NVDL Makes Top 10 (NEWS&POLITICS)

The South African blogosphere is a brighter, more luminous community than it once was. I've setup what I believe is an important experiment: can a blog that sets out to do good, to communicate an important, meaningful and urgent message (for the most part - but still retain a sense of humor and throw a few pieces of popcorn) - can such a blog do well? To be honest, I feared the worst. Mindless mumbo jumbo blogs, the sort of stuff that is the reason we're in such a mess to begin with, they have until recently done very well in the blogosphere.

About to Overtake Mushy?

My favorite example of these caught-in-the-collective-delusion-of-sex-shopping-and-the porn mentality, is Mushy peas On Toast [AKA I-cause-my-own-chaos]. I feel it's a particularly vulgar way to waste one's life - by living a pretentious blogger-as-wannabe-celebrity existence just to score hits. This means you must pursue a delusional lifestyle on purpose just to be interesting. How nuts is that? But Mushy has, until recently, had a huge flock following her decadent philanderings. She's won awards, been published in COSMO and been interviwed in the Sunday Times magazine.

Time to Sober Up is Nigh

Of course, reality is sobering, especially when reality starts to interrupt our collective daydreams. Interest rates, food prices, oil prices, unsually bad weather, diseases - all these not very glamorous issues - the sort of thing you don't find at the shopping mall or in a glass of wine, these impact on our lives. The question will be raised, not so long from now: How could we not know where we propelling ourselves (and the world) giving our access to information, and given the mounting evidence. The answer will be a weak one. We were distracted. We were delusional. We were reading Mushy peas on Toast.

Concerned

As I say, it's gratifying that that's changing. Am I glad? It actually worries me. I don't welcome these changes. It means austerity is going to visit everyone, and obviously that includes me. I want us to accept that and start factoring that into our lifestyles. Otherwqise the shock, the crash, the collatoral damage is going to be far more severe than it's already looking to be.

I'd like to encourage the visitors to this blog to share their ideas on how better to care for the community - hyperlocal communtiies, and world communities in general. For these I do believe we need a few basic values: an awareness of Nature (the natural world, our own nature's and weaknesses, and our connection to everything - where Nature is interchangeable with 'God'. Virtue is a first step to wiping out the smut that has invaded suburbia, and with it, the nuclear family. Our greatest asset, is family, and we're losing families as quickly as they're being started. That needs to change.

Decency is how we begin to manifest our virtues. It's how we beahve and practise being better citsens. It's about learning some manners. Manners have deteriorated since we've gone digital and virtual. It's commonpractise to write off friends, burn bridges, rant and rave on the basis of a slightly biased comment.

Logic is the reasoning behind why all and any of this is necessary. It also balances the intuitive sense we have of what is Nature, and what is Natural. Logic on its own is dangerous. Science is why we are in this mess - we've rationalised a lot of the delusional mentality at work now. You can use logic in a small context and it will make sense (such as powering suburbia on cheap fossil fuels). Once you look at a broader picture, and think of things like sustainability, long term efficiency, opportunity costs, health etc, you find that your orginal logic starts to break down. It disintegrates, and you need to fashion yourself a new Weltanschauung*.

I believe the purpose of NVDL is urgent and vital. I hope you will join me in disseminating, aggregating and sharing meaningful messages for the world community. Lets stab a light of consciousness in the dark, try to accept what is out there, and then move bravely forward and begin to do what must be done.
*'world view'; personal philosophy of life.