Those Who Can't, Blog

Published on December 17, 2004 By O G San In Blogging

As I'm sure you're all aware, I celebrated my first anniversary as a Joeuser last week. Yes, O G San is now one year old. Birthdays are a time for reflection so I've been pondering the nature of blogging recently, "this thing of ours", as Tony Soprano might say.

There can be no doubt that the weblog is an idea whose time has come. Bloggers have started to effect the media and politics of our societies in ways which none of us can yet fully comprehend. It is only right that "blog" has been awarded word of the year for 2004.

I need only look back on my own time here on Joeuser to see how the popularity of blogging has grown exponentially in the past year. In my first few months here, the site felt much like a small town where, if you hung around long enough, you would come across a familiar face. But such has been the increase in Joeusers since then that I now feel as though I inhabit some sort of online metropolis. Sometimes I read an article and think "huh, who's this new guy?" only to click on their homepage and discover that they've been blogging away here for months.

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players" wrote Shakespeare. Perhaps this was true in the 16th century, but these days, with the spread of blogging, it seems truer to say: "All the world's a stage, and all men and women merely theatre critics." For blogging has undoubtedly democratised the commentariat. In the past only professional writers or recognised "experts" could reach a wider audience with their musings on world's ills. Now though, anyone with access to the internet can put their opinion out there for the world to see.

This is one of the things that I love about blogging, the idea that someone I've never met, in a place to which I've never been, might read something I wrote and think "wow, that was thought-provoking." Of course, it's also possible that someone I've never met, in a place to which I've never been, might read something I wrote and think "wow, three score years and ten is all I get, and I wasted two minutes of that time reading this crap."

But that's part of the beauty of blogging, unless the reader feels sufficiently moved one way or the other to comment, I will never know. Maybe, because of me, there's someone out there who now agrees that Tony Blair is a liar, or that Robert Fisk is the man, or that Belfast people sound sexy.

After I type up a blog and look at it for the first time, I'm struck by the authority that the form seems to give to my thoughts. Words on a computer screen have the power to shape your worldview. To see my words up there on screen gives them a power which they seem to lack when they're hidden away in my big, black blog book.

What's true for my work is true for that of other bloggers as well, at least the semi-competent ones. Call me snobbish if you like, but if someone insists on wiriting "Iraqi's" instead of "Iraqis", or asserts that George Bush Sr served two terms as US president, I find it hard to take them seriously. But with a half decent grasp of spelling, grammar and facts, any person can put their thoughts up on screen with great power.

So the world is now full of critics, and in many ways this is a good thing. The crusty old acadmeics, the cynical hacks and the washed-up ex-politicians had the op-ed world to themselves for far too long. It's great that we "ordinary Joes" have come in and smashed up their cartel. It's wonderful that some guy meandeing through another pointless day at work knows he can go online in the evening and let the world know what he thinks about current events (this sentence may be autobiographical).

But while the increase in the number of political commentators is a good thing, we should not be fooled about what it is that we do. We are bloggers, not do-ers. The critic, as the aphorism goes, knows the way but can't drive the car. Those in power whom we criticise have a far tougher job than we do.

I disagree with the US president on nearly everything and I have no respect for the man himself, but still I must acknowledge that he, as a political leader must make tough choices. Sometimes, no matter what he decides to do, people will end up getting hurt. This is the burden of leadership which I, as a mere blogger, do not have to bear. The most agonising choice I am likely to make today is whether tonight's liquid refreshment should take the form of wine or beer.

This does not mean that I have no right to criticise Bush, or any other politician for that matter. But it does mean that I should acknowledge the fact that I can say whatever I like, safe in the knowledge that I have no responsibility to protect, or to lead, or to challenge.

It is vital that all critics, be they online or offline, write with sufficient humility. This point was hammered home to me some weeks ago as I sat reading The International Herald and Tribune in my local park. It was a few days after the death of Yasser Arafat so naturally the paper was full of pieces reflecting on the legacy of the late Palestinian leader.

As I sat there reading searing indictment after searing indictment of Yasser, I found myself becoming almost physically angry. It wasn't so much the lazy old cliches like "he threw away his chance for peace" which annoyed me, though they certainly irked. It was more the implicit assumption of most of the writers that somehow leading the Palestinian people to statehood is a straight-forward task but Arafat, being so incompetent, couldn't get this simple job done.

Nothing of course could be further from the truth. There can be few harder jobs on the planet than leading a scattered and stateless people into battle against the world's only superpower and its heavily armed proxy. But to read the extra-ordinarily harsh obituaries it was as though these commentators were saying: "Palestinian state? Piece of piss, mate. You let me in there with Sharon and I'll get it done in a couple of hours. Trust me, we'll have the joint flag-raising ceremony in the Old City over before lunch."

I was offended, really deeply offended, by the arrogance, the sheer front of these scribblers, working away in New York and Washington. These professional pontificators, who may well never have seen a Palestinian refugee camp with their own eyes, who quite possibly are unable to speak even a single word of Arabic, spoke of Arafat's job as if it were an easy one. But as a far superior critic, Uri Avnery, pointed out after Yasser's death: "The stature of a leader is not simply determined by the size of his achievements, but also by the size of the obstacles he had to overcome."

Those paid handsomely to ponder the legacy of Arafat would do better to reflect on the fundamental difference between their jobs and Yasser's.

So there you have it, O G San, critic of the critics, the lowest of the low

Comments

greywar

on Dec 17, 2004

O.G. While I can appreciate the quality of writing that accompanys the vitriol, i guess I simply don't agree with your position on Arafat at all. You are right about the abyssmal camp conditions and the sate of the Palestinian people. That is why I reviled the man so greatly for amassing huge personal wealth while proclaiming the poverty of his nation. He did throw away many chances for peace and a better life his people on numerous occasions. He was a leader, but not a good one or even an altruistic one.

O G San

on Dec 23, 2004

Thanks for your comment, greaywar.

As for your remark about the late Palestinian leader being corrupt, I would point out that he lived modestly throughout his life. Those around him were often corrupt and he tolerated this, true.

As for your point about Yasser throwing away the chance for peace, it depends on how you define "peace". If, as most Palestinians do, you define peace as an end to the occuaption, then Arafat never threw away the chance for peace because he was never presented with such a chance.

As this relates to blogging, I have no problem with anyone criticising Arafat, I have frequently criticised him myself. But I do have a problem with criticism which doesn't acknowledge how difficult his job was.

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