Sunday, October 01, 2006
Manifesto of a volunteer
I wrote that my blog sucks a few weeks ago. It does, and I've decided to work on that some. The blogs I like (there are maybe 2-3) have a focus or a strong voice. That is to say, the posts are either about something I care about or are rendered in a way that I find striking. I don't have a creative thing that I do that is immediately suitable blogging, other than that I think. I think alot about the world, and I sometimes come away with truths--knowledge that is true for me in a certain moment--that I would like to think are worth sharing.
Because of that, I have arrived at this simple manifesto:
Certain ideas will arrive from various conversations and moments. The blog will be away of getting those ideas in a raw form to the public. It won't be attributable to me. It won' be searchable by name.
The ideas I share are intended to be part of the larger human conversation wherein we try to make sense of this world. Generally, I'm not interested in sharing factual information, resources, stories, etc. Topics that I am interested in writing about include aesthetics, ethics, books, popular culture, politics, music, philosophy, history and culture. Mostly, I'm trying to figure out what America is, what it ought to be, and what might help get it there.
My name will not be published with the blog. I do not consider it secret, I just do not wish that anybody could google my name and find this instantly. I don't want a potential job, interviewee, editor, date, hang out friend, or colleague to suddenly be able to find my blog and use that to figure out who I am.
I will try to post once a week.
I will not talk about my weekend or other petty and routine adventures, unless it relates to the topic. Nor will I talk about such things people would normally, until recently, consider private.
I will not swear.
This is not intended as a confessional. It won't be designed for people to get to know me better. It will be like a column in a newspaper. Nobody will give me a column right now, presumably because in the world of people who give columns, there's no reason to expect anybody would want to read what I would have to say. In some ways, the experiment is to see if those people are right. I'm curious as to whether I deserve and audience, and whether this tool can help me find one.
Even though some of the below posts do not quite fit into the manifesto, I will leave those posts in place as historical documents that might shed some light on the ongoing evolution of this project.
And so it goes.
Because of that, I have arrived at this simple manifesto:
Certain ideas will arrive from various conversations and moments. The blog will be away of getting those ideas in a raw form to the public. It won't be attributable to me. It won' be searchable by name.
The ideas I share are intended to be part of the larger human conversation wherein we try to make sense of this world. Generally, I'm not interested in sharing factual information, resources, stories, etc. Topics that I am interested in writing about include aesthetics, ethics, books, popular culture, politics, music, philosophy, history and culture. Mostly, I'm trying to figure out what America is, what it ought to be, and what might help get it there.
My name will not be published with the blog. I do not consider it secret, I just do not wish that anybody could google my name and find this instantly. I don't want a potential job, interviewee, editor, date, hang out friend, or colleague to suddenly be able to find my blog and use that to figure out who I am.
I will try to post once a week.
I will not talk about my weekend or other petty and routine adventures, unless it relates to the topic. Nor will I talk about such things people would normally, until recently, consider private.
I will not swear.
This is not intended as a confessional. It won't be designed for people to get to know me better. It will be like a column in a newspaper. Nobody will give me a column right now, presumably because in the world of people who give columns, there's no reason to expect anybody would want to read what I would have to say. In some ways, the experiment is to see if those people are right. I'm curious as to whether I deserve and audience, and whether this tool can help me find one.
Even though some of the below posts do not quite fit into the manifesto, I will leave those posts in place as historical documents that might shed some light on the ongoing evolution of this project.
And so it goes.
