You find yourself reading someone whose judgment you used to respect very highly and then it hits you:
"How dumb was I?"
It may even be happening to you right this second....
Lord knows I've worn out my welcome with some over time.
But it hit me reading someone from my neck of the woods just a few minutes ago. I was going to do a post responding to the piece. But I realized that the writer was making the kind of arguments--and in the same style--that I used to eat up with a shovel.
And the arguments were either deliberately disingenuous or were the product of the inability to do a thoughtful analysis. Frankly, the former is not only uncharitable, it is unlikely.
The reality is, the writer is a bulldog spiritual partisan who operates from presuppositions that are impervious to contrary evidence. And that renders the analysis persuasive only to the already-persuaded from the get-go. The more I think it over, it has ever been thus.
And my reactions to it, then and now, say more about me than it does about the writer.
Then there's the possibility: maybe I was right then and wrong now? I truly don't think so, but time may tell.
And on that quasi-Montaigne-ish bit of pacing-about-the-room analysis, I will draw this post to a close.
I hope I wasn't the one who brought about these ruminations.
ReplyDeleteNO.
ReplyDeleteNot even remotely. The person in question has a semi-professional Catholic perch.
I have often had a similar experience. I have also had the experience of watching people with whom I agreed go bad, for lack of a better word, and many went down some very deep rabbit holes. It seemed to often come with being popular. I don't think we were made to have thousands of people come and say 'Right on! I agree with everything you say! You knocked it out of the park again, as usual!'
ReplyDeleteDigitally-supplied dopamine can be very, very bad.
ReplyDeleteYes, I have seen it cause people who might otherwise correct course instead deepen their plunge. And the more of a "brand" you develop, the more likely you are to hew to brand development and preservation rather than take stock and pull up short.
I had that problem back in the day when blogs were a thing. I still have issues. But the constant checking to see how high this site was rising in hit counts is not one of them.
It has become, more or less, a creative outlet instead of "a noted blog."
Not that I don't mind being noticed, but it's not remotely the focus nowadays. And that has to be healthier.
My blog was never a success. That used to bother me, now it feels a bit like I have dodged a bullet.
ReplyDelete