Friday, 17 August 2007
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Currently Listening
Volta
By Bj�rk
see relatedYes, I'm bitter.
Free speech.
A lovely thing. It’s probably the ultimate trump card for anybody living in a democratic country, or heck, any country these days and I have to agree, it’s definitely an attractive concept. I mean come on, the "say what you think - whenever wherever - don't give a shit about anybody else" idea brings personal freedom to a whole new level. Governments rise and fall because of it, leaders get ousted and replaced by others deemed more favourable. The whole concept just rings of the promises and hopes people place in the Big Idea (the Big Joke to some) called Democracy and the Free World.
What BUGS me most is when people bring the Free Speech card away from the political arena and into their normal everyday lives. I'm not saying that people shouldn't have the rights to it, trust me. Free speech is good, I agree. However, like everything all sweet and good, it has its limits and this is something some people have trouble understanding. Especially so in a time where almost everybody maintains a personal blog (like yours truly, duh. Although it’s rarely updated :P). Most people treat their blogs as their own personal diary, detailing every minute detail of their lives, some mundane, some extraordinarily interesting (sometimes making your own dull life seem like stale mouldy cheese in comparison, and making you wonder if the person is making everything up, haha). But there’s one minor difference between a blog and a personal diary.PEOPLE DO READ YOUR BLOGS.
However, that particular detail does not stop some people from detailing every piece of juicy gossip about others, exposing secrets meant to be kept and breaking promises made to others. Every sordid detail is exposed for all to read, with some points widely exaggerated to give it an extra zest for the reader. All this is resoundingly similar to the tabloids you can find at newsstands, and you might go “Hey, if the tabloids can get away with it, why can’t I?”
Well, there’s this little thing called ETHICS, ladies and gentlemen. It’s a simple concept, really, and it doesn’t really take a genius to figure it out. If you get a favour, you repay it; if you make a promise, you keep it. Simple. The paparazzi would be the last people in the world to be called ethical, and that’s why they’re in the bottom of the food chain in the world of journalism. Also, notice that in almost all cases where celebrities decide to take a lawsuit against a tabloid, the celebs win. What I’m trying to point out here is that you CAN’T get away with it, unless you do not give a flying fuck about ETHICS. The people that you’ve mentioned on your blog are people as well with rights to their own privacy, so if you do not respect that, how would you expect others to do the same to you? Would you like to stumble upon a friend’s blog, only to find out that every personal bit about you is exposed on it?
There is a way which is employed by some bloggers to go around this issue. Anonymity.
anon·y·mous
Pronunciation: &-'nä-n&-m&s
Function: adjective
Etymology: Late Latin anonymus, from Greek anOnymos, from a- + onyma name
1 : not named or identified <an anonymous author> <they wish to remain anonymous>
2 : of unknown authorship or origin <an anonymous tip>
3 : lacking individuality, distinction, or recognizability <the anonymous faces in the crowd> <the gray anonymous streets -- William Styron>So the rule of this game here is to make sure that nobody recognizes you or the people you've mentioned in the blog. It’s a good game, I admit. As long as nobody gets hurt by what you say, then go ahead.
But if someone DOES stumble upon your blog and recognizes your true identity because of your stupidly obvious pseudonym and blatantly conspicuous URL address, then the game is over. The fault in this case falls to the writer/creator of the blog and he/she should be held responsible for it, without a doubt. This is especially so if the content of the blog describes personal details about a reader, meant only to be kept between the reader and the writer. In this case, the writer has not only committed gross stupidity beyond reason, but also a breach of trust (a matter that I’ve already referred to in my previous post, dated 6 July 2007). If someone trusts you with something, you keep that trust. That’s what you do with it, not bag it and feed it to the dogs when you get home.
Today’s exercises:
1. Give some thought on how you might react if you told someone something personal which is meant to be kept between the both of you, and later find out that it is all detailed in that person’s blog for all to read.
2. Consider your reaction if you are reassured by the same person that the blog is “anonymous”, even though you have managed to stumble upon the blog and immediately recognize the identity of the writer by the pseudonym and/or the URL address of the blog.
3. Gauge your response if you are told by this same person that he/she should not be held responsible because the blog belongs to the him/her and there is such a thing as Free Speech. Do take into account that what was written in the above-mentioned blog is about YOU, every sordid detail, your experiences, even your little secrets.
4. What would you do if the same person dismisses the whole issue as just another small obstacle that bloggers have to face and overcome, just to get their thoughts out to the public, which basically means “That’s the way how life is, just too bad for you”?
I'll end my extremely long rant here. By the way, I make no apology for it's length.
After all, it’s free speech, isn’t it?
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