Blogs

Do you follow blogs? Do you read them? Do you post comments or take part in online discussions?

I do follow two blogs. One of them belongs to a retired English accountant. The man writes utter nonsense sometimes, as if his retirement were too much of a burden for him. This is not personal nonsense though; this, for the most part, is a highly stylised literary gobbledygook very finely written by a person who can truly appreciate the most delicious bits of belles-lettres. This man embodies for me an aesthetic principle, an ideal of the perfect artist described in one of the Philip K. Dick novels as a robot floating in the interstellar space and shooting mysterious objects in all directions for no apparent purpose.

Several years ago I read a blog where the author described in minute detail and in a very funny tone some of the least important occurrences of his daily routine. Usually he would publish a post of several lines about a slightest rearrangement of things on his desk or about a sudden, brief and unfulfilled urge to make a totally needless telephone call to his uncle. It was magnificent but this blog has long ceased to exist.

Another such publication I follow more or less daily for even less obvious reasons is an American conservative blog. The general attitude of the blog seems to me reasonably belligerent, all things considered. By reasonable I mean that the opponents of this blog may be completely unhinged. What makes this argument truly dramatic, in the academic sense of the word, which implies that both sides of a conflict must be equally justified in their competing efforts, is that I can easily understand the other side, the liberal one.

Another criterium of a true drama is that the argument must be all-important; it must determine the very existence of all the people involved. I mean, people around the globe follow this political process even more closely than I do and either start a world war or wait for the next turn of the US electoral cycle, depending on the outcome of the debate. Sometimes they err and the war stays local, but the quality of the debate is invariably very high.

I never post comments though. I did but soon found out that it doesn’t make any sense at all. People don’t discuss things to find out some basic truth about their lives. This is what I thought and this is why everyone taking part in any discussion would always turn upon me the moment I pointed out to them this painfully obvious truth. It is as appropriate as taking part in a discussion onstage while being a part of the theatre audience. You may be well aware of the solution to the problem but I really doubt that anyone around will appreciate that.

This is why the comments are usually the weakest part of any publication these days, especially after the armies of paid trolls descended on these battlefields. But even without all the mercenaries these discussions are pointless if they are not confined to some very specific topics, say, a printer malfunction or a baby rash. When arguing about more general things, especially the political ones, people don’t want solutions. They know them all too well long before they start a bunfight.

Usually they just want to spar a bit, to let out some steam in a friendly death match. They may seem to be at each other’s throats, ranting madly and frothing at their mouths but don’t you be deceived: this is all as cordial and familial as it gets. Don’t spoil the fun with your silly candour. Just sit and watch how the world goes to the dogs while you’re having a break from making it a better place.