Why Blog?

You should blog because you just never know. Here we are, one of the most literate societies to ever exist. Almost all of us can read and write. In five hundred years, when historians wonder what that was like, for so many people to be so in touch with each other all the time, they'll turn to forensic computer engineers or techno-archaeologists, and they'll in turn uncover these little shards of zeros and ones, flashes of lights they can replay, and though our English will seem as stilted and strange as Shakespeare's or Chaucer's seems to us, they'll delight in our electronic detritus. You should blog because you'll get arrested if you take a can of spraypaint to the wall by your office. Here's your chance to leave your mark where any stranger might see it and say "What the fuck?" or "Me, too" or "I never considered that." You should blog because these are such strange and shitty times and all we have are each other, lone voices shouting into a vast virtual canyon, listening for the voice that is not an echo, the voice that says, "I am here, too." You should blog because there's no money in books. At least here, you have an audience that has paid $1,000 for a portal to get to you and $30 a month for continued access. You should blog because it pisses the alternative newspapers off. For so long, they were the snarky wit of the community, and now, the best and funniest voices work for free, available for free, undermining the free papers' anti-establishment authority. You should blog because there are more people like you than you think. You should blog because your voice is unique. You should blog because it's fun. You should blog because writing shows you the contours of your own soul. Write because it's the only real magic most of us have, this ability to squash together lines and curves and dots and create worlds, recreate worlds. Write because no one with power wants you to. They don't want to hear from you and they don't want others to hear from you. And this, this weblogged thing, no one in power has learned how to control yet. Write here, write now. Because no one can stop you. Even if they find you out, drop your name, pick up another one. Come back in. Even if they tell you they don't want to hear it, they read it already, come back in. This is not for them. Not only, anyway. Write because we need to hear from you. Write because you need to hear from you. But keep writing.