Tuesday, March 07, 2006
(7:59 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Tuesday Hatred: The Inoperative Community
I hate it when the tub doesn't drain while I'm taking a shower. I hate it when de-clogging products don't work. I hate the bizarre spelling of the brand names of popular de-clogging products.I hate that I'm not as "into" this season of 24, mostly because I'm no longer usually watching it in a group setting. It's not quite the same as with Survivor, which it wouldn't even occur to me to watch except as a big social event.
I hate that I was passive-aggressively pushed out of that house in Bourbonnais, even though I sincerely think that I would be on the brink of suicide if I were still living in Bourbonnais (or Bradley, or Kankakee) to this day. That was a nice house, a nice location -- plus a nice, stable job, a decent library right across the street in the last resort. I've been thinking lately -- I was more interested in blogging back then. In some respects, my interest was somewhat lame, as in my attempts at political commentary (that is, an attempt to get noticed by the "big" blogs). But for me at least, my greatest desire to blog was fuelled by loneliness, by this sense that I was part of a very small, beleaguered group. Criticizing Bush, for instance, doesn't seem as urgent now that I'm constantly surrounded by people who equally hate him. Making fun of the religious right doesn't seem to be as much fun now that I'm no longer living next door to a Christian university.
There's always talk somewhere or other about blogging being a "community" -- for instance, in the academic blogging circles, there are always those who are a little too into it, who are trying to put out ideas that they've been storing up for months or years, surrounded by people who (at least presumably) wouldn't understand. "Finally, someone I can relate to!" I don't mean to make fun, because the archives (particularly of my pre-blog articles) will show that I was among them. Perhaps it's necessary for that kind of thing to happen, for people to have an outlet. But "community?" I don't know. Maybe a feverish attempt to cover over the fact that it isn't a community, a refusal to admit that this, too fails to be community.
UPDATE: I hate it when I betray the blogging community by neglecting to post a link to Tuesday Love until after working hours are through. (Hopefully Richard was placated by the e-mail chess game today, which I am dutifully losing because I am an idiot.)
