Back On My Soapbox
I’m back on my soapbox.
Blogs really are the contemporary equivalent of soapboxes: platforms for free expression. The term comes from the Nineteenth Century when speakers would stand on wooden crates (originally used for the shipment of soap) in the “Speakers Corner” of Hyde Park, London, where they could safely exercise their freedom of expression.
Then, as now with blogs, their audience was often small. Then, as now with blogs, the small audience size was because what was being expressed was only of interest to a specific group or too often downright crazy.
The huge advantage the blog has over the physical soapbox is the greater access available to anyone interested in what is being said. Of course this does mean that some crazy ideas get wider circulation and a larger, enthusiastic audience. Search some lunatic belief on Google to see what I mean; e.g., “reptilian aliens" among us (768,000 results) or “homeopathic remedy” for anything that might ail you (6,130,000 results).
But that is a price well worth paying for freedom of expression. And I hope I’m not one of those bloggers expressing lunatic ideas.
