I’m finally getting around to (self) publishing the journal from my Southern Tier bicycle trip. If you click on the “Archive” Menu and select “Southern Tier 2019” you can read all the entries without distraction.
That was then. As far as the future goes, I plan to use this site to share my thoughts with you. Thoughts on cycling, skiing, hiking, politics (but mostly cycling, skiing, and hiking).
I have spent almost my entire adult life developing infrastructure for the delivery of information to corporate employees. (Specifically Database and ETL systems.) Here I am now, retired, and a consumer of the internet-at-large. I’ve never been a big consumer of that because I was too busy building my small corner of it. My current status will occasionally force me to reflect on all of my past experience, but I’ll try keeping that to a minimum.
To the previous point: I’m concluding that the Internet has lost itself. Ask Tim Berners-Lee, Vinton Cerf or Robert Kahn. The Internet was intended to be a medium that would connect people of all nations and races. Today, it is mostly a medium designed by corporate America to divide, classify, and distinguish us by our ethnic, social, economic, and political “potential.”
What do we do about that? I suggest we publish. Publish independently. Publish in our own voices. Don’t be lazy. Don’t give Facebook, Twitter, 4-Chan and all the other echo chambers, the ability to tell you what to think (or buy). Publish your thoughts and views in an independent manner on sites like Micro.blog. Let your voice be heard independently. Don’t be a megaphone in the echo chambers of narcissism. Say something meaningful, say something that comes from you.
Does it matter if people listen to you?
No.
Does it matter if you are “followed” by hundreds, even thousands? As a matter of fact…
No.
Here’s why:
It will make you a better person. The power of real persuasion, the sort of persuasion that leads to positive outcomes, lies in personal communication. When you put your thoughts in writing instead of re-posting other peoples’ thoughts, you have taken the first step towards independent thinking. Ancient Greek thinkers believed people should observe the world carefully and draw their own conclusions from what they saw. I don’t think those same thinkers would endorse listening to “opinion shapers” and “influencers” (or Autocratic leaders, or Sociopathic leaders for that matter).
The future of our country — as it has always been — is in our own hands. What you are reading here is not pushed into your “feed” by a Troll Farm operating out of some foreign nation-state. What you read here is authentic and personal. It is from me.
Cheers! I hope you enjoy.