Way back , back in the old days , the nineteen sixties to be exact I used to walk around with my hands in my pocket. Sometimes I would stand up and sometimes I’d just sit down. I would look to the left and the right. I was always looking. You had to be on your guard. They were everywhere.
But they have always been there , pretending they are on your side but you knew deep down inside that they are only looking after number one. In my young days they were called hippies. I never liked them. I remember looking at them and thinking , “They are from the same class as the old guard they claim they want to overthrow”. They attended the same colleges and universities. They said that these institutes of learning had to be torn down…. but they already had their degree in their pocket. They talked about free love and bringing down the barriers but they had a contempt for the working class …..they were the Me generation.
I used to sit in the dining room. I had a record deck , the kind that you used to plug into the back of an old valve radio to make the sound come out and I would sit for hours listening to Elvis Presley while watching the RCA label spinning round and round. They didn’t like Elvis. They tended to sneer at anyone who did. It was a class thing and behind all their progressive posturing they were very conscious of their class. They criticized their own parents but sounded remarkably like them for all that.
They smoked pot and experimented with sex …..free love , they used the word free quite a lot but like I said nobody was fooled. I used to think …”Give it a few years and they will all be back to working for Daddy….” And they were. This is the generation that gave the world Global Capitalism.
Another time and another place. And here they are again. But the’re not called hippies any more. Today they call themselves Bloggers. And this time round they are still peddling that word ‘free’. The free exchange of information and the new open networks…..a brave new world that’s going to make the old ways redundant. But we have heard it all before. And the universities they came out of are the same institutions that gave us George Bush and Enron. Look them up some time on Boing Boing and Information Aesthetics. They even sound like Corporations and they didn’t get to where they are by being rebels….there are no free spirits here , they all walked the line. Like father like son.
And as a friend of mine used to say , ” At least with Hitler you knew where you stood”. They are in control. They own the network. They will tell you over and over again that it’s a democratic media , the Internet. You can be just like them or so they would have you believe but make no mistake , they ARE in control.
Who was it who said , ” the liberal opposition and part of the regime”? Whoever it was he was a wise man. As my mother used to say , “Walk softly and carry a big stick …..and watch your back”. And you would need eyes in the back of your head with the likes of these people. As the Americans are fond of saying , “follow the money”. You wont find any of these people among the broken and destitute littering our city streets. No suffering for their art here. They listen to their pop idols in the stadium just like any other Nero. They have taken to Soccer football just as the working class are being priced out. They will sell out their blogs some day too , when the price is right.
“Who’s afraid of Cory Doctorow “? Copyright and trade policies!! You can’t tell a book by the cover but you can take a damn good guess .So what’s he really selling?. He’s selling Cory Doctorow Inc.
Dispatches from Blogistan or Triumph of the Will. You pay your money and make your choice. Red Bull or Jack Daniel’s. “Words , Words, Words”. And the truth?.
….Well the truth is that Elvis is dead and business is business
ps. just read this in Dispatches from Blogistan. “We’re figuring out how to get the masses involved (in blogging) without mob rule”(Craig Newmark/craiglist.com). (note the ‘we’). You have to read it twice but take the smile off your face first.
COMMING SOON TO THIS BLOG: IAN BRADY , MICHAEL COLLINS AND THE GENTLE ART OF QUEUING.
The WordPress Social Club Bar
June 4, 2007
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More Blog Traffic The Truth
May 8, 2007
A lot of people will say they want more traffic. That’s what they will tell you. It’s what they think they want but before you can get a good intelligent answer you have to be sure what the question is. And in this case the question actually is “How can I get a lot of traffic in a quick and easy way”. The answer to this question is that you don’t.
So what about all the tricks and systems out there?. Easy , they don’t work. What about all those sites dedicated to getting you more traffic?. Easy , it’s all nonsense and lies. But that would mean everything I have been reading is wrong?. Easy , yes they are all wrong. But how then do I get more traffic?. Easy , like everything else you just got to work hard.
There are of course people out there who tell you otherwise but think on this. If someone told you they had an easy way of you making money what would you say? Or if someone told you that they had a simple way of making you popular with the opposite sex? People make these claims all the time but we don’t belive them. And more to the point here when or if you get in touch with an Internet site pushing these services they will tell you they have a quick fix. But of course it’s all a lie. Because if you have a real money or romance problem in your life then it’s probably got nothing to do with cash or anything else , it has a lot more to do with how you have been living that life for the last twenty years. And the solution will involve time , quite a bit of time and a lot of hard work and more. But of course you don’t get rich telling the truth like that. And deep down inside most people probably know all this and they really are just looking for assurance that somehow things will improve. And yes , we all ‘ know a guy who’ but you are not one of them. We all know a guy who won the lottery , or had a paranormal experience or who’s wife was having an affair with the milkman , we have all met people like that but it’s never happened to us. Just think about it!. Nothing is achieved in life without hard work. Even a failure has spent a long time and a lot of work to become one.
So what about all those blogs that give advice , free advice on how you can get a lot of traffic. There free , so what about them? This is another example of how careful you have to be about the question. Because you see the question is wrong. Understand this , they are not free. Let me repeat that. There not free.
You may not be giving them money but you are giving them clicks. Some people want those clicks because that in turn will make them money while others want them for a variety of reasons. They want traffic and in case you didn’t notice your it. The reasons are not important. Why do you want traffic?.
So why don’t they just tell you the truth? The answer again is simple. What if they did tell you , what would you do? And the answer to that is very simple. You just wouldn’t go back to that site again. Deep down inside you would know that what they were telling you is the truth but you would not feel grateful , just a bit down. And that’s why these blogs don’t tell you either. Some will try to be honest and tell you that with a ‘bit’ of work and these tricks that you can succeed but of course if you work hard you wont need any tricks or systems. You know that , I know that and the dogs in the street know that but human nature makes us fool , or try to fool ourselves every day of the week. We want to feel good. We need to feel good. And we spend a fortune buying stuff that we don’t need and often won’t make us happy for just this reason and we do it every day. We believe what we want to believe. If someone is running a very successful blog giving advice they will more often than not give you what your looking for and that’s usually reassurance.
There are very successful and respected sites that will tell you different. And you go back to those and that’s why they are successful.
But you’ll say I know a site or I know this blogger etc etc. My answer is follow the money or clicks. The one great problem with the internet is that anyone can give advice and they do. If someone says different just think of those clicks.
There are of course ways to improve your blog traffic but first you must understand the nature of blogging itself. And not everyone does. The successful people do but why should they tell you? They don’t even know you so why would they tell you?
If you found any of this helpful then check this blog in a week. I will write a post about the actual nature of blogging.
