Tempest In A Teapot
There’s all this broohaha in the comments section of The Stranger’s blog, Slog, in response to a posting by Erica C. Barnett about the this year’s upcoming .83 Fucking Hills Race, an event I’ve enjoyed riding in on the tandem with Mimi two years running and which I have every intention of doing again with her come Sunday, February 22nd.
Given the tone of the discourse, you’d think that there was really something significant at stake or that anyone might even care about or even notice a couple of dozen bicycle riders sharing the road with a couple of thousand, but what’s really striking to me about the commentary—and I suppose I have to paint myself with that brush to some degree in this meta-commentary here—is just how exercised people can get on the internetz and what that portends for the future—if there is one—of bipartisan collaboration in the world.
I mean how the fuck are we doing to solve global warming when we can’t even negotiate a Sunday out on two wheels?
I think that all of us typing away on our screens, presenting our positions to the world as authority, have forgotten how vital it is to be wrong; even as I pollute my own little corner of the bandwidth here, I want to go on record as not halfway believing half of what I have to say—even that—so that maybe I can learn something from someone else rather than just demonstrating to another few lines of disembodied text that I know better than it does.
My training in and taste for philosophy has given me great affection for principles and points to be made; however, my desire to live in the world makes me impatient with arguments intended mainly to each other who’s boss.
The ironic thing, of course, is that these internecine struggles are always the most vicious; having an affection for bikes in common makes us hate each other more.
Given the tone of the discourse, you’d think that there was really something significant at stake or that anyone might even care about or even notice a couple of dozen bicycle riders sharing the road with a couple of thousand, but what’s really striking to me about the commentary—and I suppose I have to paint myself with that brush to some degree in this meta-commentary here—is just how exercised people can get on the internetz and what that portends for the future—if there is one—of bipartisan collaboration in the world.
I mean how the fuck are we doing to solve global warming when we can’t even negotiate a Sunday out on two wheels?
I think that all of us typing away on our screens, presenting our positions to the world as authority, have forgotten how vital it is to be wrong; even as I pollute my own little corner of the bandwidth here, I want to go on record as not halfway believing half of what I have to say—even that—so that maybe I can learn something from someone else rather than just demonstrating to another few lines of disembodied text that I know better than it does.
My training in and taste for philosophy has given me great affection for principles and points to be made; however, my desire to live in the world makes me impatient with arguments intended mainly to each other who’s boss.
The ironic thing, of course, is that these internecine struggles are always the most vicious; having an affection for bikes in common makes us hate each other more.
posted by Professor Dave at 7:31 PM
2 Comments:
So true, so true. Teh internetz makes everyone so dominant and pushy! I especially like how you noted that you only 1/2way believe what *you* write. :) That's the way to do it and a damn good use of bandwidth, if you ask me.
-laura
I, for one, am satisfied in knowing i am wrong all the time.
Post a Comment
<< Home