The cult of personality

The cult of personality is a essentially a political term for conditions in a totalitarian state or country.
But it also refers to ego driven management in a company or organization.
It also refers to the media driven obsession with celebrity.

Can it happen in blogging?
I think so.
Honouring those who have paved the way is one thing, clustering around someone in the present to exclude and mock others is quite another.

Can it happen in god-blogging?
I think we are highly susceptible.
If you look at the latest protestant/pundit kerfuffle that centers around Joshua Claybourn, the cult of personality plays out.
Territoriality and competition are evident, as are violent words.
Things actually heat up when the discussion becomes deterritorialized (spread out to other blogs).

The leader (blogger) makes a statement.
ie: these people are terrorist appeasers
The yea sayers (commenters, other bloggers) jump in to support and flatter.
Opposition is quashed, mocked and villified.
While the leader stays put and seemingly above the fray, the faithful spread out to feed our sense of elitism and to further the original propaganda.

My hope has always been that blogging is inherently self-corrective, that the group is stronger than the one or few.

Most people who have little or nothing invested could follow the recent chain reaction easily and wonder what the heck was going on with us.
The investment is in defending the original belief, not in dignity and esteem for others. (inherent value and worth of a human being)

I’ll be the first to acknowledge that intercultural differences and self-perception often result in any one of us being unintentionally disrespectful.
When that happens I think we have to be quick to call it, hear it, acknowledge it, and correct it.
Many of us do by remaining silent.
Some will be assertive and say “I am hurt.”
A few will say, “we are hurt.”
If the silence isn’t heard, the “I”s aren’t heard, and the “we” aren’t heard, then what?

This is the web.
We can click somewhere else and walk away from the computer for a bit.
As god-bloggers I believe we can pray for those that disagree with us, and for those that are over the top. We keep the firewall on, the virus protection running, filter the email, and make a conscious decision to encourage, support and reach out to those who are hurting while taking good care of ourself. (first responder rule)

Personality driven posts aside, I have to wonder who is really fueling some of the fire. Someone behind the scenes is obsessed.
It is apparent in the anonymous comments.
I’ve seen it again in emails.
It’s hateful and sad and frankly, scary.
God, Christianity and values are mixed and twisted into something I can’t pin down.
The complusion is to villify me and others ‘around’ me.
The obsession appears to be to defend God, Joshua and the USA, but that really isn’t it at all.
The emailer and the anonymous commenter are like a puppet master, desperate for the epinephrine that blog-spats generate.
My personal belief is that this person needs a certain kind of environment. (hyper comment thread and willing participants)
When we withdraw support, my experience has been this person escalates into rage and acting out behind the scenes.
We call them trolls.

Step back and look at how bizarre a cult of personality scenario can get.
Joshua is an adult. He can defend himself. He can articulate his beliefs. He makes his own choices about how others are treated.
Bene is an adult. He can defend himself. He can articulate his beliefs. And ditto.
We can give others ‘permission’ to pull our strings, sap our peace of mind and set our agenda.
Whoever he/she is, they have a sick investment in the Claybourn blog’s well-being.
I need to click away from this, play safe, and go read some lesser known and better blogs.

Further: DashHouse elaborates on personal attacks and why they are wrong.

Richard Hall clarifies how he chooses to discuss issues and how to read his state of mind.

Rev Mike addresses inappropriate communication, mockery and misrepresentation using some interesting pictures.

Ben Kepple addresses age, politics and the justification of argument.