I Think Mike Royko Would Have Liked Blogging

the jig is up (simple past the jig was up)
  1. (US, idiomatic, dated) An expression used to mean "We have been caught out and have no defense", or if spoken to a person who's just been found out as the perpetrator of an offense, it means "You've been discovered."
I bought my first computer in the mid 90's. I had no idea at that time of the tremendous scope of computing or what that future would look like. Accessing the internet became a perfect conduit for transmitting information to large audiences. Uncut, uncensored, and unedited. The web leveled the playing field. The unwashed and huddled masses had a means to communicate to each other and to large audiences. The bad guys might have figured that out- but the reality was- there wasn't a fucking thing they could do about it. Well, not yet anyway.

Anyone could communicate. You didn't need to own a printing press or a radio or television station to utter an opinion. The information super highway. Finally.

When I was a kid, about the only way you could reach a large audience was to write syndicated columns like the one Mike Royko wrote in Chicago. I actually think I learned to hate politicians from reading Royko columns. I thank him often. Royko smoked and drank and you just knew he swore like a sailor. But heaven forbid, in those puritan days, not even the word hell could sneak into print. I loved Mike Royko. He reminded me of everyone I knew. The dude won a Pulitzer Prize and he didn't even have a degree. Back in those days, if you were good, nobody cared about credentials. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/730719.html

Today, an amazing thing is happening. People are educating themselves. They are reading and they are writing. They are doing research and they are communicating. People are beginning to uncover the fraud that is the FED. They are beginning to see that the duopoly that masquerades as a two party political system is a fraud.  Places like ZeroHedge give readers, investors, and news junkies insight into a world that has never been talked about. The crooks pulling the levers. A forum where the sheep have a shot against the predatory practices of the government, the FED, and their corporate masters. Prior to the internet, adverse information- information that would have pissed off big corporate advertisers- would never have seen the light of day. Big advertisers would have threatened to pull their advertising the minute something didn't go their way.

My rules here are simple. I try to research everything and I try to be accurate. I want to pass on credible information. I write in a straight forward way. I use profanity when I want to. I think of profanity like I think of spice. I don't give a rat's ass what anyone might think about that and I reserve the right to change my own opinion. I will never advertise unless they come up with a way for me to select the advertisers. This is my blog and the last thing I want to see is an Obama banner or GM advertising some piece of garbage they are producing. I'll be damned if I ever let an advertiser threaten what I write or how I write it. Editorial control and it doesn't cost me a dime. How sweet is that?

Royko would have loved blogging. He could have written about anything and done so anonymously if he wanted to. The working stiff audience that he appealed to could have instantly communicated with him via a comment box or an email address. No interference, no editors, no bosses. I think Royko would have developed a tremendous following. He might not have gotten rich but I always had the feeling that he really didn't give a shit about money anyway. He just liked to write.

Today I am beginning to understand. We are united by this medium and this flow of information. For the first time ever, government and it's masters can no longer divide, conquer, and slaughter the sheep. The jig is up. The sheep have a fighting chance. We have a tool that levels the playing field and allows us to pass along vital information to each other. Yea, I think Mike would have liked this blogging thing. Those goons he wrote about, well, not so much.

Comments

Wraith said…
Dude! I grew up on Mike's column, too. I knew there was a reason I liked you! ;)
Brian said…
We are birds of a feather. Royko may have been the original smart ass...

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