Alan Gutierrez

I’ve found it easier to write lately. I’d had writer’s block. I’ve got a whole bunch of Writeboards in a backlog of writing. Long complicated scribbles.

Blogging ought to be easy. It hasn’t been. Blogging had become professional communication. It was a perpetual press release. It had become and odious chore.

I was afraid of turning into one of those pro-bloggers. My experiences with social media ran counter to the breathless self-referential raving of the Web 2.0 crowd.

What strikes me about a lot of these pro-blogs is the profound absence of critical thinking. People find a niche and then build a web of people who are only seeking confirmation for what they already believe.

That is the nature of pro-blogging. Coming up with a pet of an idea, then flogging it with anecdotal evidence in the form of anecdotes.

I once ran across this horrible blog post about Henry Ford and The Secret. Remember The Secret from last year? It’s the bible of the Just World Hypothesis.

The blog post was entitled Why Henry Ford Knew More Than “The Secret”. Every time I see Henry Ford, that image pops to mind, the one of him getting the Grand Cross of the German Eagle pinned to his label by the Honorary vice-consul of the Third Reich in Detroit, Fritz Hailer pops to mind. Henry Ford the virulent anti-Semite held up as model of positive thinking.

I felt like I was all lined up to slide down the chute of the idiot pro-blogger, so I didn’t blog much at all.

Celebrating John Frum Day on Vanuatu.

Some folks have written to show concern. I appreciate the concern.

I’m still getting email about policy matters. I’m inclined to respond with, oh, wow, very interesting. Hey, seen what I’ve been up to lately?

I’m going to enjoy being rid of these people who engage me as a resource, people who have no resources to offer. That has been particularly tiring.

I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. Many New Orleanians are engaged in a cargo cult dance to bring down some form of funding for the grassroots efforts that drive the recovery. They dress up, wave the sticks, march and dance, and but the DC-3s do not land. The cargo is not for us.

It’s uncommon that local efforts are overlooked, that nonprofit organizations parachute in and disappear as quickly.

An easy decision now to go blue. Want to set the precedent, so that I’m not conflicted when I feel an urge to curse. When I do curse for the first time, I don’t want to add a paragraph about how I don’t usually curse.