Rules for the College Football Blogosphere? There aren’t enough rules in the world already?
Peter Bean (BON) and Orson Swindle (EDSBS), two monsters of the college football blogosphere have put up a set of ‘proposals’ (rules) that they’d apparently like us to follow (join the movement, as BON says). I don’t get it - I really don’t.
The list of proposals (rules) sounds like a good idea - bringing up the level of discourse - but isn’t that also how you start paving the road to hell with good intentions? This year it starts with 17 rules and next year there’s 25, the year after that 35, then 50. There’s only one set of rules I’m aware that started at ten and has stayed at ten over the years and those involved a Supreme Being. Human beings can’t help themselves in this regard because they have a need to control the world around them.
I suppose it’s inevitable as the blogosphere evolution/revolution marches on, but I can’t help but feel saddened watching as non-conformists start to conform.
So to y’all joining this movement I say no thanks. I have no interest in following any form of rules regarding participation in the college football blogosphere. I reserve the right to make fun of any number of coaches that I feel like making fun of on any given day of the week. I reserve the right to bash the PAC-10. I reserve the right to be a reactionary boob if the situation presents itself and if I’m wrong, I’ll only apologize if I feel like it (or Mrs. Corn Nation makes me). I will not be bound by a bunch of rules because I won’t remember them anyway.
Referencing a particularly bad ‘70’s movie and Peter Fonda? I can’t get much lower than this can I?
Maybe I need to relax, eh? 45 years old and I still have a problem with authority. Maybe it’s the big chip on my shoulder. Maybe it’s because I want to be free to do what I want to do even if it’s the stupidest thing possible.
As long as the internets remain free (as in speech, not as in beer) I feel an obligation to honor that freedom. There are already too many rules to follow in the world and the blogosphere is one of the few places left that we aren’t forced to comply.
--JJ--