Jelena Selin has a great blog in English called the Thinking Garden - she explains how she named her blog here :
"The garden metaphor first came to life in a series of IM-talks
with bloggers from around the world within the Living on the Planet
network about a year ago. We were looking for a cosier, more humane way
of talking about that place we inhabit, that virtual space of thoughts,
ideas and connections. And we thought that a garden would best describe
what we were trying to do. The talks ended, we didn't get to that
kitchen garden an Indian blogger envisioned. But as I made the decision
tonight to start blogging in English beside my Swedish blog, I
remembered that garden. And so this explains the garden part. The
thinking part - I think that should unravel as we go along."
Her garden grows as she shares many thought-provoking posts there on
freedom, pain and many other issues that affect all of us. And on the
reason for and role of blogging where she asks some deep questions
[quoting from her post] :
"In Sweden a gap has opened up
between bloggers and media. Some online newspapers have started blogs,
notably the two boulevard papers Aftonbladet and Expressen.
After a lot of initial curiosity from bloggers, a critical wind began
to blow. All in all, these media blogs tend to work as just another
pipeline for the journalistic opinions carefully crafted to fit into
the newspaper. When they are not sketching the private background
behind the day in the life of a journalist, they are sharpening an
image of provocation which has ceased to be credible, considering it's
being paid for by the largest publishing house in Sweden.
Some
people think that fundamentalism in blogging is a bad idea. I agree.
There is no reason why an employed journalist shouldn't be blogging in
an interesting manner. So why is this experiment so irritating to
bloggers? For one, it looks like an editorial rather than an individual
decision. If your employer came to you and asked you to put up a blog,
would you do it?
Furthermore, the networking aspect is being
ignored. No comments are allowed. Only one of the bloggers, Helle Klein
at Aftonbladet, has actually taken the pains to go out there and see
what bloggers are up to and report on it. In this she's using the power
of traffic in a way which brings credibility to her own blog as well.
But
the point of blogs - I can't help being fundamental about this - is
after all the means of publishing, the very small, almost non-existing
barriers compared to established media outlets. The break-down in
traditional production channels. In this respect, the traditional media
bloggers have completely missed the point. And interestingly, the
content mirrors this.
What gives a blog credibility? Jonas Söderström (in Swedish) preparing for an interview in Swedish Television this morning, says (my trans.):
"The
personality is also important among bloggers. By showing him- or
herself as a whole person, the blogger creates the kind of credibility
that we want in order to decide if we should trust him or her." This
is where we are at the moment I think. Will bloggers be able to make
that difference necessary to be a real alternative to media? The
balance between personal and political, to use a tired but substantial
phrase, is difficult to find. I for one would find it tragic if
blogging were to be sucked up by business. Or is rather Marcuse right
in thinking that we only believe that we exercise freedom of thought?
Are we already a part of the business?
It would be interesting to hear more opinions on this. And is the Marcuse quotation relevant in this context?
"The distinguishing feature of advanced industrial
society is its effective suffocation of those needs which demand
liberation-liberation also from that which is tolerable and rewarding
and comfortable-while it sustains and absolves the destructive power
and repressive function of the affluent society. Here, the social
controls exact the over. whelming need for the production and
consumption of waste; the need for stupefying work where it is no
longer a real necessity; the need for modes of relaxation whic1 soothe
and prolong this stupefication; the need for maintaining such deceptive
liberties as free competition at administered prices, a free press
which censors itself, free choice between brands and gadgets."
Authenticity, it seems to me, can go in two directions.
One: the commodization of one's inner life. Blogging would thus be just another way of keeping happy-ish within status-quo.
Two: a liberating weapon against the kind of repressive liberalism Marcuse is referring to."
8:29:05 PM 
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