As a blogger myself: sometimes writing, sometimes researching, sometimes answering TONS of email, watching alerts from google to get my information - I can understand precisely where Swanson is coming from. A day or two offline produces something like withdrawal. Been difficult lately, too, as both my computers have been DOWN and have had to go out and use the library and internet cafes. That's my perogative, eh?? Just keep on blogging is my idea of a good time.
I took the time to write a book, Earthlings Anonymous, and it was finished, but it got thrown out by an unscrupulous landlord. But I kept on blogging everyday as I wrote it. To go for 30-days without internet exposure seems like a real drag. But I plan to do that to write down my memoirs AFTER the Andover war crimes conference. I have an idea of the outline already. It's basically to show young women activists, NEVER GIVE UP !!! And you know, I think my Earthlings Anonymous Book was MEANT to be written by a better group of people than I originally planned. I can find the new 100 stories via internet !!
I've tried insistently to even get a newspaper column, which didn't even work out. But BLOGGING? Now that's the supreme activity of our time, imho. It helps you organize your thoughts, keep up with happening stuff for your readers and you meet the most incredible friends when you do it.
Here's to David Swanson's new book - if he does it now, he'll miss the Bejing Olympics ?? But I am sure if ANYONE has something useful to say, it's David Swanson.
I live the cup of victory to David's new book. Let's all make it a bestseller.
Virginia
by David Swanson himself
Robert Fisk's "The Age of the Warrior" collects 500 stupendous pages of his columns from the past several years. Fisk is, of course, the Middle Eastern correspondent for the Independent (UK) based in Beirut. He writes about Iraq, Turkey, Palestine, the United States, literature, cinema, genocide, whatever grabs his interest, and he does so with a great deal of honesty and courage. I couldn't recommend the book more highly. It lives up to its rather epic title. But I have one point of disagreement, or at least divergent perspective....
I took the time to write a book, Earthlings Anonymous, and it was finished, but it got thrown out by an unscrupulous landlord. But I kept on blogging everyday as I wrote it. To go for 30-days without internet exposure seems like a real drag. But I plan to do that to write down my memoirs AFTER the Andover war crimes conference. I have an idea of the outline already. It's basically to show young women activists, NEVER GIVE UP !!! And you know, I think my Earthlings Anonymous Book was MEANT to be written by a better group of people than I originally planned. I can find the new 100 stories via internet !!
I've tried insistently to even get a newspaper column, which didn't even work out. But BLOGGING? Now that's the supreme activity of our time, imho. It helps you organize your thoughts, keep up with happening stuff for your readers and you meet the most incredible friends when you do it.
Here's to David Swanson's new book - if he does it now, he'll miss the Bejing Olympics ?? But I am sure if ANYONE has something useful to say, it's David Swanson.
I live the cup of victory to David's new book. Let's all make it a bestseller.
Virginia
by David Swanson himself
Robert Fisk's "The Age of the Warrior" collects 500 stupendous pages of his columns from the past several years. Fisk is, of course, the Middle Eastern correspondent for the Independent (UK) based in Beirut. He writes about Iraq, Turkey, Palestine, the United States, literature, cinema, genocide, whatever grabs his interest, and he does so with a great deal of honesty and courage. I couldn't recommend the book more highly. It lives up to its rather epic title. But I have one point of disagreement, or at least divergent perspective....
Fisk inserts into his essays occasional jibes at the internet, which -- like John McCain -- he does not use. (Well, I bet he uses it a little more than McCain, but he doesn't like to.) Or at least he thinks he doesn't. The fact is that without the internet, a great many of us in the United States and around the world would not have the opportunity to read Fisk's writing other than when it's published in book form. Without the internet, I'd have a choice of two or three nearly worthless -- scratch that, WORSE than worthless -- U.S. newspapers. Maybe they'd be slightly better without the competition of the internet. Maybe they'd be slightly worse.
Fisk doesn't even like writing on computers, and he does not like to be Emailed. I spend more time every day writing and receiving Emails than any other activity in my life. If I miss a day I fall hopelessly behind. I love the internet and have been able to use it to accomplish things I never could have otherwise. I love open-source crowd-corrected reporting, investigating, and activist organizing. I love multitasking. But I do have my complaints about Emails. They can miscommunicate. They can be improperly shared. And they can be as annoying as anything ever invented. Most of them have to simply be ignored, and others could be responded to were it not for the fact that responding will result in additional Emails.
I recently stopped using a cell phone, and I love the difference it has made in my life. But this was not much of a sacrifice in terms of my ability to communicate with people, since I can converse with many more people by Email than I can in the same number of minutes by telephone. What would make a huge difference would be ceasing to receive or reply to or send out Emails. And that's what I'm going to try for the next month, from August 8 to September 8, 2008. I'm not going to use Email, not going to blog, not going to use a cell phone, not going to use a landline. At the end of the month I may have something to say about the difference it made in my life. There's even the chance I'll have convinced myself to stay offline for good.
That's rather unlikely, though. I'm doing this little experiment, not to avoid the internet, but to engage in something else, namely writing a book. I don't want to publish a collection of columns. I want to compose a single coherent book and publish it. Then, no doubt, I'll want to blog about it too. I spoke with some publishers about a year ago, and they expressed interest in publishing a book by me, but they all wanted to see roughly half the book and to know in detail what the other half would look like before giving me an "advance." In other words, the "advance" comes after you've pretty well written the book. I have a lot of books in mind that I want to write, but I can't describe them in detail without actually writing them, and I can't write them or accomplish anything else at all while the internet is surgically attached to my fingertips. So, I've decided to simply vanish for a month, write a book, and then show it to the publishers. They can give me an "advance" then, or simply buy the book. We can pretend it took me 8 months to write if they think that sounds better. Little do they know what an eternity 30 days offline will be.
DAVID SWANSON is a co-founder of After Downing Street, a writer and activist, and the Washington Director of Democrats.com. He is a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, and serves on the Executive Council of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson obtained a Master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997.
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