This brevity has extended to how we express our opinions and beliefs. Twitter, memes, and placards all lend themselves to easily-digested, punchy punchlines.
So my intention with this blog is to provide stimulating food for thought that is more in the style of a banquet than a nibbled peanut. The posts are likely to be long, very long.
I'm doing this because I find I have a habit of hijacking somebody's facebook comment and creating lengthy replies, but still feel that I am only scratching the surface of an issue. Sometimes something in the news, or in the topics I hear mentioned around me, arouses me to have a rant on my own facebook page. Generally these posts have been well-received, and I've been encouraged by the responses, including those that disagree with me, which have often been equally lengthy, and very thoughtful. I feel a desire to encourage deeper, more nuanced thinking, and impassioned debate. I believe wholeheartedly in debate and dialogue. Moving some of this to a blog platform allows me to think longer, plan better what I would like to say, and do so with technology better suited to the verbose.
One of the consequences of the increase in connected technology, ironically, seems to be that, faced with an overwhelming choice of media to consume, and the ability to be only a few clicks away from anywhere and anyone on the planet, we tend to retreat into smaller, manageable bubbles. This is nowhere more evident than artistic media, where the concept of "mainstream" is rapidly dying. Music is being pigeonholed as smaller and smaller genres, encouraged by proliferation of specialist radio stations. TV has never has so much choice, and more and more of us are watching less and less live broadcast. Films have established clear and easily delineated genres, and the rise of Amazon means we no longer have to limit our novel reading to what is available in a local bookshop. Several commentators have, well commented, that we are tending to isolate ourselves in ideological bubbles, where we hear, and reinforce the same messages over and over. Through a self-re-enforcing feedback loop we whip ourselves into greater and greater frenzy, but our debate becomes limited to demonising or ridiculing "the opposition". In Britain, satirical humour is our great defence against things we don't like, including ideas. A well-placed insightful satirical observation can open our minds to new ideas, but we maybe sometimes operate with an assumption that witty=right.
According to Myers-Briggs personality testing I am an ENFP, or at least I was when I took the test (I think personality is much more fluid and variable than a test will show, for example when I am tired or unwell I become more introverted). Apparently, one of the features of ENFP is that we will occupy the middle ground between two conflicting opinions and advocate each side to the other, all the while bemoaning that they "Just don't understand". I you have read any of my rants, this might sound like an accurate description.
Anyway, this blog is a place for me to wax verbose on a variety of subjects. Some will have a Christian perspective, and may be of most interest to fellow Christians but I doubt all will be.
Whatever I cover, I look forwards to your disagreements. We should listen to the people we disagree with, we all can learn how to live and love and think better.
