Bye Bye Huffington Post
This is my last comment on Huffington Post (on my own blog, no less :)
It's been a blast, but I'm done. After 12,157 posts as Ergon (my avatar graces this page) in two years, it's time to do..other things. I'd like to thank the 560+ fans who signed their appreciation of my work; the regard is reciprocated.
1999 was an interesting year for me. I went to England to view an eclipse, and my visions followed the path of the eclipse: from New York to over Turkey and ending in India, major shifts and earthquakes taking place in those countries within two years.
I knew I had to communicate via the Internet, and my first website came up, to be followed by this blog. I also used chat rooms to communicate with other, like minded individuals on politics and social reform.
In 2000-2001, there were 1000+ posts on Shamir Readers, a group run by dissident Israeli journalist Israel Shamir, 2002-2004, 3000+ on Reporters Notebook, an (ahem) anti-semite site run by a Jewish gentleman :) - I got interesting psychological insights into the mindests involved. Then there were 2000+ posts on an anti-Islamic site run by a Muslim, and then I came across Xymphora, and cool, I made 3000+ comments from 2005-2008. The intellectual stimulation was quite enervating and the quality of the writing of the people who wrote there was something I never have seen since. But he tinkered with his format too often, lost all his comments, and his fans moved away. Pity.
So it now was time for me to move to the social commentary and news aggregate site Huffington Post. In two years, I wrote 14,000 posts, some of which unfortunately, er, "disappeared", but hey, I got to write on politics, science, American policy pertaining to Palestine, Tibet, Iran, Africa and South America; Autism, and even, Entertainment and Fashion. Whew! Here's where they can be found: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Ergon?action=comments and there's a lot, once you go back a bit before I got er, burned out.
In the end, I see it as a way of manipulating political discourse: to give people the false impression of meaningful contribution to what are really intractable problems of the day. In the end, I believe that meaningful change will come from the spiritual and not political or social, as I have written many times before.
Sites like HP serve only to engender psychological feelings of helplessness as they on the one hand drive our adrenaline up with stories about injustice combined with distractions from the cult of celebrity, they also shape public opinion by creating handy lists of enemies that always conveniently follow the American political line. It acts liberal, but only in a way that reinforces and controls both sides of the political debate. Social engineering in the worst possible way, but if they could do it, I would...reply.
I could go on, but, I won't. They gave me a forum, and I made many friends, for which I thank them.
But I was clear back in January 2008: "The Revolution Begins Now"
http://manfromatlan.blogspot.com/2008/01/revolution-begins-now.html
"But the Revolution I speak of will take place not in blogs or protest marches or occult practices. It will take place first within you, and then, through taking responsibility for the state of the world"
So here I am, and I will do my best to: effect change in the time ahead.
Ps: I'm having a little difficulty in letting go :) - see comment
1 comment:
I said I would leave, then a friend said, don't, so, I didn't. I still mean it though, that real change comes from us, and not only writing about it. But, also looking at my own words, sometimes the event comes from a man sitting in a room, with his friends.
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