28 May 2006

Enunciating My Frustrations with Blogging

I thought I might start off my series that I introduced in my pondering post with a sort of history of my blog - it's evolution and my attitudes, etc. However, I started realizing that I got frustrated by thinking about it. Let's see how it turns out....
I think I initially wanted to show different things going on with my life with my blog. This started turning into me talking about my dating (or, more accurately, my lack of it), and this got a fair amount of interest, even getting people to mention things in real life to me about dating that I mentioned on my blog. I thought this was neat, and a good idea. Around the same time (maybe a little later), I realized that I might speak on Jewish topics. This, too, yielded me even more visitors. I thought that I might be able to articulate ideas that would hopefully benefit, enlighten, or otherwise provide thoughtful discussion for people.
However, as time went on, I realized some people were not as nice (especially when they cloaked themselves anonymously) and would attack me and not the ideas. This is a MAJOR FRUSTRATION of mine - when people attack people's character and not the ideas at hand. I happen to particularly like Maimonides' famous phrase that we accept truth from whomever said it. What is great about it is that that statement shows that we ought to judge an idea on its own merit and not by who generated it. While there are times when this should not be applicable, in the world market of ideas, I believe that it should be a guiding principle. (see also the Rav's quote that Jewschool currently includes with every post: "I may attack a certain point of view which I consider false, but I will never attack a person who preaches it. I have always a high regard for the individual who is honest and moral, even when I am not in agreement with him. Such a relation is in accord with the concept of kavod habriyot, for beloved is man for he is created in the image of God.")
I get very frustrated when people criticize others, but it is rather upsetting when one has it done to oneself (henceforth, they shall be referred to as "The Haters" (cf.)(whereas ntGH refers to them as the kannoim). As a tangent to my overall post, I am announcing that, as of now, I am adding a "Jewish Bloggers For Responsible Speech Online" sign onto my blog (also found in this post). I hope that anybody who comments on this blog henceforth please engage in civil discourse and not attack others (nor me).
I am certainly

OKAY, IT'S TWO DAYS LATER (MONDAY NIGHT) AND I HAVEN'T YET FINISHED THIS POST, SO I'M POSTING IT NOW, EVEN THOUGH IT'S NOT COMPLETED. GOD-WILLING, I WILL COMPLETE THESE THOUGHTS IN SOME MANNER.

1 comment:

arun_kalief said...

try to complete it