K.B.O. Through The Detritus Of Cyberspace

I have recently inserted a "blurb" or "tag-line" under the title of this blog, due to the fact that sarcastic responses such as "Obama's going to save the world!" have found their way onto the comments section of this blog-site of late. Of course, such unhelpful comments are part and parcel of the blog-o-sphere, and I therefore accept some of them as the waste product from an otherwise useful communication tool.

What I do not accept, however, is the notion that people who wish to engage in actual political give-and-take should be forced into simultaneously engaging in such emotionally-stunted exchanges, which are the domain of point-scoring individuals who seem either incapable of or unwilling to discuss differences of opinion in manners that are constructive. Yet this may be the ultimate point for some people, who for whatever unfortunate reason would rather hide behind the moniker "Anonymous" while writing things to which no adult would ever want their name attached than carry on actual discussions with their peers. After all, real conversations tend to frighten them.

I find it one of the least amusing ironies of the internet that those who would lower considerably the conversational bar in a given blog-site are also sometimes that blog-site's most consistent readers. ("After all," they must think, "how else can we spread the angst around so efficiently?") I also find that open-minded, adventurous people who tend to read widely and travel widely both inside and outside of their own country tend to shy away from the childish, emotionally-stunted crowd. Then again, saying this will elicit little more than blathered shouts of "Elitist!" from the aforementioned culturally myopic crowd, so....

If anyone is interested in seeing how someone might approach an actual adult conversation (whether it focuses on agreement with or disagreement between two people), they might be interested in modeling the tone of--and the language in--the comment posted by "Travis" on my January 21st post called "Preserving the 'Inaugural Moment'...." Then again, anyone who is willing to view that exchange in an open-minded manner is not likely to need to model it, because they most likely write (and talk, and think) in an adult manner already.

As for my "gut" response to this latest bit of depressing childishness, I'll use a Winston Churchill term that the man himself used many times: "K.B.O." For Mr. Churchill, this stood for "Keep Buggering On." I'm no Winston Churchill, to be sure, but I have the feeling that he'd let me borrow his term for this particular occasion. So, I'll keep buggering on, and on, and on. And on some more.

Call me presumptuous, but I have the sense that I am most certainly not alone in the blog-o-sphere in my willingness to K.B.O., despite those who would rather force everyone into neatly-labeled, trademarked groupings so that they don't have to deal with those wonderful traits called "complexity" and "ambiguity" that are where the real fun is at. They just don't know what they're missing. Or perhaps they do know what they're missing, but for whatever reason they refuse to engage in it, anyway.