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Commercialism
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It was interesting to see the pretty much blanket coverage of Martin Luther King’s birthday over in the US yesterday. Interesting not just because he just isn’t as central on the other side of the Atlantic, but also because the US ‘blogosphere’ usually is painfully sterile and apolitical. Coming to think about it, I wonder whether this coverage really presents ‘the’ US – i.e. all the people who voted for their current government – or whether it’s just the well off bloggers trying to catch a bit of the politically correct hipness.
Scott Berkun is exploring a similar direction in his post. And after a fairly senseless opening statement All he needed was a podium, a microphone and an audience
– so all he needed was an audience… riight, how did he get that? Potentially because he had something to say, something important? – Berkun reaches more important questions like:
- When will I write about what’s important?
- When will I help good messages, and the people behind them, to find larger audiences?
- Why am I not volunteering more time for what I believe, rather than what’s popular, fun or lucrative?
- When was the last time I saw technology help someone in true need? When was the last time I delivered that help?
Which take things on a more personal level. And while he doesn’t answer these questions explicitly, I take it that the answers would be fairly negative – at least more negative than he’d like them to be. Not because Berkun is a non-caring geek (which he may or may not be – I don’t know him) but because he is writing on the wrong topics at the wrong place to make any existential difference.
Or let me put it that way: As long as you are writing somewhere where you can use the word ‘iPhone’ and expect people to both know what you are referring to and to think it is worth mentioning then you just aren’t touching anything of real importance.
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