I've browsed a few blogs and I just can't seem to wrap my head around why people do this. Does anyone actually believe their opinions matter to the world at large? Granted, here I sit at the keys putting my own thoughts down. But for me this is a journal entry. And my earlier entries have just been for fun and the entertainment of my limited friends and family.

Today I searched for a particular insurance company, looking for corporate info to get an idea of who they are. Near the top of the first results page is a connection to a blog, much like mine, but filled with insurance agent's licensing test questions. The owner of the blog had his journal entries set in the right hand margin as he advertised his connection with this company. I assume he is an agent and uses his account to help others prepare for their tests. But his short article, with his thoughts on life, politics, home, etc. was so poorly written that I find it hard to believe he could even pass a test, much less persuade anyone to buy life insurance. But his blog looked professional with a nice layout and obviously good advertising by Google.

Not wishing to pick on an individual, let me just say that this is all too common in cyberspace. Companies like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and others provide this wonderful online facility where everyone has a chance to "pen" their deepest thoughts for posterity. We can rant, giggle, joke, philosophize, and generally just think out loud (sort-of) and have it saved for all time, bouncing through servers and mirror sites around the globe. I myself have made folks from as far away as England and Australia laugh at my jokes and funny pictures. But for me the question becomes: Should we expect our words to receive credibility, simply because we have "published" them?

Consider the entertainment industry, filled with actors and musicians. They inspire us with their portrayals and their voices. They tickle us with fantasy. They make us envious of their lifestyles. Then they presume to tell us how to think, both politically and religiously. And we grant them full authority as experts, seemingly just because they are famous. I know none of them personally, so I cannot say for sure that they are all mindless and stupid. But since I know none of them personally, I also cannot say they are geniuses, experts in fields like environmental science, religion, world politics, world hunger, medical science, and the list goes on. And yet, merely because they can sing or act, we swoon as they testify before congress, pretending to speak for us.

My son, at six years old, discovered a website called addictinggames.com. It has fun games like Kitty-Cannon and various race-car games. But then he found this really incredible game that taught him, with animated graphic reality, knee replacement surgery. In this game you start with a normal looking leg. You then select instruments from an array and proceed to open the skin and perform surgery. All the steps are spelled out (I only assume accurately) with parts labeled and surgical instruments available, and everything explained and ready. I was amazed to watch my six-year-old open a knee, cut and remove bad cartilage, clean and prep the area, then assemble the replacement parts in the right order before closing the wound and sewing the stitches. I was amazed....

Would you allow my son to perform this surgery on your knee? Or would you prefer someone who actually studied and practiced in the real world, perhaps under the supervision of an experienced and credentialed senior doctor?

Would you fawn over the opinions of an entertainer simply because he or she is "somebody" or would you rather consider life and all its delicacies by pursuing truth? And if you cannot find the truth by yourself, who is better qualified to direct you? Do you really want to put your faith (literally) in the hands of someone who chose a career pursuing the artificial?

And so let me come back around to my first question. Why do people blog? And further, should their opinions matter merely because they have found a venue to distribute them?

Let me presume to answer:
1. People blog because it makes them feel important. Their opinions are out there for the world to see and now they have contributed to the common good. Perhaps they can even make a difference.
2. No opinion should be elevated above another based merely upon it's level of saturation. This is how the U.S. political parties found their candidates in the last presidential election (talk about your no-win scenario).
3. And now to answer the question smarter readers have already asked: No, my opinions should receive neither more nor less weight than any other blogger's in this post-industrial community of thinkers.

Then again, as I mentioned above, this is just a journal entry. If you like my opinions, thank you. If you disapprove heartily, so what? My voice is one of millions and should be treated as such - no more, no less....