A Non-Political Thinking “Out Loud” about What’s Wrong with the World . . .

The first thing that’s wrong with the world—well, my world—is that WordPress still hasn’t fixed their reblog buttons… 

The discussion in the forums is turning a bit desperate and slightly nasty…

The brand of WordPress I’m talking about is the free version—what this blog runs on…

So, why should folks be so upset when something provided free to them is having problems?

Perhaps because WordPress advertises how many blogs use it—millions—which advertisement gives people the “message” that it’s a platform you can “trust” to get the job done (it’s almost been a week with no ability to reblog…)…

The thing I think is “wrong” with this huge niche of the blogosphere is wrong about many other things in the world—the constant glitchiness of the Wattpad platform even though they’re wooing movies deals, the increase in deaths from being in hospitals, the cranking out by traditional publishing of one-month-wonders, the inability of the United States Government to stop the killing of kids trying to get an education, the nearly total takeover of the movie industry by shows with various methods of killing a critical part of the plot (and, the fact that it was just so easy to use the word “industry” for the folks making moving pictures…).

Oh, I’m sure anyone reading this could add a few more ripe wrongnesses…

And, if we all got in a room to discuss what we felt was wrong with the world, I’m sure a few ripe and even rancid arguments would break out:

“Strict gun control? What about the 2nd Amendment?!”

“That Amendment makes gun ownership dependent on a well-regulated militia!”

“So why does the Supreme Court always uphold it in cases that have nothing to do with militias?”

“The Court is corrupt…”

Sure, I made up that argument; but, I bet it’s happened…

And, is it so outrageous to say the Supreme Court is corrupt?

I mean it’s hard to find anything (including this writer) that doesn’t have a bit of corruption hanging on it.

Etymology time—“corrupt” =

mid-14c., from Old French corropt “unhealthy, corrupt; uncouth” (of language), and directly from Latin corruptus, past participle of corrumpere “to destroy; spoil,” figuratively “corrupt, seduce, bribe,” from com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + rup-, past participle stem of rumpere “to break” (see rupture (n.)).

Yep, parts of me are “unhealthy”, “broken”, “ruptured”, “seduced”, “spoiled”………

So, what can cure corruption?

What’s the cure?

When I began this post, I thought I was going to provide some of my hard-won answers to what’s wrong with the world; but, the flow of free-form writing that just happened has led me to a state of slightly corrupt feelings; so, I will direct you to my short story collection—Story Bazaar—a bunch of Tales that fall just this side of didacticism…

Etymology:

1650s, from French didactique, from Greek didaktikos “apt at teaching,” from didaktos “taught,” past participle of didaskein “teach,” from PIE root *dens- “wisdom, to teach, learn.”

Definition:

in the manner of a teacher , particularly so as to appear patronizing

And that’s another thing that’s become corrupt—the use of language…

Did you know that the makers of dictionaries put words and their definitions in their books when they show a marked usage by the “educated” public…

So, over time my didactic Tales have become patronizing; and instead of just saying I have this urge, in a world run amok, to write short stories that, hopefully, have a moral to teach, I have to tiptoe around the word’s original meaning and smack the adjectival phrase, “just this side of”, on it…

Sure, someone can bring up the argument that language responds to culture and changes with the times…

Does that mean that when all this earthly corruption has been effectively banned, by folks cleaning up their internal corruptions, we might return to a purer form of communicating…?

O.K., my free-form engine just broke down…

Tune in tomorrow for our Monday/Wednesday Conversations; and, if you want to get in on the current one, leave a comment on this post.
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Blogging, The Way It “Should” Be Done . . .

I’ve been blogging for about four years—one of my previous blogs is now a book (8.5X11, hardbound with color pics for $172 or a Free Download :-)

This blog is a year and eight months old—I’m still learning how to Blog…

However, there’s a woman who I feel has mastered the Art—Maria Popova.

I put the word “Should” in quotes in the title of this post to indicate it’s only my opinion that Maria is doing blogging the “right” way…

I spend around 60 hours a month on this blog—Maria spends over 450…

I have one post each Monday through Friday—Maria posts three times a day…

Here’s what her About Page says:

Brain Pickings is the brain child of Maria Popova, an interestingness hunter-gatherer and curious mind at large, who also writes for Wired UK and The Atlantic, among others, and is an MIT Futures of Entertainment Fellow. She gets occasional help from a handful of guest contributors.

Brain Pickings is a human-powered discovery engine for interestingness, culling and curating cross-disciplinary curiosity-quenchers, and separating the signal from the noise to bring you things you didn’t know you were interested in until you are.

Because creativity, after all, is a combinatorial force. It’s our ability to tap into the mental pool of resources — ideas, insights, knowledge, inspiration — that we’ve accumulated over the years just by being present and alive and awake to the world, and to combine them in extraordinary new ways. In order for us to truly create and contribute to the world, we have to be able to connect countless dots, to cross-pollinate ideas from a wealth of disciplines, to combine and recombine these ideas and build new ideas — like LEGOs. The more of these building blocks we have, and the more diverse their shapes and colors, the more interesting our creations will become.

Brain Pickings is your LEGO treasure chest, full of pieces across art, design, science, technology, philosophy, history, politics, psychology, sociology, ecology, anthropology, you-name-itology. Pieces that enrich your mental pool of resources and empower you to combine them into original concepts that are stronger, smarter, richer, deeper and more impactful. Please enjoy.

I write about Reading, Writing, and Publishing—Maria writes about “art, design, science, technology, philosophy, history, politics, psychology, sociology, ecology, anthropology, and you-name-itology”…

One of the most intriguing aspects of her blog is the Literary Jukebox—a “Daily quote from a favorite book, thematically matched with a song.”

Please visit her blog and see if it can become a valuable addition to your life.

Please come back and share your thoughts and feelings about her blog :-)
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A Post Full of Questions About Blogs. . .

What do you like to see in blogs?

Why do you read them?

Do you relax when reading them or do they stir you up?

What’s you favorite kind of blog?

Are blogs a “form” of writing?

Will blogs ever attain classic-status like books?

What do you think motivates a blogger to persist even when very few folks comment?

Do blogs have to have pictures to be interesting?

Do you have a blog?

Have you had a blog in the past?

Are you contemplating having a blog?

What tips on blogging do you think worthy of sharing?

What’s the best blog you’ve ever visited?

Do you leave comments on blogs?

Are blogs a form of social media?

Has a blog post ever “saved” you from doing something stupid or dangerous?

Has a blog ever “enlightened” you?

Have you ever cried while reading a blog?

When you like a blog post, does that make you explore the depths of the blog—the sections beyond the daily posts?

Where did the word “blog” come from?

Have you ever watched someone “live-blog”?

Will blogs ever fall “out of fashion”?

Do blogs make an important contribution to the betterment of society?

Do many of these questions make you want to answer, “It depends on the blog.”?

Do you feel like you’d like to answer some of these questions in the Comments?

Will you answer one of them in the Comments?

If you want to make a comment but don’t, what holds you back?