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Saturday, June 20, 2009

A Virtual Conversation

I spend a good deal of each day reading blogs. I also spend a certain amount of time writing things for my blog, but not near as much time as I spend reading the thoughts of others. As I travel around the blogosphere, I've come to realize that blogs often are an attempt to start a conversation. Of course, it certainly helps if other people read your blog, lest the conversation be with yourself alone! :-)

So often, out in the real world of social endeavors, many of us find it difficult to initiate dialog. As a person with Asperger's Syndrome, the weird and/or arcane topics I'd like to discuss with people are usually nonstarters as far as idle conversation goes. Most people aren't interested in exploring the philosophy of Taoism or Spinoza and my weak attempts to engender such interest usually fail. So, I'll make an offhanded comment that typically dies right there on the vine.

But here, in this virtual medium, I can attempt to start a conversation with you -- my readers -- on any topic that suits my fancy. Some of these topics may strike a chord with you and a conversation, however long or brief, transpires. No, it's not the same as a face-to-face conversation, but it's something.

I don't think I'm alone in such attempts. Much of the stuff you post on your blogs fits the same bill -- you're reaching out to try to initiate a conversation with YOUR readers.

While I'm pleased as punch that we have this medium, it also makes me a tad bit sad. For folks like me -- people who are not social, in nature -- it has provided a wonderful outlet and the opportunity to engage with people we would not have otherwise. But, for the rest of you, it is a rather sad commentary about the state of the world.

People need and want to connect with others, but far too many people become so self-absorbed in this fast-paced alienating world that it's often difficult for even social creatures to connect. Conversation become superficial and serious discussions are placed on a back burner. Into this void, many people take to blogging as a way to release the philosophical yearnings buried deep within that have no bona fide outlet in the outside world.

Even if your blog is about nothing more than the routine and seemingly mundane aspects of your life, your philosophy of life shines through.

2 comments:

  1. As a teacher, that is how I have approached most of my college classes at the beginning of the school year - they have come into the classroom with certain assumptions about how the world works, and I am there to help them understand those assumptions and paradigms in greater depth. At the same time, this initiates a conversation (sometimes argument), because no two people view the world the same. I also introduce other ways of understanding the world, to let them know that others have thought through their assumptions (the Spinozas and Lao Tzus and Nietzsches of the world).

    Blogging is sometimes terribly frustrating for me, because I've had people ignore topics near and dear to me, as I'm sure you have. I think there is a time element involved - we simply can't read all the blogs and respond to them. Another is the self-absorption you mention, something I would say borders on being like clinical narcissism.

    There's probably a life lesson in there. Our encounters and conversations will always be hit and miss, and there is a certain amount of Stoic acceptance necessary to thrive because of that.

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  2. An interesting post can be esoteric and if esoteric were popular we would have interesting TV shows. Philosophy makes a lot of people uncomfortable. Some think it is "pretentious" that we could presume to contemplate such big questions. Some think it is heretical. Some fear the cognitive dissonance that arises when the whole of existence needs a new frame.

    On the other hand, some people won't even respond to email that really requires it, or at least deserves it. I guess we never got an "email etiquette" lesson from our parents. I have really been miffed by this but it is so ubiquitous that I have come to the conclusion that I can't blame anyone at all really.

    I recently deleted my Myspace account do to the omnipresent apathy. Maybe the problem is me. "One can not smell one's own stench" - or something like that. I understand the metaphysics of Leibnitz and Spinoza but I am at a loss when it comes to why others will not communicate with me.

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