Why Blogging?

I personally find blogging to be extremely odd. But, in the context of the modern movement, the subsequent postmodern movement, and the contemporary movement I would like to title "Modern Modernism" or "New Modernism" I think blogging fits in perfectly.

I think blogging really takes its roots in Hunter S. Thompson Gonzo writing style. Never before had a news story/article been more about the writer than the actual course of events. It takes a truly amazing character to pull this off, so we find Dr. Thompson transforming into Hunter S. Thompson--the drug taking, alcohol drinking, fast living individual characterized in many of his writings. He became consumed by the character.

Put this on a time line and Hunter was engaged in this style right around Modernism's death and the birth of Postmodernism. Did he cause this shift? Hardly! But, like all famous authors, poets, artists, revolutionaries, et cetera he characterized what was going on around him and compressed it into a form that could be read.

So, what does this have to do with blogging? Well, the creation of the internet, along with internet dating, in light of facebook and myspace has cut the traditional ties for social interaction.

The other day I called someone on my cell phone and I thought, "What would happen if I didn't have a cell phone anymore? How would people know where I was? How would people reach me?"

Do you get what's at the bottom of this thought process? Our generation believes that, on some level, the world would stop if we weren't able to be found. Literally, we believe that gravity would fail, the Sun would crash into the planet and everyone would die... except for Australia. We believe that the world needs US. We are arrogant.

Now, this isn't meant to be depressing. In fact, if you can really get this its liberating. But, if you were to die tomorrow, people would be upset for a few days maybe weeks. If you were really important maybe a few months. But, life for that person would GO ON!

In fact, I would say that for a few years people that knew you would genuinely miss you, but they would not wake up every morning and think, "I can't get out of bed because that person isn't around." And... this is what's amazing... after they die, you will pretty much be a non-entity. No one will really miss me after everyone that has known me has died.

So.. depressed? Don't be. What this means is that we have an impact, but our impact is not related to US. What I mean by that is that humility is at the heart of our impact. In order to truly matter we must get over ourselves and realize it isn't about US. It's about others. We must be last in order to be first.

You might remember as JC was going up to Jerusalem to be killed on a cross, his closest buds on this Earth were arguing about their positions because they believed JC was going to overthrow the ruling powers in might. He stops them and relates how in order to be great they must be last (Matthew 19). To this day we still read about these people. They became last in order to be first.

So... blogging is this weird activity that seems to summarize perfectly the social interaction of our generation and/or the thought that we matter more than we think. Blogging is weird. That's all!