Are we living in the Idiocracy?
I have been blogging for fifteen years. I was writing opinion columns for seven years before that, back to when I wrote for the Indiana Daily Student in college. I found out after the Super Bowl that the way to be an Internet celebrity is not to try to form coherent and convincing political and ideological arguments and influence policy that way, but to to eat horse manure on YouTube.
That is encouraging. I am so glad I have poured so much time, effort and money into my blogging just to be leapfrogged by an idiot who takes a big bite of horse manure. It makes me feel like all my efforts have been worth it.
My frustration is not with my lack of reach, or that others are more successful than I am. My frustration is the kind of content that makes someone famous: Not years of work, but thirty seconds to do something disgusting that is uploaded to YouTube. Is that really all it takes to go viral? Apparently. It feels like we are living in the Idiocracy, where we use Gatorade to water our plants and the most popular TV show is one where people get kicked in the groin over and over.
The complaining above aside, I am happy with my life. I am satisfied with what God has given me and I am thankful for His blessings, which are numerous. I understand that I will never be a nationally known columnist or pundit, nor will my blog be one of the most heavily visited sites on the web. Do I want to have a wider reach, a bigger audience and more influence? Sure I do. I would be lying if I said otherwise. But after over twenty years writing thousands of opinion pieces, I understand that my blogging is a hobby and that is how I have to approach it. If it is God's will that I become more influential, it will happen.