To blog is to influence

The Marocharim Experiment wrote about resistance and blogging, and the seeming disinterest by most bloggers to post political commentary on their blogs.

He said:

Please disagree with me on this one: I think – and this is a completely subjective and personal observation – that most bloggers do not utilize their blogs enough as a vehicle to (at the very least) exact a political influence among their peers. It’s not that people don’t see the importance of political blogging, it’s just that people do not exercise their political views and commit them to a blog entry.

First, we cannot control what bloggers would post in their blogs. As someone who dabbles in political commentary myself, I always rant offline (and sometimes online, too) about the seeming apathy by the majority over the major political and social issues of the day. I have learned (and continue to learn) that diversity governs the blogosphere, and that diversity allows for apathy. I could be so intolerant of people who shrugs off politics (there’s a post by someone about being turned off by the political discussion part of iBlog 4 and all I could say via Twitter was “Tsk”), but what could I do?

Bloggers are within their rights to post what they want. It may be frustrating on the part of a political blogger, but what can he do?

Second, while we could not control what bloggers would say, we could influence others to think about political and social issues, to talk about them, and to post about them. We do this by presenting the issues, why they are issues, and why these issues matter to them. We do this by explaining what would happen if they continue to be indifferent.

Third, my pet peeve: taking a neutral stance all because a person is lazy or refuses to think. It is so easy to say “I am neutral;” it becomes harder when you are asked to explain your stand. Then things crumble after that. You will then find out that the neutral stance was just an excuse not to participate in the political/social discussion – an escape from one’s duty to take part in governance. As a political blogger, you can engage people into a meaningful discussion, listen to their reasons, point out their mistakes, convince them that they need to participate.

So, despite the seeming indifference, if you believe in your cause, you push it, you continue discussing and explaining, you write again and again, you beat the horse till it is dead. It might be easy to just surrender, but that would not make you any different from the others, right?

One thought on “To blog is to influence

  1. Amen.. it will take time, but we are making great strides Arbet, I’m not sure if we’ll get there in the near future, but politics aren’t for the faint of heart. It’s a much more arduous subject to tackle these days, with the diversity in topics to deal with. It’s always an ongoing research, as you said in your interview with Janet Toral (great interview by the way)

    In the end, having well written, opinionated, and substantive analysis will break that apathy… in the end, politics is everywhere, and there will be a topic every now and then that will pique the interests of those that are apolitical… this is our narrow opening..

    Not a perfect scenario, but we make do, not because we are certain of the outcome, but because we believe we are making a difference.

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