Edit: November 9, 2006: This is a repost of the original Internet Island blogpost announcing the blogring. It was written on November 4th, 2005 and appeared on my main blog, WhenWordsCollide.. The ring is now officially ONE YEAR OLD. It has been on hiatus for a few months, and now I'm starting the participatory phase of the ring all over again. However, this time out I will not mix the Topic Posts in with my regular features on WhenWordsCollide. I am going to post them here at the NEW InternetIsland blog. Please leave a comment to let me know you got my message, and have subscribed to this NEW Internet Island blog!!!!!! The rest of this entry is exactly as it appeared ONE YEAR AGO! |
My High School Senior American government class was right at the forefront of the times back in 1971. The teacher, Mr. Peters, encouraged freedom of thought and expression, and we didn't have a textbook or conventional "lessons". He arranged the desks in a large circle, and nobody was at the "head" of the class. He sat in the circle along with his students, and the complete year in his class was almost like attending a large group encounter. Students who were shy became emboldened. Students with leadership qualities became leaders. Everybody got along, and all manner of differing opinions and ideas were presented. I was the class socialist, and I always talked about the "perfect society" and how I wanted to become a famous author, write the Great American Novel, and retire to my own "island" which would operate with communal perfection. That I was allowed to compare true socialism with the peace movement then galvanizing colleges was momentous in itself. Just 20 years earlier there had been a communist witch hunt in America, but by 71. to quote the prophet Dylan, "The times, they (were) a changin'". In my Senior yearbook, there are many allusions to my "island".
When I started "internetting" back in 1998, and especially when I built my website AllThingsMike in 1999, I envisioned a world medium where an "island" of philosophical intent and serious thinking could, or might, be able to "change the world". The denizens of my "internet island" would be of differing beliefs, just as in the "real world", but they would be "enlightened" and "rational" beings who could engage in serious discussions about the nature of existence, life, happiness, love, and their opposites death, grief, and hate. I have always wondered why the world seems headed for certain disaster when everyone I meet is such a great person. I believe that evil is a state of mind we all possess, but there are those who have allowed it to spread, like a virus, and there are those who have learned to cope and surpass it's heinousness. I believe in a Universal Mind, an uber existence beyond corporeality, where each of us now, before, and to exist, are together enmeshed in the most "perfect" of existences. I believe in Communication, and Equality, and am so sad and tired to see these concepts disappear. I don't believe they will disappear totally.
In my essay "A Message From the Webmaster" on AllThingsMike, written in 2001, I wrote: "The AllThingsMike Webhub has a definite structure, even though the building blocks all have different addresses on the web. This is a comprehensive experience, an evolving "experiment in art" which now will incorporate the best of information and graphics based websites in design, and hopefully will showcase the talented side of me as well as serve as a repository for my wiriting. 
And the bottom line, the Universal bottom line, as it were, is that what I believe and write about all has a basic theme, and that theme is my personal philosophy. We are all connected, as living humans, and in the cosmic sense, to the Universal Mind. By sharing my words with you, I hope to connect us even closer. Our differences are very clear for us to see. We need to look for and find what we have in common, and try to understand and tolerate the differences between us."
A while back, I created a blog called "Wandrin Minstrel" to start a movement called "Peace Through Poetry". There was even a blogring that's still there. I've got a lot of ideas and interests, and didn't follow up on that one.
I opened the blog ring the other day called "InternetIsland". I think I will use this concept, enlightened in part by the success of both Denise's "Featured Grownups" blogring and the "Socrates Cafe" from Simone de Beauvoir, to invite Xangans to populate my "island". I wish to pose "questions" every other week or so, for interactive "discussion" among the writers and thinkers I have met during my year and a half here as a member of the "Community of Xanga". I want my "Internet Island" to be the "Algonquin Table" of the internet. I have read a lot of enriching ideas amongst a variety of interesting folks. I would like to meet more folks, and kind of like the transition of my "island" from high school with the idea of an "internet island" of purpose.
I will start with this blogpost. I'm averaging about 20 comments a post these days, and I got 26 on the post I put up at 8pm last night. I've been commenting my usual average of about 15 comments a day. Tomorrow I spend some quality time with my girlfriend and Sunday I run a crew at work (the first time I've come in on a weekend in many years, but I love it when it's busy.) Anyone reading this is hereby invited, if and only if you are interested, in joining my blogring. I would love it if you would invite those who you know to be well rounded and open individuals, eager for discussion instead of destruction. We have far too many one sided blogrings. How about a "many sided blogring" dedicated to the well being of humankind. And maybe a little serious at times, and a little fun at others. I will post the first "topic" as soon as I get 20 members of the ring. If this works like I hope it does, that should be tomorrow. I have read so many bloggers who are "running out of steam". For some, blogging only lasts about a year and a half, and then the boredom kicks in. Lots of bloggers aren't inspired every day, and for them, the community aspect of blogging is what keeps them going. Others are pundits, prophets, and pontificators. I think every one has merit, and most people don't know it. I've praised the idea of the internet as a "place" where "artistic integrity" is being imbued to people who never knew it existed. Xanga is a great start for a revolution. (And I'm not talking about a "content revolution" like those "Featured sites." I'm talking about a "Global Revolution of Truth and Communication." Can we as a global people agree to disagree just long enough so that we don't kill ourselves in the process?
Come on over to my place. The "Internet Island" is open for residency. Anyone can join who knows how to LISTEN as well as spout opinions. Who knows how to REASON instead of accept blindly what others might say. The truth exists, and it is in ourselves. Who's with me? Join the blogring. For a lot of my readers that means you will have to play Triage and get rid of one of your other blogrings. This might even be my ElectricPoetry Blogring but I'm not DOING anything with that one. (Xanga only allows Premium members 8 blogrings. I am not sure about non paying subscribers (4 maybe?) I promise you if I get a turnout with this idea of mine that I've sort of had since high school, back before the internet when the "island" had to be out in the middle of the ocean. then I will make it worth your while to be a member.
The Internet Island. A place of our own, where we can truly communicate. Then maybe we'll change the world in the process. Stranger things have happened!
Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool
"It is a fool who thinketh he is wise, but only the wise man knoweth himself to be a fool." W.Shakespeare
Come Away with Me to My Internet Island,
Subscribe to this site and look for "Internet Island" UPDATES and topics, beginning when I get 20 members of the blogring. (And I also will keep you entertained as usual with regular poetry and photoposts, essays and articles. I am also participating in both the Socrates Cafe and Featured Grownups blogrings, and still have some plans for the ElectricPoetry Blogring, including a MASS plug for it like this in the future. I have run Groups on Yahoo before, and was always told I was a good group leader and motivator. I just never knew what to "do" with a blogring, until taught by being on Denise's and Simone's rings. Now I think I can help to make a difference in this small way. Are you with me?
22 MEMBERS: As of 6:08 pm pst 11/5/05
baldmike2004, The_Telemetry_Messiah, Sojourner_here, StormyMuse, brendaclews, NickyJett, mourning2dancing, renaissance_lady, paulygrl, In_Relief, WordFaery, Martin369, ladywolf_aq, NutterGreen, davesshelterfromthestorm, soonaquitter, TyneeGrannyB, Dubitare, queenoscots, youhavetosintobesaved , California_Gal, BoureeMusique
Hopefully in a few days we will all know each other, will understand that we might think differently, and be completely different people with different values and beliefs, but we are more similar than we know, and are all connected with each other in a very basic way. Thanks for joining. I'm walking on air right now!
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