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Tuesday, November 16, 2004

I had a brief email exchange with another blogger regarding Pearl S. Buck’s assertion that freedom of speech allows one to postpone action.  I wondered if blogging was just a “safety valve” that gives people (myself included) the feeling they are doing something useful, while in fact they are shirking the responsibility of more selfless forms of action.   Juno wrote: I think it depends on how you blog - if this form of self-expression is a springboard to greater action, or part of a larger effort to define and act on your own convictions then I think it is action.  But if it is just to state your opinion and then move on to other concerns, well, that's the complacency again. I saw a Garrison Keiller post a few weeks ago that everyone was praising to the skies, but it irritated me.  I agreed with what he was saying, but it felt like a one off--I will appease my conscience by saying my piece this once, but then I will return to my regularly scheduled oblivion.   (I'd like to see the Keillor piece she was talking about, but will have to wait for the link.)  I do think, in my case, blogging has become a way to formulate my convictions and is, therefore, a precursor to action. The sun keeps rising, guests keep coming, stomaches keep growling; I will still blog about daily life, but never with the same underlying sense of complacent obliviousness--and I will act, even if just in the smallest of ways and choices. I don't exactly live in a hotbed of political activity, but that's no reason to despair.  Lest anyone think that the outcome of history can't be influenced via the domestic sphere, check out Rayne's post on a little mother-daughter chat she recently had. comment []11:10:16 PM

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