What Is A Blog?

Succinctly, it is the official publication of whoever publishes it.  That is a matter of record -- of their thoughts, and how they think.  As such, there are no "shoulds" as to how it should be, or must be -- but is, whatever one can imagine it to be -- good or bad.  One cannot "fake" a blog.  It is, what the person is -- really, and for that reason, many do not blog -- because it would reveal their true thoughts.  Many others will start blogs, and then erase everything they previously published, because they don't want to be known by it.

Many, instead of telling you what they think -- tell you what you ought to think -- about them, that they are "award-winning," "world-acclaimed" and some such.  They have merely taken a page from the "mainstream mass media" in that way -- of telling us what we ought to think, and not just laying out the facts of how they came to think as they do, and letting us think for ourselves, and come to our own conclusions.

Instead, they claim to do all the thinking for us, or know those people who should, and are duly-authorized to do so exclusively for everyone else. So once we are aware of all these deceptions, intimidations and manipulations, we can read any blog (publication), and learn the true intent of the authors -- which may range from the genuine desire to share information (discoveries), or reveal the single-minded (and shameless) intention to exploit all those less competent, or attentive than themselves -- as the continuation of the primitive struggles of a more brutal and ruthless times.

Thus some blogs will stand the test of time, and endure, while many will be disowned and purged, as soon as the authors themselves realize the folly in revealing everything they know, and how they are undone at their own hands.  It further reveals, what they think of those they have written these words for -- whether for the most unwary, or for the most diligent, aware and attentive -- or the supreme intelligence in the universe, ie., God, and therefore is their ultimate dedication to the greatest they are capable of.

In this way, it becomes their fullest and greatest expression of who they are, and what they know -- as the achievement of their worthiness for entrance to even higher callings.  They have demonstrated in this very obvious expression -- the highest intelligence they are capable of understanding -- and expressing, and there is no other -- if the truth be known.  There is not some vast storehouse of wisdom and knowledge that they know -- but cannot express, communicate, and demonstrate palpably to another -- though they may claim to possess it -- known only to themselves.

Conveniently, a group known in former times as the Scribes, would offer to bridge this chasm of what such people claimed to know (Pharisees), and how they could convince the masses that they actually knew something, and were in direct communication with the highest authorities, and spoke for them, on every matter.  They later became institutionalized as the "academics," and then with the printing press, the "publishers" and "the media" -- or those who had the means or access to these presses.  

Undoubtedly, information was more widely available than it ever was before -- when all writing had to be individually hand-transcribed by people largely dedicated to that purpose.  That was the creation of the original universities -- when one person in authority and presumably knew, would lecture to a roomful of students (novitiates), to copy word for word as they spoke -- as best they could. Even then, all books did not come out identically.  Many had fancy doodlings in the margin -- waiting for the rest to catch up, so everybody could move on -- to the next passage, in this lockstep fashion.

So the printing press was quite an advancement in the production and reproduction of the original ideas -- as true to how they were originally expressed.  The next advance is in distribution -- because even if one has mass quantities of anything -- getting them to the right people who can use and appreciate them, is another matter entirely -- or at least, used to be.  The revolution in any field, is when the many things, become only one thing -- subsuming all the others.  In writing, that is when the printing becomes the distribution in the same act -- and not that one has warehouses of books one wonders what to do with, and how to market, and manifest value from them.

Probably the great majority of words printed, did not find find the proper targets -- as they were randomly and broadly distributed, hoping to find the few, and hopefully the many, who would value that information greatly, if not desperately.  But even the most valuable, gets drowned out by the sheer mass of the offerings and appeals -- thinking to achieve their own agendas, whatever that may be.  Many hope to leave their mark in the world, in this way.  Simply that they existed -- even if for no good reason or purpose.  Wild animals do the same -- by urinating and defecating to mark their territory, and let the world know they are there -- and claim the turf.

Presumably, they communicate a lot of information in that way -- about what they eat, and importantly, how much they eat -- so that one knows what they are dealing with, and whether one should throw their lot with that pack, and whether they are the prey or predator.  Written communications do the same -- much more efficiently, because no physical material is actually needed to represent it as they are in words, images and symbols denoting that -- to those who have learned those tools of language -- and how to use them expertly precisely -- to express all they know.