The Books of Bokonon

I basically spelled out some reasons to have a personal blog when I started this one back in 2023. I still stand by that reasoning. I am really much better using a format where I don't have to worry about character limits. I still have a Twitter account (that's going dormant), but that platform has well passed its expiration date. I think Mastodon has some real potential, but I don't really get a lot of interaction there, even when I post a whole bunch. Bluesky is where most of academic Twitter ended up, and where a lot of the Democratic activist and advocate community are heading, and for some purposes it will do. But if I am not going to get much in the way of interaction, I might as well do so without being concerned about whether the platform can handle threaded posts, reposts, quote posts, and so on. At least I can satisfy myself that I could say what I wished to say in the way I wanted and be grateful for the handful of views it will get. I did let this blog go fallow...

This blog cannot live up to its title if I don't occasionally offer some scripture from the fragments of The Books of Bokonon that appear in the classic Kurt Vonnegut novel, Cat's Cradle . So here is one that seems quite timely: Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before. He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.   That strikes me as a good warning for any of us exposed to politicians, the usual talking heads we see on cable (and YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, etc.), some of our academicians, clerics, celebrities and influencers, etc. So it goes. Someone kindly compiled all of the passages from the Books of Bokonon on a website . You should still read Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. It is a classic, and that's no foma.

Dan Gillmor at Techdirt wrote a very thoughtful essay on why journalists in particular needed to abandon Twitter . I'd recommend reading the post and completely ignoring the comments. Those are a shit show. Twitter is a special case at the moment simply because it is now owned and operated by a man who displays the symptoms of several personality disorders and who will suspend accounts, including those of municipal public services , on a whim. That is just not a sustainable situation.  His primary point throughout is that Twitter's users need to exit in an orderly manner. That means having presences on platforms that are far less toxic, use those regularly, and then use Twitter more or less as a friendly reminder that a lot of their real action is elsewhere, and to go there if they don't want to miss out. Gillmor is very critical of journalists and most news media corporations. In the case of Twitter, Elon Musk is essentially naming the tune, and the media corporations and ...