Amerika

You may notice a total absence on this blog of the signals that you use to identify “friendly” texts: personal narratives, emotional appeals, oversimplification and application of symbols as reality.

Some time ago, I encountered a fork in the road: go down the path of pandering to the emotions of other people, or focus more intently on accuracy and the interpretation of symbols. I chose the latter.

This means that the texts here will not fit what you expect from a web log (blog). Instead, they will be more descriptive, like an essay instead of an entertainment product.

What you do not realize is that this is an investment of faith in your ability to understand them and rise to the occasion. We are drowning in a society of peer pressure products, all of which encourage dumbing down and the retreat into the Simian emotions of the individual desiring acceptance from the Crowd.

The only way to fight back is to choose another path. The path chosen here is one that would have been familiar two centuries ago, and it involves somewhat cerebral writing removed from the individual. Think of a Zen master meeting a Templar Knight: the self is deprecated, and the focus of the writing rises into focus.

This will mean that Amerika will never be popular like the blogs that use rock ‘n roll terminology to make their readers feel important. Here, neither readers nor writers are rock stars; all of us are means to the end of finding some clarity in a world of confusion. This means that our writings will not sound easy to the ear like more product-oriented undertakings.

At the same time, the argument advances to the forefront, digging into the vast richness of topics yet unexplored. You are cast outside of yourself, and into a role as part of an ecosystem in understanding these. The basics of transcendence of both self and social group simultaneously are cast.

To most, this means “boring.” None of the cues are there. Nor are the easy and bready bits of text that make it easy to read. This is more like a school assignment or professional journal. And yet, by adopting that perspective, we restore the focus to the topic and away from both observer and writer.

It is an archetype of a new type of humanity, yet unrecognized, but painfully necessary.

Tags: blogs, individualism