So I took last night ‘off’ of teh blahgs…..to think.
But there is so much to think about that I have ended up with a case of the mental swirlies….the phenomenon that happens when you have had a bit to much to drink and everything starts spinning around. And I think that that is where the rest of the Blogsphere is as well….at least when it comes to strategy…lots of stuff swirling around, but nothing yet to grab on to.
That is certainly what is happening in my brain right now. It feels like I am trying to put the pieces of a puzzle together, but the pieces are all in the corners of a swirling room. I can see them and sort of know how they can fit together. But….things are so swirly, I can’t quite reach them and put the pieces together.
We in the Blogoverse are in an odd time…a lull. While at the same time, events are continuing to build and mount. Just a casual observation shows that blog traffic is down considerably.
My theory: We accomplished the goal of the Blogosphere…we elected more Dems. But the Dems aren’t listening to us anymore. This has discouraged people mightily. So right now all we see is the mounting bad news…on the economy, Climate Crisis/Gore not running (presumably), torture, Hillary being ‘a lock, Iran….the list goes on and on, as it always does…
But with the Dems abandoning the base, people just feel helpless to do anything about…anything. So instead of participating and using ‘the bad stuff’ as a rallying cry and evidence of what is wrong and what needs to change….they are just depressed and feel there is nothing they can do about it.
As we have been discussing… we need a new goal, a new direction, and new leadership. I am sincerely hoping that the larger blogs are seeing this too and are also just having trouble figuring out exactly what to do, where to go….how to lead and rally the troops….and even more important, how to get MORE troops!
Granny Doc has a diary at the top of the Dkos list that essentially calls for everything to just go ahead and blow the hell up so we can get on with (presumably) the rebuilding of America. And that IS what needs to happen….hopefully in a less extreme version than she calls for! Essentially….we need a Revolution. (hopefully non-violent) That is all well and good to SAY…but how do we do it, short of having everything blow up?
In this lull, between now and the primaries…..when the Dems will once again come calling on the Blogosphere for support….we need to come up with new strategies and tactics and goals. Which of course, is what we are trying to do here.
Once we can get the room to stop spinning quite so fast.
The important thing is to keep the conversation going, as Meteor Blades pointed out the other night. We have the time to figure out the next step, we just need to keep working and thinking and talking. We need to figure out a way to get MASSES of people involved and educated and focussed and committed to change. We know the Blogosphere is a big part of doing that, we just need to figure out how.
We are getting closer, I think, and I’ll have more soon, as the pieces start to come together. I was really hoping to have more to say today, but, sigh…..damn swirlies! I think I need another drink!
Or ten!
In other news…..the next person to register at Docudharma will be Dharmaniac number 1000!
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is that the nice people finish last. the meanest, the most vicious, and the best armed win.
The mean girls will kick out of orange junior high.
might be accomplished by freeping the crap out of far more conventional blogs. I mean the ones containing the mindless garbage of diversion most comatose Americans love.
Know that only a very small percentage of the population even bothers to vote so with both major “parties” a complete letdown people will stray.
Blogs about the latest Ipod features, that is what people read.
Don’t worry about Granny, you got the Lasthorseman.
And I always love seeing that groovy pic of the blogosphere.
For me, this is the last cycle in which I’ll work hard for Dems, unless ….
When we have a clear majority and the WH (which everyone assures me is a lock, but I have my doubts), anyway, when we control it all, then we’ll see how much they really represent us.
Right now they’re playing the “we don’t have the votes” card. Well, when we have all the votes, and the WH, then we’ll really see. If they don’t seriously address climate crisis, shut-down Gitmo, hold BushCo to account, roll back the Unitary Executive, arrest illegal spying, get rid of ShrubCo taxcuts and NCLB, deconsolidate the media, preserve net neutrality, create universal healthcare, shore up SocSec, &c, &c, well, it’s third party time, imho, or just party time and fuck it all!
Her diary is a disgrace–it will be broadcast by all the fascists as proof that the left are crazy anarchists. The lull is natural–the big blogs are now too large–I no longer feel I know the kossphere. This site, NION, and My Leftwing are more intimate–more interesting because I feel I know who’s saying what. No blog can endure bigness–they become impersonnal.
it always gives me the feeling that the answer is right there…and i just cant see it (story of my life 😉 )….so frustrating…
my current frustration is with how much of the state of the world is basic human nature…i fear that there will always be that one guy (its always a man…hrmph) who ‘needs’ a bigger share of the pie, and, viola, everyone’s taken sides and is stockpiling pie while others starve. the rest of the mess grows out of that basic struggle for control of resources. we KNOW that the universe provides for all of its inhabitants…though not for those who horde, and throw off the ‘balance’.
im not feeling very optimistic these days….
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That’s What It Took To Break the 1st Gilded Age (16+ / 0-)
FDR had a top end economy sufficiently broken to consent to sweeping reform.
We’d been nibbling at it with taxation, trust busting, and any number of reforms for the people well before the Depression. But many of these were rolled back when boom times came along, and all were insufficient to the threats of industrialization.
by Gooserock on Sat Nov 03, 2007 at 08:51:20 AM PDT
*
More importantly (20+ / 0-)
He had a movement that was ready to go with ideas and plans once the crisis hit. The New Deal did not spring forth from FDR’s head like Athena from Zeus – every one of its policies existed for 10, 20, 30 years before FDR took office. Some of them, like Social Security, were forced on a reluctant FDR by that wider movement.
If we expect hard times (I surely do) and if we want to use them to make progressive outcomes, we need to be laying out our proposals NOW, and organizing to make them widely known and understood.
by eugene on Sat Nov 03, 2007 at 08:54:15 AM PDT
because the blogs have largely sucked.
What interesting things are going on in the blogs? Another Clinton-Obama supporter battle?
I do it too.
But I promise a very interesting piece for tomorrow.
It will be Hollywood, black and white.
It could very well be the finest blog post of all time.
This has nothing to do with anything. Of course.
that can be molded and re-molded. But the question is what will we make? Before it gets broken down and rebuilt in a new form?
If an artist tried to include all of her thoughts in a work it would be impossible, so instead perhaps the focus is on fabric, lighting, water, etc.
I had the same swirly feeling while trying to grasp what you are after, but we’ve got a skeleton now that just needs some flesh.
I’m heading out for a bit, take a look at the new stuff and let me know your thoughts….everyone.
I don’t feel as swirled, for whatever reasons. The way I see things is that we should influence the MSM as much as possible, because the MSM will influence their large crowd of lethargic sheep and hopefully motivate them to vote the right way.
There are other paths we could take, but one important one, I think, is to focus on the MSM. This drive might work because it seems to me that the MSM has been listening to and reading us more and more. They are looking to us for ideas, because the MSM by and large are uncreative, and we are overflowing with creative ideas.
Even if they reject things they read in the blogosphere, their brains can be gradually and subtly changed by the attitudes they pick up here. The thing is that the blogosphere is where it’s at now. It’s where to go to find out what’s really happening and what our real intellectual leaders are thinking.
The MSM will read the right wing blogs too, but the truth will ultimately out. Look at the better NY Times columnists now–they are looking to us for ideas. They often are virtually regurgitating the progressive bloggers’ words. They look to us for news as well as picking up our analysis and attitudes. We help them know what news is noteworthy and how to present it.
The MSM can influence the couch potatoes to vote and hopefully vote the right way.
All of this may sound overblown and idealistic, but I think it’s accurate. Even though the action is slow, it will continue until a tipping point is reached. The MSM, with the exception of Fux Noose, for example, wants to be on the side of the majority. The blogosphere will let them know what the majority is really thinking. Not too long ago, any mention of impeachment in the MSM was nonexistent. The blogosphere has been changing that.
Congress is a different matter. They want to be on the side of the majority too, but they can’t break loose from their moneyed corporate bonds. I will not consider them here. The MSM is one place to focus upon.
we are getting POUNDED here on the cape right now, 75 mph winds, gusts to 85, rain, branches and leaves flying EVERYWHERE…It’s swirly inside AND out today…nerve wracking is what it is!
I agree with psyched…MSM ‘takeover’ even if its just with good ideas, is Very necessary…but encouraging liberal teachers to teaching reasoning…how to think…I sometimes believe those of us born in the late 50s, early 60s were the last to get get a really good education…it seems to me not long after JFK was killed those damn SAT tests started and education has gone down since. double benefit here…many very poor rurals are undereducated & ESL’s too, they rely on their children to read for them, teach them…we should be making sure the correct lessons are being taught…it’ll make the future generations that much easier.
perhaps they also are an indication of the meta stability of the emerging global dynamic…..
growing instability…..
growing uncertianty…..
growing resource constraint….
growing throughput constraint…
growing degenration of the biotic infrastructure of earth…….
the future has become increasingly indeterminate……
perhaps individuals are experiencing cognitive throughput constarint and are becoming uncorrelated to actuality……
I’m 12 steps behind you (urp).
I got one recommended today calling for the deposing of Harry Reid. About 93% of the community supported it, which is really overwhelming. The only things that have gotten more were the McCaskill/Webb bill restoring the Truman Commission to require accountability from government contractors, and a diary that I did proposing the legalization of pot.
I think some heads need to start rolling, starting with DiFi from the Senate in 2012 as well as Reid as Majority Leader. I’ll hold off on Pelosi until I see if she really means what she promises, but if she caves in, then she will have to go as well. I think that we need to start figuring out who is a liability to the party and who has to go. And I don’t just mean broad-based attacks; I think that we have to narrow it down and name names.
The problem is…that the problem will not go away by itself, nor will it be corrected by anyone the way we all want it.
There will be a solution, it may take a little longer and things may get worse…but things will change.
I’ll serve you all a plate soon enough.
oh well…
some will…
some wont….
so what….