Something unusual happened on my blog tonight. An old post
of mine, made some time last year, was accessed by seven people from three
countries in the space of twelve minutes. Obviously there was some sort of
referral process going on.
Out of curiosity I read the post, and was dismayed to
realise that I wouldn’t make it now. It wasn’t that the logic was necessarily flawed,
rather that my attitude to the overall topic is much changed. And so, even if I
were to make a post on that subject today, my approach would be very different.
I would come at it from a different angle, and so the essential point would be
far removed from the one I was appearing to be making then.
The problem here is the process of personal change, growth,
development, evolution, metamorphosis – call it what you will – to which we are
all subject to some extent with each passing minute. Nobody is quite the same
person today as they were yesterday, and some people – like me – evolve rapidly,
and sometimes suddenly. But once you write something down and make it public,
your control over it is reduced or even lost altogether. I could take that post
down, but how do I know it hasn’t already been copied and distributed? And
those who read it will inevitably believe that the opinion expressed represents
the unyielding attitude of JJ Beazley.
In my case it’s of little import, since I’m a tiny fish in
a gigantic pool. But what if I were a well known and widely read author? And
what if I were dead and couldn’t speak for myself any longer? Isn’t that
something we have to consider when we read any opinion expressed by anybody?
I see a lot of quotations by famous people being bandied
about on blogs and Tumblrs. Shouldn’t we bear in mind that a truth held to be
evident by that person when they wrote it might not have been so a mere day
later?
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