Inclarity and Paranoia

Posted on April 12, 2003 in Blogging Writing

Raye wrote an anonymous criticism of someone who

[leaped] to a cruel set of assumptions based on what we don’t write….Accusing bloggers of hiding behind the facade of peace and a self-described love for children that goes about an inch deep because of what isn’t written simply leaves me dumbstruck.

When I read Raye’s post, I was moved to test my tentative conclusion that she was referring to me. I’ve been speaking quite frankly about the views that I’ve seen on other blogs, often criticizing what I called the wishy washy or mushy middle for presenting “compromises” that are actually sell outs to the war machine. I got hit heavily by friends for my stand against giving any kind of lip service to the war effort and warning against superficially peaceable commitments of the mind which in fact allow the warmongers to persist in killing.
I would probably have been hit harder by email if it had not been for my spam filters.

I asked Raye outright if I had caused her this grief somehow and she said that it was not the case. I accept her word for it, but as I stated in a further comment:

Well, pardon my paranoia, but I’ve caught a lot of flak from many quarters for my stands. I had started to sigh and write down the name of another offended chatter on a long list of lost friends that I’ve been accumulating since the start of this freaking war.

Another reason to oppose any war: it breaks up friendships that would have held otherwise.

I have one problem with Raye’s post and that is that she did not name who it was who attacked her or — at least — give firm clues about the identity of the person. Did this happen in a post? Was it private email? Was it on another blog? Having seen people throw tantrums over things that aren’t life threatening, having felt the power of the middle to suddenly make me out to be the destructive one (show me the bombs that I am dropping on any civilians, please, is my rebuttal to that one), I’ve been walking scared. Who is next to call me a monster because I speak my mind?

Raye speaks of what is not written and the erroneous assumptions that we draw. I think the burden of the unwritten should not be taken entirely off the writer. The reader should ask, when genuinely uncertain, for clarification. And the writer should provide that information if it has not be already implied. If a reader/respondent has read too much into what was done, the writer should be prepared to present the criticism and answer it. And we owe it to every reader to be clear, exquisitely clear, on what we feel and think.

In short, I don’t let Raye entirely off the hook for the misunderstanding here. She was vague and inspecific. I could not see who she was talking about. She struggled not to hurt a nasty person with her words and through her omission, she failed to negate the possibility that an innocent party would feel criminalized. This isn’t cause for a tantrum or my dropping her link. But I want to make it clear that clarity is a responsibility that no one who writes should shirk. The reader is not always the one to blame.

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Raye vs. me on peace issues: Raye came under attack for an article that she wrote about “supporting our troops” . I was one who simply stated my disagreement, that I could not do this in good conscience. I also stood for her right to differ on that issue and still hold her peace credentials. I continue to believe this.