilation with which it is greeted by bloggers big and small, is the absolute to die for event of the year for everyone who’s everyone, aspires to be everyone, or holds ambitions so little as be in the same room with everyone.  It has been THE topic for weeks upon end, with Twitters twittering and Facebookers making face time and bloggers… uh, blogging.  Who’s coming?  Who’s going?  Who’s speaking?  Who’s next?  Who are you?  Who has the Who on their iPhone?  Oh wait, that’s me.

Alas, I will not be in attendance.  Not as a featured speaker.  Not as a guest speaker.  Not leaning against a speaker listening to someone speak through the speaker.  Just couldn’t swing the time off plus the $750 to attend — if I’m going to fly cross-country for an event, I’m going to go to every little everything — plus the airfare plus the hotel.  Ah well.  My schmoozing skills honed during assorted GMA Weeks will, alas, lie fallow this weekend.  And I was so looking forward to hanging with Mary Katherine Ham.  We’re such buds, y’know.

There is a tinge of regret at not joining the exhibitors, and I wish I knew how much that cost.  I have no doubt my modest collection of posters and shirts and such for this even more modest waystation on the information superhighway would be quite the hit.  Why, the blogging evangel tiles would be flying off the shelves.  Plus there’s the book.  Bet the place will be veritably crawling with people (or filled with crawling people after the assorted after-hours soirées have run their course) wanting to hear about the creators of Christian alternative rock.  Or not.  Needing to hear, yes, but I’m somewhat doubtful they’re aware of this void in their lives.  Working on it.  But back to the exhibitors: I’d do it, but only if I get the booth in-between the Catholic Family Caucus and the Islamic Free Market Institute Foundation.

Anyway, back to the title of this post.  I take some small comfort in knowing I’ll be in good company, since Sarah Palin won’t be giving a speech at this year’s even either.  At least not live; she’s sending a pre-recorded one.  Seems we both have this thing demanding our attention called — now, what’s that again — oh yes.  A day job.  Darn the luck.  But I digress.  While I don’t have a recording of my comments available, I can at least post the text of the oratory I would offer for the upcoming august assemblage:

Fellow CPACers… I’d say my friends, but I don’t believe I have any here:

We suck.

No.  Seriously.  We suck.  Seriously suck.  As in bite.  Blow.  Blow chunks.  Trailer trash transport blow.  Suck’n'blow.

I know that’s not what you expect to hear from someone standing in front of you at this event, an unabashed conservative at a gathering of like-minded conservatives.  You expect to hear words of encouragement and exhortation.  You expect to hear words challenging you to stand steadfast against the recent reversals in fortune.  You expect to hear words of comfort about how we are strong, we will be back, we will persevere, we will once again hold the reins of power.

Others will gladly tell you these things.  And, they’ll do a good job of it.  They’ll fire you up.  They’ll get you on your feet.  They’ll leave you convinced all will once again be right with the world as we move the world toward the right.  You will be delighted and determined.  You’ll be pumped to perform.

And you’ll still suck.

Instead of these things, I’m going to tell you something else.

It’s called the truth.

I have a thing I call the blogging evangel.  It’s been a work in progress for a few years, undergoing refinement and a bit of expansion.  It’s pretty well settled now.

It’s a collection of four tenets.  Hardly the four Gospels.  But four tenets nonetheless.  They are the foundation upon which I base my modest cyberspace scribbles.  They should also be yours, fellow bloggers.  Not because I came up with them, of course.  That has nothing to do with anything of importance.  Rather, they should be yours for one reason and one reason alone.

They are what is right.

The four tenets of the blogging evangel are quite simple, really:

1. The ability to broadcast ones opinion neither elevates nor validates said opinion.
2. Blog from and for the heart, not the bank account.
3. Answer your e-mail every time all the time.
4. Never become what you profess to oppose.

Let’s look at these, one at a time.

The ability to broadcast ones opinion neither elevates nor validates said opinion.

It’s not another way of saying who do we think we are.  It is another way of saying we are not who we think we are.

We’re very good at preaching to the choir and getting an amen.  Some of us excel at extracting a generous love offering from the congregation.  We are truly kings and queens in our phonebooth kingdoms.

And no one cares.

We have no impact on the world.  We have no influence in public discourse.  We have no say in public affairs.  We are a marginal, marginalized minority.  Nothing more.

Why is that?

Why do we persuade no one?

Why do we claim we are speaking truth to power when in truth we are shouting into the wind, enraged at it having the temerity to not ask our permission to blow?

There is a reason.

It is woven through the four tenets.  The ones we fail to follow.

We have forgotten the ones — and more importantly, the One — we have been called to serve.

More later.