April 23, 2005

How far will you go to blog?
by Liza Sabater

Elaine of Kalillily asked for my contribution on the following :

I've been invited to serve on a panel on blogging at a youth leadership conference that's going to be held here in Albany at the Legislative Office Building. I suspect that a legislator or a legislative staff member also will be part of the panel. I posted about it here because I'm hoping to get some comments from bloggers like you all about what kinds of self-imposed ethics or guidelines you have for yourselves about what you blog. Also, why or why not (do you think) blogging should have government regulations imposed.

She has more brain-teasing questions at : Kalilily Time: some things get getter; some things get worse.

To answer this question, I did what I normally do, which is to totally evade it by doing some quick research. So I looked up to a word that has been on my mind recently :

free·dom
n.

1. The condition of being free of restraints.
2. Liberty of the person from slavery, detention, or oppression.
3.
1. Political independence.
2. Exemption from the arbitrary exercise of authority in the performance of a specific action; civil liberty: freedom of assembly.
4. Exemption from an unpleasant or onerous condition: freedom from want.
5. The capacity to exercise choice; free will: We have the freedom to do as we please all afternoon.
6. Ease or facility of movement: loose sports clothing, giving the wearer freedom.
7. Frankness or boldness; lack of modesty or reserve: the new freedom in movies and novels.
8.
1. The right to unrestricted use; full access: was given the freedom of their research facilities.
2. The right of enjoying all of the privileges of membership or citizenship: the freedom of the city.
9. A right or the power to engage in certain actions without control or interference: “the seductive freedoms and excesses of the picaresque form” (John W. Aldridge).

Please take this comment as a knee-jerk reaction. I thought of editing it out but will leave it here, just because :
[rant]
I'm starting to get the feeling the people that put together these panel discussions about blogging are trying to find out the risks of regulating this new media. They're not really asking us to come and participate in a conversation because they want to expand their minds. I think they've already made up their minds about what they are going to do about this blogging business and are just trying to find a way to make it happen.
[/rant]

I say this because I do not trust people in Albany. Blogging is a lot like homeschooling : you are doing on your own what supposedly only experts should be allowed to do; which is the production, dissemination and broadcasting of ideas. If Albany does not like it when people want to teach their own and go above and against the teacher's unions; Albany will certainly have a great distaste for anything looking remotely like a truly democratic and free media. What? No soft money? No big dinners? No yatch rides?

Let's say my radar is up on this control issue. Because, would they hold Rupert Murdoch to the same standards of ethics they want to impose on bloggers? Of course not silly, he's the one with the soft money, big dinners and yatch rides, duh!

But back to topic at hand :

I personally dislike the thought of ethics being dictated by moral values. Far too much suffering has been unleashed on Humanity in the name of morality. I tend to cringe whenever I hear it invoked as a necessary restraint; especially in relation to any creative activity. So I don't think of ethics as an issue of morality but an issue of freedom : How unrestrained of reserve will I be today? How far will I go to exercise my will? What am I willing to do for the right to choose? Here's a list :

1. I always have to remind myself that I have a family and that, even though the tone is conversational, this is still a publication. That's why I've been ambivalent about publishing my kids names (I did not for about 2 years) and I am seriously not writing about their everyday life. At one point I thought I'd turn this blog into a homeschooling journal and I immediately ceased and desisted myself for the only reason that my kids have a right to privacy and it's nobody's business how they go about learning. Still, there are times that mommitis overtakes my brain and I just "have to" share with the world their lates cutefest. But that does not happen often.

2. Profanity is de rigeur in this blog. Not because it needs to be written but because I can.

3. I actually have to force myself to write short entries in lieu of not writing at all. I have the tendency to research a topic to death before spewing my opinions. So for me not to research a topic and fuck up the data is actually a big step in breaking the habit to block my own writing.

4. I will allow any comments on my site --even the negative ones-- as long as they are not violent and vile. Meaning, if you demean me with racial or sexist epithets, then you're out. But those have been far and few --which means I am not famous yet.

5. Up until recently I did not allow myself to post corny stuff like the men I lust for, but once I started, I enjoyed the process. I actually like to use language to express the unspeakable. So writing about Danish gauchos that I'd love to slather in chimichurri is a lot of fun.

6. I have no qualms about making available a copyrighted product if it means it will further the discussion where it is being mentioned. That especially is true with news articles that disappear from the net after a set number of days. If it is an important piece of news, I'll make a PDF and distribute it or put it in the body of a post. Of course, I always give attribution and NEVER claim any copyright over the material.

7. I have no qualms about obtaining shwag and pluging it. I love shwag, I love goodies : I'm a shwag hag. Editorial boards at magazines get shwagged all the time --why can I not? That said, if the shwag sucks, I'll tell you first before airing my disappointment. If the shwag rocks, then please, give me more! Oh, and yes, I always disclose if I have been shwagged.

8. I've become self-employed because I blog. There is no way I am compromising my writing, my politics, my ideas; especially for an employer's sake.

9. I've learned the hard way to never EVER quote anybody without their permission. That's why conversations I have had with the famous and semi-famous and not-so-famous will never be printed here unless I've gotten clearance to do so. This extends to email as well. I think that everybody, regardless of social standing, ought to have a right to privacy.

In other words, I may kiss, but I will never tell :)

10. I have no problem accepting money from political candidates, especially if they are candidates that I blog about. As long as they do not try to dictate what I blog about and how, then the ad space is there for the taking.

I have described culturekitchen as an idea lab, a personal think tank, a work in process. I don't want to limit what happens in here because it comes so easy for me. On the contrary, I want to find ways to opening up the writing, the ideas, the conversation.

Freedom to speak, to think, to explore, to fail, to loose --and free of any government intervention.

Posted by Liza Sabater in Blogs, Censorship, Civil Rights, Creative Class, Creativity, Ethics, Free Speech, Government, Internet, Law, Media, Politics, Progressive Libertarianism, Publishing
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