"The information business is being transformed by the Internet into the sheer noise of a hundred million bloggers, exuberant monkeys with no more talent than our primate cousins, all simultaneously talking about themselves, in an endless digital forest of mediocrity."
So says Andrew Keen in his book
THE CULT OF THE AMATEUR.
Here are several reviews (that I read) by people willing to pay this smug so&so 23 bucks and actually read this mental masturbation. I have a feeling that this jackanape's jeremiad should be read out loud inside of a hyberbolic chamber to absorb the hyperbole.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/
According to the reviews, Keen does bring up some issues regarding the Web 2.D'OH! revolution that do need to be addressed. As we all know NATURE abhors a vacuum and as we discussed yesterday, so much of the Main Stream Media (MSM) has turned into infotainment whores that Bloggers started filling in the gaps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2According to the reviews, Keen does bring up some issues regarding the Web 2.D'OH! revolution that do need to be addressed. As we all know NATURE abhors a vacuum and as we discussed yesterday, so much of the Main Stream Media (MSM) has turned into infotainment whores that Bloggers started filling in the gaps.
Sure there is a lot of crap out here but atleast it's our crap!
This Keen fellow reminds me of the time when a visibly shaken Myopic Iconoclast, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, was confronted by the MSM regarding the post liberation looting of government offices, museums, and shops that took place in Baghdad.
'Rummy's' theory, that inside every Iraqi is an American dying to get out, turned out to be true afterall! Sure enough Iraqi citizens began liberating retail outlets, government offices, museums, and other citizens homes of 'stuff' just like Americans do after their team wins a Championship!
“Freedom’s untidy (2.0 is a bitch),” he said.
“Free people (bloggers) are free to make mistakes (make up sh*t) and commit crimes (plagiarize) and do bad things (write the odd post that may not be 100% true).
They're (bloggers) also free to live their lives (so to speak) and do wonderful things (relatively speaking), and that's what's going to happen here (on the Interweb).” 
So like it or not Mr. Keen we're here and you had better get used to it. Actually if it wasn't for us bloggers you wouldn't have had anything to kvetch about in your fancy schmancy book you big wanker.
So, you're welcome.
101% agree with ya big bro. These buggers just wanna make a quick buck. Why do they always quote stuff into a business perspective. Web 2.0 my ass. This is just another step into an information paradigm shift. To think that we are all bad guys and that in another extend saying that the MSM wont be perturbed is stupid in either way.
ReplyDeleteBlogs might be so raw that makes an undercooked chicken roast edible but then again we are just begining. MSM been here for more than a century...so why expect new media to mature fast? Blogs will peak, then the pop-stars will drop out and serious people like...hmmm...me and you and keshi and few more (:P) will be around to clean up the mess and establish a new cyber order. Or in other words, things will sink and evreything will be ok. Today bloggers want to do everything at once, in the future we will be more directional. We certainyl dont want to read 100 mil movies reviews...so things will take order and will be more directional.
But god forbid, blogs MUST remains un-mainstream!
Love and I mean that, you are endearing. Your boisterous attitude makes me want to fall in love. Oh, you may think me foolish for such a statement, but this almost ranting of yours is wonderful. I could read it over and over.
ReplyDeleteI do not say much on my blog, nothing compared to you and unless Mr. Keen or big brother wants to know my hearts desire about love, I am sure they do not read. But you inspire me to crawl in deeper and find that place that speaks without thinking.
Let them read, let them think what they will. But one day, they will wish they listened better and took us more seriously. The day their cushioned seat no longer fits the outline of their know-it-all butts and they are sitting on the curb head in hand.
All I have to say about that is "gotta banana?"
ReplyDeleteSigned Exuberant Monkey #10,689
Hm, directionality in blogging is an interesting concept and I agree that it's true, it's inevitable in a maturing society. We're already doing it to an extent, surely. There are several off the cuff segmentations of the blogging population already and we haven't been doing this for very long. Segmentation is only really interesting when there are enough of us around to do it.
ReplyDeleteI like your kvetch, HE. AND Rumsfeld in the same post - what more could a blog-reader want? I always thought that his "there are known knowns and unknown knowns..." utterance was a strange echo of the ideas behind the Johari window.
If there's one thing I can't stand it's a smug bastard telling me what I can or cannot rant about. It's all a plot to get us back to Sheeple-hood because we've stopped drinking the Koolaid and we're writing it all up on our very own blogs for anyone see.
ReplyDeleteIt's too much open communication of the masses, and they just can't have that happen, what a threat to their superiority over us! Blech!
I got quite the chuckle from this Wunderkinds spiel, humorous after my daily participation in the
ReplyDeleteMillion Monkey March. Guess he's
still working of those pricy student loan payments, or else,
they threatened to toss his masters
thesis into the bit bucket. Oh well. it makes sense, in the balance of things: For every free-
wheeling blogster, there's bound to be a joker with notepads an inch wide. Carry on, sir!
hey, uhh, yeah...
ReplyDeleteyou said it! for once i totally, TOTALLY agree with you.
actually, laura was just wondering how to leave comments on a blog and uh, well, i didn't actually read anything you wrote.
but I will one day.
honest.
you can count on me.
i'm your biggest fan.
and i know where you live.
creepy, isn't it?
hmm, maybe 'anonymous' would be best....
another pompous ass who thinks he knows better. blech!!!!
ReplyDeleteit only proves one thing..freedom of speech threatens some leaders who aint doing the RIGHT thing.
ReplyDeleteKeshi.
what a dumbass. that's all i have to say.
ReplyDelete# 10,690 (right after andrea)
heh heh- in south africa, mr keen's equivalent is "david bullard"... who was so upset by all us wannabe journalists that he started his own blog to show us how it should be done!
ReplyDeleteghosty,
ReplyDeleteI have never seen you so animated and passionate about an issue! I am glad that you have us pegged as Lifers (survivors) and I hope that I find a way to become more relevent without becoming a paid blogger or Flogger..you're only a whore if people find out right?
inside our hands,
I am all about "that place that speaks without thinking" so if you find that inspiring you are in the right spot.
I am positive that Mr Keen could care a tinker's cuss what I have to say, but the collective bad karma that he will accumulate, will not be worth any money that he makes from his preaching to the Luddites!
Exuberant Monkey #10,689,
OOH OOH AAH HAA! I thought about you the other day while I was watching 2 docudramas. One on Van Gogh and the other on Picasso...so don't be surprised if I am suddenly "hip" to the Picassic Periods: Blue, Rose, African, Analytic Cubism, and Synthetic Cubism and start to eat paint.
spentrails,
Rummy would have most of his FaƧade quadrant filled with expletives by his peers...no wait, his peers are fellow cabal members; DeLay, Wolfowitz, Rove, and Cheney..it is everyone else in the Milky Way Galaxy thinks that he is dangerously out to lunch.
tidalgrrrl,
Sheeple,
Sheeple who need Sheeple,
are the luckiest Sheeple in the world!
that Streisand song was a few years before your time...but you are right. We are putting out a little TOO much information. 'THEY' don't want people to stop and think about stuff..keep them distracted while we raid the collective cookie jar.
Well they are in for one hell of a surprise.
grumbilical cord,
Actually this guy is an insider who made his mark during the 90s! He has turned and started to let the Silicon Cerberus gnaw on his own hand?
I guess that he was alarmed at all of the crapola and forgot about WHY ordinarly schleps like me, get to post crapola if we want to.
anon & laura,
HUH? You totally agree with me?
How can this be? Who are you, you two cyber lurkers are creeping me out. Declare yourselves before all of mankind or suffer the consequences...you will be swallowed in the swirling vortex of your anonymity and the world will never know know your genius!
How can you live with that eating away at your soul?
menchie,
OK what if he inadvertently started on a horribly boring blog and every link that he followed was progressively tedious and this lasted for months until it drove him to write this book? It is possible.
keshiroo,
Not like us eh? We're doin' it right on the wrong side of town.
kj,
He obviously hasn't spent any time in this neck of the woods because he would have been too busy to write a book. There is something deeply rewarding to supremicists about being attacked...Negative Attention is better than nothing.
Since we cyberworld simpletons are expected to have a millisecond memory before another shiney object catches our attention let us never again speak of Keen in polite company. Hrrumph.
angel,
David Dullard!
Ooh I like it when people say oh for gawdsake you idiot this is how you are supposed to do it and then proceed to fall victim to the karmic boomerang...unless his blog is fabulous..is it awesome?
Does he suck?
uuuuummm... honestly- i haven't read his stuff!
ReplyDeletehe's a well known newspaper writer who likes to make waves (and does it quite well) and- in an article that caused a blogphoon of note in south africa- reckoned bloggers blog 'coz they can't get laid and we're all thick as bricks and wannabe journalists and and and... he annoyed me, so i haven't bothered seeing what he's about on his blog.
he's easy to find if you'd like to read his stuff...
hey can I be #10691? I love bananas, ranting and evolving slowly.
ReplyDeleteHomo Escapeon,
ReplyDeleteThen I guess I have found a new home... Move over and share the blankets will you?...smiles
I think Winston "winnie" Churchill said it best... "I detest your views, but i will gladly give my life so you can express them."
ReplyDeleteYes the internet has a lot of rubbish, porn and self indulgent sooks.. but it gives a chance to say what we really want to. The freedom to form opions and find other like minded bloggers, (also organise small terror cells, and religious cults **ATTN: US Government please stop reading my posts**)
If a mountain of pornography is the price to pay for freedom, it is a price i am willing to pay...
Aidan
Was he even serious??
ReplyDeleteWhy are people threatened by free speech?
Oh wait, coz they have something to hide?
a brilliant post, this is blogging in a nutshell for me!
ReplyDeletea true shirtsleeves within shirtsleeves moment
perfect
thanking you
This is SOOOOOO right on. That's what it's all about for this arse and all the others:
ReplyDeleteBloggers are doing their jobs for them.
Blogging is an outlet for real, thinking people to communicate the stuff that they're NOT communicating because they're so tied up with the infotainment and just reporting whatever the corporate world and big government pumps up their ass.
The best line in your excellent post is this and it says it all:
Sure there is a lot of crap out here but at least it's our crap!
angel,
ReplyDeleteBlogphoon!"bloggers blog 'coz they can't get laid and we're all thick as bricks and wannabe journalists and and and... he annoyed me, so i haven't bothered seeing what he's about on his blog."
Sounds like he needs to get tuned up but he is prolly one of those guys who can't admit when he is wrong anyway..right?
I will be shunning him too.
ziggi,
You may be whatever number you like.
Personally, I find tha' evolvin' slowly doesn't 'urt me brain as mooch! I'd like to see two bricks bein' smashed together!
insider,
It is your lucky day because I generally sleep on top of the sheets unless I become hopelessly entangled in which case a corrective elbow from my darling significant other is applied to a sensitive area and order is instantly restored as I scootch over and cling for dear life to the very edge of the bed like a mountain goat.
aidan,
Tolerating the mountain of pornography? Obviously you mean the 'good' pornography that is tastefully airbrushed and sanitized for our consumption.
I view the deluge of nekked people on the interweb as a natural backlash against our being prisoners in huge faceless, nameless, societies.
Finding a mate was once right up their with eating and not getting eaten by other multicellular carnivores. Some switches can't be turned off even if we are living in a vacuum of a obscurity.
perspective!!!
Yes because they have something to hide I am so glad that you pointed that out and simplified the matter.
Lies are made to cover up the last lie..it is a self perpetuating entity. Iraq was started on huge lies and now I am seriously beginning to wonder and starting to question the lies behind 9/11.
i like the view,
Yes I feel like turn of the Century bare knuckle boxing champ John L Sullivan..put up your Dukes!
Unfortunately our opponents fight very dirty and the refs are 'in' on the side bets.
without windows XP,
I am a proud purveyor of over 250 postings most of which is complete blather and mediocrity run amok!
So be it!
Remember Yul Brynner in the Ten Commandments...
"so let it be written, so let it be done." He also said
"His god, is god"
but we can change that to
"His blog, is glob"
Hey I wonder if I ever won the competition to choose a term for a group of bloggers...don't you think that a glob of bloggers sounds good?
Now that everyone has said most of the things about blogs...all I can say is..
ReplyDeleteLong live bloggers!
gautami,
ReplyDeleteAnd so say all of us,
and so say all of us!