Post 400: A Simple Milestone

Zebras have stripes and leopards have spots. I, on the other hand, have no obvious marks, save two: this is the first time I've begun a post with the letter Z, and this is the 400th time I've had such a chance. It is not much of a milestone, I know, but I am anagramatically a bit like a leopard: that fast feline might have 400 spots, but I have 400 posts.

Curiously, all my posts are so many spots, rendering me nearly invisible in the big world-wide web of cyberlife.

When I began this site in April 2005, I had no idea where I was heading. 400 posts later, I still have no idea; I just keep stroking keys like a crazy chimp hoping that something makes sense. It all reminds me of the little drawings I'd do before I could read or write: I'd crayon little curly wisps suggestive of clouds over a horizon, or smoke billowing from a chimney, and then rush into the kitchen, asking my mother, "Are these words? Am I writing?" I have come a long way since then, no doubt, but I still find myself doodling vapors on paper.

In July of 2005, I believe, I added a stat counter to chart my failures and successes as a blogger. I can think of a handful of critical times in my life when humility was handed to me on a platter; I can think of a few times such lessons left me thinking my head was on that salver. Seeing how few people read one's blog is truly a humbling revelation, and it is utterly life-saving: there is nothing like knowing one's place. But I can at least feel a little pride knowing that without marketing myself at all (I VERY rarely tell people I blog), I have been blessed to have had nearly 20,000 unique visitors come here. Many of them, I am glad to report, return. And a few even become my friends.

I can't remember off-hand when I signed up with Technorati, a blog listing service (among other things) available for free. I do recall that when I first found my Technorati blog-ranking -- somewhere around 335,000 -- I was mildly down-hearted until a Contratimes reader informed me that my station was set against some 55 million listed blogs. Since then this blog has reached its best rating around 37, 5oo; but in recent months I've slipped dramatically. Today, Contratimes is ranked 103,734. I am nose-diving without the slightest understanding how it is I've come to hurl myself headlong into a bay of noses. But I hold onto some small hope that all this will make sense in the end, and that I will find my own nose somewhere in the process.

Many thanks to all of you who have visited. I am especially grateful to all of you who have left a comment, or two, or ten. Thanks. And this goes to those of you who have felt it necessary to set me straight with language that was anything but gentle. Though only a few of you fall into this category, I am grateful nonetheless that you felt comfortable enough to give me a piece of your mind (especially when it was the very last piece I wanted). The most insulting and assaulting personalities, I am glad to report, are not making rounds here, but elsewhere: I am much more likely to get scalded in some other cyber-territory. But perhaps that is why I need the stripes of the zebra and the speedy spots of the leopard. One needs to survive, after all.

Thanks for the kindness.

Peace.

BG

PS. I believe this is not the first time I've posted here at Contratimes the photograph above, but I can't recall where or when. Sorry if you find it at all redundant. But I like it for its sense of transcience, its sense of fragility and time, and for its varied stripes. (In case you're wondering, the photograph was taken in North Eastham, on the glorious Cape Cod, along the bay, just north of Campground Beach.)

©Bill Gnade 2007/Contratimes. All Rights Reserved.

Red Flag = Cowardice: You Better Watch What You Read Here

If you look at the blue navigation bar that spans across this blog, a feature provided by Blogger, you will notice that there is a little flag. The flag on your screen should be a lighter shade of blue than the navigation bar itself. Curiously, the flag on my page, since I am the owner of this blog, is no longer blue at all. It is now bright red. This red flag indicates that some reader (or readers) has found the content of this website "objectionable" and has passed his or her concerns along to Blogger. That this has happened has made me rather sad, not because I have been caught in some sort of nefarious activity, but because it indicates the sort of world in which we live: a paranoid and cowardly one. One would be hard pressed to find a person who has left a comment throughout my 365 posts (or so) who has voiced such alarm; there has been very little controversy at Contratimes, despite this blog's title. I can only wish that I had had a chance to speak to the person or persons involved. But I can't: they've scurried off on their jolly way, certain they've done all humanity a favor.

But what is alarming is what this COULD portend. I encourage you to read the warnings for yourself. You see, if enough people descend on this site and click that flag, not only will Blogger paste up a warning on the front-sheet of this site, it will cease listing it. In other words, this is about censorship. It is about attempting to silence a voice on the Internet; to silence someone using the medium which is supposed to be the most democratic engine in history. But we all know it is hardly that. While I have never once made an attempt to silence a single person on the Internet, my work is deemed objectionable, and someone hopes to silence me. I pose some sort of threat, though there is not a bit of censorship in me. Imagine.

Of course, I am probably being paranoid.

But perhaps I am being added to the List of Banned Blogs in the New Inquisition. Perhaps the delicate ears I've offended are right-wing Christian fundamentalists, for we know that no decent, liberally-minded, freedom-loving, free-thinking intellectual could EVER find offense at free speech. Yes, that is it: I am being persecuted by religious zealots. At least, that is the only apparent explanation for the New Puritanism that deigns to flag this site as offensive.

Perhaps there is a way around this. No doubt I may move to my own server and be done with Blogger and the threats of hidden visitors who haven't the courage, or the intellectual vigor, to challenge me to my very plain face. Or is it that I have intimidated them to cower in the upper left hand corner of their mouse-pad, clicking in their boots? Who knows? But please note that if this site is deemed objectionable, then you, dear reader, are treading on very dangerous ground. Besides, they might flag you next. No. They WILL flag you next.

So much for democracy. And freedom.

Peace.

©Bill Gnade 2006/Contratimes -- All Rights Reserved.

Technorati tags: Blogger, Censorship, New Puritanism, Free speech, Red Flag, Flagged

Comments On Comments

Last night I visited a blogger's safe pages to read a rather disconcerting essay on how she felt - at times - mistreated by certain other bloggers when she would leave comments at their sites. That this fine woman should experience this sort of thing at any blog is indeed disconcerting; but she wasn't talking about just any old blogs. She was talking about ostensibly Christian blogs. Sadly, she is not alone. There are too many cases where people are hurt by comments that are offered in the name of heaven yet surprisingly sting like hell.

I have promised here to be gentle with visitors, no matter what their worldviews. It is the very least I can do; and it is, at least to me, the very best thing I can do. Of course, I am aware that I do not receive loads of comments, though my traffic numbers are pretty good. I'd like to think this is due to my sticking to my guns regarding civility. But perhaps my vanity has things wrong, and I don't get long threads of comments -- usually -- because no one cares to disagree with me.

When I visit another site, I admit that, if I leave a comment, it is usually a rather long one. I do this for one reason, and one reason only. I believe the long comment reveals that I am not a bombthrower; it shows that I am not baiting anyone. Long comments allow me to flesh out my position, making it utterly transparent, showing that I am not hiding behind either a pseudonym or some sort of veiled (or even obvious) set of barbs. Besides, a thorough defense avoids -- or so one hopes -- the confusion too often associated with those defenses which consist of a few parries and thrusts. Plus, a longer comment (this only counts if I am engaged and I have issues with a position, usually) permits me to show that I take my interlocutors seriously. Respect listens, but also respect offers thoughtful replies. I realize that this sort of courtesy requires more time (or even skill) than some folks have: I can type pretty fast and words come rather easily.

Mean-spirited comments are not, of course, confined to Christian blogs (and not all Christian blogs are remotely impolite). One can find mean-spirited comments everywhere. Some essayist might write about the jerkness of jerks and then, in the blink of an eye in the comments thread, unwittingly prove himself to be one such jerk. Some hate-monger shall damn hate-mongering; some egomaniac shall berate conceit with all due haughtiness. It is a sad world, often, that one finds in comment threads; and while I am not so squeamish to recoil from those who are abusive, I nonetheless wish I could find that everyone aimed for civility. But to all this I make this free confession: there are many people who think me abusive and uncivil. Perhaps I am. But I surely try not to be either. I may be tough; I may even be stubborn. But I certainly try to be as gentle as a dove.

SOME ADVICE (to myself)

When traveling out onto the blogosphere, keep several things in mind. First, know that there are many people lying in wait to pounce, to damn, to scoff and mock and ridicule. There are countless people who are indeed mean. But there are others who are thoroughly decent.

Second, there are countless people who do not understand what an argument is, or what one even looks like; and the vast majority of folks do not have a clue about the informal fallacies. You will see mere assertions, strung together with no evidence, passed off as decisive analysis or irrefutable arguments, when they are neither. (To some folks, arguing with logic and evidence suggests that they do not have the mastery over the topic they want readers to think they have: they know things with such obvious clarity that they need not stoop to explain what should be just so obvious. But this is only a great veil over insecurity and doubt.) Plus, you will meet many people on the web who are lousy readers: they will see in your words something you never even penned, or even dreamed of penning. Not paying attention to what one reads is merely a different form of the discourtesy of not listening when someone is speaking; people too often embrace conceit and think they've "heard it all before" or they "thoroughly understand" the point before actually hearing or understanding it at all.

Third, you must not take any of this personally. I know how this all feels. Trust me. But I have come to see, though imperfectly, that if I am fair to the facts and remain faithful to reason, that the attacks hurled my way are not really hurled at me. They are hurled at the facts and the logic. If my facts and logic are false and invalid, then I will concede that I have made a mistake. But if I am called a hate-monger by someone who has not understood a word I've written; if I am called a bigot by some guy who can't tell the difference between assertions and elbows, then so be it. The problem is not mine.

Lastly, never forget your sense of wonder, humor; or your gratitude for being. There is bliss all around; grace abundant is there to be received. After all, we all realize that the best way to protect onself from harm is to stay home with the ones who love us unconditionally. We need not let the spiders of the web entangle us; we need not venture out to become some meal for cyberpredators posing as intellectuals. We can always just hit the off key, and be free.

Peace, and mirth -- and all the gratitude that is joy -- to each of you.

©Bill Gnade 2006/Contratimes - All Rights Reserved.