free speech? or loud-mouth point-scoring males?
Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian gave one of the better accounts of yesterday’s story about civility in blogland. (It’s interesting to me that the particular blogvillages I tend to visit had this conversation at least 2 years ago, applied some old-fashioned principles of manners, and nowadays mostly conduct a pretty well mannered discourse. But anyone who has ever been bothered by trolls, flames, torches etc., will recognise exactly what Freedland is talking about:
"…That’s the beauty of [the blogosphere], say its defenders; an environment of truly free speech. If your ideas cannot withstand the fierce gale of harsh debate, then they’re probably just too flimsy. In one respect, they’re right. Journalists like me have had to raise our game, knowing that a factual lapse will be pointed out within minutes. But that advantage is surely out- weighed by the risk that the blogo-sphere, which could be a new, revolutionary public space, instead becomes a stale, claustrophobic environment, appealing chiefly to a certain kind of aggressive, point-scoring male – and utterly off-putting to everyone else. This is not just bad news for media outlets like the Guardian, keen to build an audience; it means that this great democratic opportunity is lost.
Read the rest here: Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | The blogosphere risks putting off everyone but point-scoring males.
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Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
In an increasingly secularised society few people have a good working knowledge of the Bible. Yet a great deal of our culture is built on stories or ideas that come from the Bible. Literature, art, music, language and even the fabric of our society - such as our justice system - are built on Christian concepts and biblical references. The Writing on the Wall provides a fascinating introduction to the Bible's best-known, and most influential, stories. Each chapter gives some background to the text of the Bible, and shows how the stories have become enmeshed in Western culture. Adam and Eve, the ten plagues of Egypt, The Prodigal Son and Mary Magdalene all feature - along with how the Bible has influenced everyone from Shakespeare to Monty Python, and Caravaggio to Banksy. 
Giving It Up explores the Lenten idea of 'giving up', taking it beyond the traditional idea of simply abstaining from something, and suggesting instead that what we need to give up is our existing ideas about God. With a daily readings for each day of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, it follows the heroes of the Bible who had to give up their own too-small ideas about God.
This is Maggi’s bestselling book of daily readings for each day of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Advent is the beginning of the Church year, and marks the anticipation of the coming Messiah. These readings explore how beginnings and endings in our own lives are illuminated by the different Gospel narratives of Christ's coming.
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