August 23, 2008

• Continue with the Drama!

  Every once in a while people come along and get pissed off about what
  they call Xanga Drama. They say “God, stop with the Drama already,
  Can’t you all just grow up?”
  
  
  
  And it’s true. Xanga has lots of drama. And sometimes I have to admit,
  I find it rather annoying. I certainly don’t particularly WANT to be a
  part of these crazy personality conflict that arise between various
  peoples. I don’t like following the rumours and having to deal with the
  question of who’s lying and who’s telling the truth and who’s story is
  real and who did what to whom and said this to whoever. It gets tiring.
  And I find people tiring already. The more Drama the worse it is.
  
  
  
  And yet…. I don’t want the Drama to stop. Because Drama isn’t really
  inherently a bad thing. It really really isn’t. Indeed in a very real
  sense, the Drama is a large part of what makes Xanga distinctive. It’s
  want makes Xanga more like a real community than
  other blogging sites. In a very real sense, the Drama suggests that
  Xangans really do care about their Xangan identities. They can be hurt
  by something that someone says online. They can want revenge against
  someone. They can believe in enforcing norms of morality and feel it’s
  right to call someone out if they think that person is doing something
  unjust.
  
  
  
  “No no!”, you argue, “Xanga drama isn’t what makes Xanga a community,
  it just changes Xanga from an adult community to a childish community.
  I don’t want people to stop caring about Xanga, I just want Xangans to
  GROW UP!”
  
  
  
  But you know? I’ve always thought the word “childish” was a funny word.
  Whenever I think of the activities commonly associated with the word
  “childish”, it isn’t children that come to mind as the prime examples
  of the exercist of these activities. It’s adults. It’s adults who
  cheat. It’s adults who lie. It’s adults who attack and insult and
  insinutate and try to discredit.  It’s adults who steal and it’s adults
  who seek out revenge. It’s adults who I see throwing hissy fits and
  being bitchy or crude or rude because of some minor manner that really
  shouldn’t be a big deal at all.
  
  
  
  But young children? Rarely. I mean sure children cry and complain but
  it’s a much more honest kind of behavior for them. It’s the adults who
  behave this way out of sheer vindictiveness, greed, or arrogance.  And
  really the reason why our teenage years come to our mind as the prime
  example of “childish” behavior, I believe that’s primarily because it
  is as teenagers that we are most inclined to try to *emulate* adults.
  It’s just easier to pick on teenagers about it because they are so
  young and inexperienced that they do such a piss poor job of trying to
  behave in a so-called “childish” manner.And so they make embarrassing mistakes and don’t get away with as much crap.
  
  
  
  But don’t worry. They’re trying hard. Soon they’ll graduate to the same
  level of childish machinations as any true adult and they’ll wield them
  well to rise to power in our lovely competitive system that gives lip
  service to the valuing of Just behavior while really giving advantage
  to those who have no such inhibitions.
  
  
  
  We really should not use the word childish, rather we should call all
  these things “adultish”.  We should say xanga drama is too adultish and
  people need to um… I dunno… grow down? shrink up?  something like
  that…
  
  
  
  Oh anyway I’ve totally lost my train of thought. But what I wanted to
  say I guess is that Xanga drama’s not so bad. It’s no worse than
  anything else in the adult world. We just deal with it. If you were
  thinking that Xanga would be a haven for the honest and virtuous
  amongst us, you were just deluding yourself. Be happy that Xanga is
  real enough thta there is Drama. I’d much rather have it that way then
  an empty forum where nobody knows anybody and we’re all just lost in
  our own little worlds ranting to ourselves, unheard, unremarked, and
  entirely irrelevant.

  • 9:00 pm
  • 4 Comments