In the midst of Extensive Karmic Housecleaning

<![CDATA[I've been engaged in one of those passages of time when change and reflection have come to dominate my days. At home and in work me and my family have been through a lot of wrenching transformation, and I can't say that it is over, yet. But some ideas have become plainly self-evident to me in recent weeks. Here, some notes, none of which have added up to a conclusion about What Comes Next….
I picked up my old paperback copy of Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, which I’ve had since 1981, and reread after his death last week. He wrote the book near my age, as a way to clear his head for what remained of his life. He comments on the arbitrary and stupid mythology on which the United States built itself, including the All-Seeing Eye atop a pyramid on our money:

Not even the President of the United States knew what that was all about. It was as though the country was saying to its citizens: “In nonsense is strength.”

Yesterday, while watching the speculation-as-coverage that was the Virginia Tech Massacre, I was struck by the plaintive mewling of a reporter during the briefings by the school’s administration: “You have to understand that we want human stories. Can’t you give us human stories?”
Likewise, when the CNN anchors who demanded that students calling from the university “paint a picture” of the campus and asked “how it felt today” and whether the students would like to transfer, I was struck by what nonsense we rely on to provide clarity in times of crisis. Facts take time to come out, and human stories emerge through extensive reporting, including the snippets of experience caught by witnesses (I loathe the term “i-reporters” used by CNN), which must be assembled over time to make sense of such terrible and complex events.
It’s the same problem the blogosphere has. Too many opinions passing as fact, way too much promotion posing as reportage, and a general fascination with minutiae rather than the complexities of detailed reports on events. We seek a position before we arrive at a perspective.
Vonnegut, again:

And here, according to Trout, was the reason human beings could not reject ideas because they were bad. “Ideas on Earth were badges of friendship or enmity. Their content did not matter. Friends agreed with friends in order to express friendliness. Enemies disagreed with enemies, in order to express enmity.

I like conflict, because it yields clarity, and I like the people who will engage in a good debate. Virtually all the tools made for social networks today are about easy agreement and convenient enmity, rather than the forging of community.
But I am also tired of nonsensical argument. When I come out of this passage, I will be doing something new with words, ideas, images and stories. But for now, despite all the housecleaning already accomplished, I have much more self-examination and reflection on the world to pursue. So, forgive my continued silence in various venues where you would typically find my blogged words and writing.

Technorati Tags: literature, Media, tragedy

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