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Safe Place


This observation about the nature of blogosphere seems to explain why I have found it very hard to follow some of the better known blogs out there. 
Just as nature abhors a vacuum, the blogosphere abhors a neutral and nonpartisan blog. For whatever reasons, cultural or historical, participants expect partisanship. They want to know if you’re with them or against them; the dedicated communities at various blogs can be pretty defensive of their space, and sometimes stream like lemmings through the aether to attack a blogger that they perceive as threatening.
While the material in the blogs I try to follow is worth reading, the space in which the writing and the exchange of ideas is talking place, as the author points out is quite a hostile one. I find that the ambiance does not encourage me to return too often - I content myself with reading short excerpts of the posts via Google Reader. That way, I remain in safe, neutral ground and enjoy the content without the strident (and all too often one-dimensional commentary). Extending the analogy to the functioning of democracy as the article does, it is easy to see how people may choose to remain in their respective safe places and not participate in the democratic process.
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