Blogging as Social Protest

While watching The Colbert Report, I couldn’t help but laugh- I know, that’s kind of the point. But in the spot regarding the taser attack on a Florida college student, Colbert pointed out that students responded in the only way they know- watching and doing nothing. Colbert joked that they were probably taping it for a YouTube video. He acknowledged that the main mode of expression for Generation X, Y, and Z is blogging.

The next night, sure enough, Colbert showed a blog that responded to Colbert’s story. The student (not realizing the irony) said what Colbert didn’t realize was that the police had told them to stay back. (Colbert noted that you should never rebel against an authority figure by not doing what they say).

Yes- I do realize the irony in blogging about blogging about The Colbert Report’s story about the Florida student. I could digress and discuss the fact that John Kerry probably couldn’t protect America from an attack if he can’t protect some 22-year-old kid in the same room as him.

But my topic tonight is more along the lines of the pros and cons of blogging as social protest or mode of expression. On one hand, it’s a great start for writers (don’t I know that). Sometimes, maybe even often, you get more accurate reporting from bloggers than from the media, who have more agendas than bloggers do. Bloggers have nothing to lose- and therefore, can take chances that regular media just can’t take.

The Internet has been the defining invention of the generation. It’s hard to imagine a new media that can surpass it. It has increased globalization at a dizzying rate. It’s allowed access that no one could have dreamed- but at the same time, it restrains. In the developed countries of the world, we often forget that a great many citizens of the world do not have telephones, much less computers with Internet access. (By the way, they also don’t have clean drinking water, houses, or enough food). As technology increases, the economic divide follows suit. In America, we talk about the American Dream, but we neglect the fact that in this increasingly global society, it should be a human dream. When the American Dream is a vacation house, and people across the world are living in squalor, the search shouldn’t be for a great investment, but human compassion.

Another digression? I don’t think so. Because that apathy has extended to within American borders. The people who sat idly by while a young man was tased (an act that can kill) for the mere act of asking obnoxious (but not necessarily useless) questions of a guy who ran for President a while ago showed no emotion. Colbert’s infamous “guy in the orange shirt” didn’t even take his chin off his hand. Fear and apathy run rampant and allow the dangerous abuse of power as evidenced in this event.

Blogging may be the last bastion of free speech in this country. As guarded and remote as it is, it may soon be the last place you can make your voice heard without fear of electrical shock.