Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Are Bloggers Self-Centered?
Gary Short left an interesting comment in my blog regarding fighting poverty asking for my opinion...
Gary asked in response to him putting the one.org banner on his blog: I would not show such a banner as I believe the argument (to end world poverty) has already been won. I don't think you could find a single person who thinks world poverty is a good thing and should be supported. The question now is not should we end it, but how do we end it? What are your ideas as a "thought leader" on this matter?
I think the answer to this is simple. Poverty ends when folks are willing to talk about it. The beautiful thing about one.org is that they aren't asking for money but are simply asking folks to have a conversation on the topic. The reason that poverty is still allowed to exist is that is not something we see, touch or feel as part of our daily lives.
Consider the fact that I along with many of folks who are employed by large enterprises drive in from the suburbs and consciously ignore all the homeless people on the way to the office. We find that dirty looking guy who happened to have served our country dirty and ill mannered and by him running up to our car soliciting our spare change takes away the enjoyment of us drinking our overpriced Starbucks coffee (NOTE: I am a shareholder and still encourage you to drink) or distracts women from putting on their makeup while driving while making the realize that cosmetics are nothing but a facade.
The notion of a meme in the blogosphere is well understood. The blogosphere succeeded with rallying together 2000 bloggers or individuals sharing five things about themselves but no one ever talked about poverty or more human-oriented topics.
Imagine if bloggers such as Michelle Malkin, James Robertson, Dave Taylor, Kathy Sierra, Mark Frauenfelder, Michael Arrington, Arianna Huffington, Seth Godin, Nicholas Carr, John Amato, Richard MacManus, Charlene Li or others simply added the one.org banner to their blog? I suspect this would make the topic of poverty viral.
Guy Kawasaki talks about how to change the world but never steps up to talk about poverty and how he can help. Imagine if he simply dedicated one post to say poverty in Africa? I suspect folks will listen.
The best way to end poverty is to simply talk about it and the problem will take care of itself. If every blogger reading my blog instead of choosing to exercise their right to remain silent instead decided to spend just five minutes talking about poverty to one or two other individuals, poverty would be eliminated. Of course, I don't have facts to support this position but would love to be proven wrong...
| | View blog reactionsGary asked in response to him putting the one.org banner on his blog: I would not show such a banner as I believe the argument (to end world poverty) has already been won. I don't think you could find a single person who thinks world poverty is a good thing and should be supported. The question now is not should we end it, but how do we end it? What are your ideas as a "thought leader" on this matter?
I think the answer to this is simple. Poverty ends when folks are willing to talk about it. The beautiful thing about one.org is that they aren't asking for money but are simply asking folks to have a conversation on the topic. The reason that poverty is still allowed to exist is that is not something we see, touch or feel as part of our daily lives.
Consider the fact that I along with many of folks who are employed by large enterprises drive in from the suburbs and consciously ignore all the homeless people on the way to the office. We find that dirty looking guy who happened to have served our country dirty and ill mannered and by him running up to our car soliciting our spare change takes away the enjoyment of us drinking our overpriced Starbucks coffee (NOTE: I am a shareholder and still encourage you to drink) or distracts women from putting on their makeup while driving while making the realize that cosmetics are nothing but a facade.
The notion of a meme in the blogosphere is well understood. The blogosphere succeeded with rallying together 2000 bloggers or individuals sharing five things about themselves but no one ever talked about poverty or more human-oriented topics.
Imagine if bloggers such as Michelle Malkin, James Robertson, Dave Taylor, Kathy Sierra, Mark Frauenfelder, Michael Arrington, Arianna Huffington, Seth Godin, Nicholas Carr, John Amato, Richard MacManus, Charlene Li or others simply added the one.org banner to their blog? I suspect this would make the topic of poverty viral.
Guy Kawasaki talks about how to change the world but never steps up to talk about poverty and how he can help. Imagine if he simply dedicated one post to say poverty in Africa? I suspect folks will listen.
The best way to end poverty is to simply talk about it and the problem will take care of itself. If every blogger reading my blog instead of choosing to exercise their right to remain silent instead decided to spend just five minutes talking about poverty to one or two other individuals, poverty would be eliminated. Of course, I don't have facts to support this position but would love to be proven wrong...
