Perhaps you’ve noticed (or perhaps not) but I’ve been blogging a lot less since the election ended. And I don’t think I’m the only one. Aside from our own indefatigable BooMan, I’ve noticed a decline in the number of posts at a lot of the sites I frequent, as well as a rise in shorter, less analytical posts (though shorter can be a relative term for some bloggers).
I can’t speak for everyone, but I think a sort of mental exhaustion has set in for me. There are plenty of issues that still concern me. Pakistan, Iraq, climate change, racism, right wing eliminationist rhetoric, post-election violence against Obama supporters, the economic crisis, et cetera. However, I find it harder and harder to write long and well researched (or even well thought out) posts. I seem to have drifted into outrage as my default mode. I’ve become more of a didactic polemicist and less of the person who once tried to write a cogent analysis and explication of a specific subject after examining masses of information I’d gleaned from my internet searches. Admittedly, I’ve always been heavy on the outrage in my posts over the years, but not to the extent I am now. And I feel as if all I’m doing is shouting into the abyss, the only response I hear my own words echoing back at me.
I think, in part, this has to do with my own frustration over the current state of the world. The election that was just concluded consumed a lot of attention in the blogosphere on sites with a political focus, to be sure, but also on sites that were formed to serve other needs. Yet, the larger story has been the continual slide into economic and environmental collapse, as well as all of its attendant consequences. And these consequences have been hitting home for me on a personal level. And right now, the folks I know on an up close and personal level are absorbed by their immediate situation and care only about the news that appears relevant to said situation.
I can’t tell you how many friends and acquaintances I know who have lost their jobs or fear that they may soon be laid off. The anxiety in everyone I talk to is palpable. Every conversation I have with people I know at some point comes around to the economy, and often our own economic circumstances. Most people I meet just aren’t that consumed by political news anymore. They could care less who Obama appoints, or what’s happening in Iraq. Even the attacks in Mumbai seemed to spark little interest, despite the fact that it might have led to a nuclear confrontation on the Indian Subcontinent. It just doesn’t seem to matter to them.
Many people are angry, but most are just plain scared. Many have seen their life savings evaporate. Some are facing foreclosure of their family home. Some are desperately looking for work to replace lost income. Others are looking to cut back their expenses any way they can. I’ve heard more discussions about canning food in the last three days than I have since the years when my mother used to do it when I lived at home 4 decades ago. And perhaps it is that overriding zeitgeist of impending doom, if you will, that has diminished the appeal of blogging for me. I’m still doing it, but not at a very high level, and not with the same dedication I once had.
I just can’t get all that worked up over the silly stuff that seems to consume the punditocracy as well as much of the left side of the blogosphere. Caroline Kennedy as my next Senator? I don’t really care all that much one way or the other. The fallout from the Blagojevich scandal? So what? Congress and Bush doing nothing while Detroit burns? My only concern is whether it means friends and family employed in the auto industry will lose their jobs. The ongoing Bush revisionist reclamation project? I’ve written about it, but it doesn’t really spark a fire in the belly.
Maybe this is the inevitable post-electoral depression that we all suffer from every four years, but I sense something different this time. After all, our side won. I should be happier. I should be more passionate about discussing what Democrats plan to do once Obama takes the oath of office in January, and whether the progressive agenda will get implemented (as promised) or ignored (as usual). But I’m not not. Instead I have this sense that the Sword of Damocles is hanging over all our heads, and that events are moving too fast, are spiraling beyond the control of any political leader, even one such as soon to be President Obama, no matter how intelligent, inspiring, active and historic a person he may be.
Or maybe I just need a bigger dose of anti-depressants. In any event, I’d be curious to hear your thoughts and reactions to these ruminations and dark musings of mine.