NO GOD-DAMNED BLOGGERS

I came across that sentiment a month or two ago, casually appended to the end of an otherwise totally benign job posting, caps and all. Well, minus the violation of the second(?) Commandment.

The vehemence is not really surprising; I imagine that human resources people everywhere have had quite enough of applicants who believe that a sporadically updated blog about how the President can't spell very well counts as a professional qualification. "Things were not always this way," they lament to one another, ripping up multicolored cover letters that have screenshots and exclamation points in them. Nobody in the 90s proudly emblazoned his resume with references to alt.startrek, or listed a Sliders-themed GeoCities page as "relevant experience" when applying at a newspaper. Having an opinion was not a notable accomplishment. Familiarity with the Internet was a source of embarrassment to be concealed, not burbled with self-congratulatory pride.

If I am not being clear, what I'm trying to say is that I hate blogs. I hate them so much. So this is kind of a portentous step for me.

I've had http://www.simulacri.com gathering dust for years, originally just a repository for an impenetrable maze of literary quotes. When I revamped the site and began putting text posts up there, I tried to stay professional about it; it wasn't really a blog per se. It was more restrained and professional. I was still better than all those reprehensible bloggers and their small opinions.

Obviously this is an embarrassingly stupid point of view. I have probably always realized that. Nobody actually hates bloggers and blogging, because it's what we've been doing here since there was public discussion on the Internet. It's the same principle; it's just been repackaged and pounced upon by the obtuse heralds of popular culture, so it sometimes feels cheap and silly. It's still in essence the same (non-pornographic) use we've always had for the internet--the dissemination of opinion--with an unfortunate tendency to bypass "personal" and plunge right into "self-absorbed." Which can easily be avoided.

All of this is, in any case, what I'm telling myself so that starting a blog will feel less like capitulation and more like I'm doing something very clever and expedient. I also intend to do a shameless ideological 180 and mention this on my resume.