tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6436782247272162797.post1530390255308950177..comments2024-03-27T17:27:49.087-04:00Comments on Strangely Blogged: George Will Just Seems Extra-Insufferable LatelyVixen Strangelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976594951225450413noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6436782247272162797.post-33940287854812498502014-05-15T06:48:14.752-04:002014-05-15T06:48:14.752-04:00My apologies to the Mrs and yourself--I think I am...My apologies to the Mrs and yourself--I think I am only used to having so many regular commenters...Vixen Strangelyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01976594951225450413noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6436782247272162797.post-59947054900699536132014-05-14T23:47:10.684-04:002014-05-14T23:47:10.684-04:00Hi Vixen, you have me confused. I am not Alicia. ...Hi Vixen, you have me confused. I am not Alicia. You are half right, however. The beautiful and radiant Alicia is Mrs. Formerly Amherst.<br /><br />Like any liberated husband, I do not tell her where to post, what to say, or when to do it. And she has gotten kind of interested in your site because of my own exchange with you. <br /><br />I promise you, she smells better than I do, looks better, and went to a better university. She is not an active poster, but does have something to say once in a while. Although she has read Out of America, I never have. My reading takes other directions. She has talked a lot about this business of the writer discovering that Africans don't name their dead. It's a kind of powerful metaphor for her, in some way defining the different sensibilities between African and the United States.<br /><br />Whoa! McLuhan. It takes me back. I once saw him and even exchanged a few words. My friend asked him if he was a "puncil sharpener." McLuhan thought that was funny because of his great scholarship of James Joyce. <br /><br />Picking up where my wife left off, I would have to wonder then, why the First Lady would choose a cold medium rather than a hot one if she regarded the subject with great importance.<br /><br />You will recall that McLuhan said that the pictures on TV sets were composed of dots. And as it required a human mind to put these dots together into a picture, the viewer was the screen on which the media played. And this is why the eye became the ear (what in a tribal society would be conveyed mouth to ear) and therefore one was back to the tribal village. And also this was why TV was a hot medium. You will remember all that business about a movie having a projector behind the viewer and therefore being a colder medium, since the mind of the viewer had fewer requirements as part of a participation mystique with the television.<br /><br />It seems to me that the tweets would once again be a cold medium. But of course people weren't doing tweets when McLuhan was alive.<br /><br />I was struck by my wife's insight into the perception of tweeting relative to the different generations. I had not thought of it, but I completely agree with her. At least half of the population is too old to take tweeting seriously if they do not happen to be in an industry that causes them to be avant garde.<br /><br />As to what "Alicia" thinks of all this, I will leave up to her to decide whether she wishes to pursue the matter further. <br /><br />--Formerly AmherstAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6436782247272162797.post-86743313460670218782014-05-14T20:18:24.741-04:002014-05-14T20:18:24.741-04:00I think your perspective might be fairer to Will, ...I think your perspective might be fairer to Will, Formerly Amherst. You know, this conversation smacks of McLuhan's "The Medium is the Message". <br /><br />From Will's perspective, Twitter may just be a more frivolous medium--kind of the way folks drag out Warhol's 15 minutes of fame 140 characters at a time. It's kind of a "small d" democratizing media tool, though, in that the weight of the message desseminates it more rapidly--a successful meme, if you will. To my eyes, the use of Twitter for Michelle Obama was just a show of solidarity, it was giving a signal-boost to the non-Twitter community by giving the weekly presidential radio & internet address. To someone unused to Twitter, use of the social media was the anomaly. or her, it was a way to acknowledge the Nigerian mothers whose Twitter campaign first really brought this to world attention. <br /><br />The medium kind of being the message can work both ways, though. I used to think that as a medium became more familiar--I recall McLuhan was mostly talking about tv, and I grew up in front of a color tv set--well, you just didn't think about the medium used as much. But come to think of it, from the prize punditry spot of a Sunday chat show, it is possible what Will said would seem more elitist to me. Vixen Strangelyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01976594951225450413noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6436782247272162797.post-32943831084671347712014-05-13T23:57:43.463-04:002014-05-13T23:57:43.463-04:00Vixen, I was following you fine until the last par...Vixen, I was following you fine until the last part. George Will compared light bulbs with the effectiveness of twitter trends, not with either the kidnapped girls or wanting to help those girls.<br /> <br />You're definitely onto something with the generation gap. I'm elderly like Will, and I admit that my own first reaction to the First Lady's sign was puzzlement, because it seemed so weak for a message from a famous face of the world's main center of power.<br /> <br />Many of us old people associate Twitter with adolescents and the celebrities they adore or love to hate; we associate Twitter trends with the image of a ferry's passengers rushing from one side of the boat to the other to look at the emotional equivalent of Miley Cyrus or whale pods or zombies.<br /><br />So we would expect the First Lady to make a short, impassioned, eloquent statement about getting the Nigerian girls back to their homes safely, and in turn that would be trended on Twitter by others. Instead we see what seems to be sadness and fear in a hashtag photo for Twitter, just like any helpless, confused, worried mom with no recourse. She's just a civilian, of course, but I would have expected her to convey the implication of what her husband can command.<br /> <br />On a positive note about the origination of the hashtag in Nigeria -- years ago I read Keith B Richburg's book Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa, and was dismayed to read of his discovery that in Africa nowhere did they count their dead, whereas in the West, not only were the dead counted, but their names and ages were demanded by journalists and the public.<br /> <br />Nigerian participation in the Twitter hashtag is a comforting reminder that cultures can change for the better and perhaps have in some places. The girls are not dead, but they matter in a way not recognized in Africa not so long ago.Alicianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6436782247272162797.post-40116657656536524452014-05-13T21:43:33.849-04:002014-05-13T21:43:33.849-04:00I'm not sure I can agree with "lately.&qu...I'm not sure I can agree with "lately."<br /><br />I grew up in D.C., reading the Washington Post.<br /><br />He has ALWAYS been an insufferable and dishonest asshole.<br />~ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®©https://www.blogger.com/profile/06252371815131259831noreply@blogger.com