blogging as solipsism

I was already pondering solipsism when Fuller Seminary president Dr. Richard Mouw decided to discuss it in his most recent blog post. That just puts me in good intellectual company, I suppose.

To give a simplistic working definition that I can actually understand, solipsism, aside from being an unusually difficult word to spell (solipism? solispism? solilpism? slolipsism?) is the philosophical belief that I am the only person that actually exists, and the rest of the world is simply a creation of my mind. Obviously, if this is true then none of you exist and I'm writing this for myself. You're probably thinking that if this is true then this blog post was something your subconscious made up for you to read. (That is, if you exist.)

I am not a solipsist in terms of philosophy, but I fear that if I'm not careful, my approach to blogging might make me a solipsist in terms of function. Dr. Mouw describes this when he writes, "We act like we are the only ones who have genuine experiences, and we treat others as less than real persons."

So, what makes my experiences and opinions and perceptions and so on so important that I feel the need to put them on the internet for anyone and everyone to read? I'm 24 years old, I'm still largely dependent on my parents, and I've done little outside of school. In other words, I'm not exactly drawing on some huge well of wisdom and experience here.

My main inspiration for continuing on with this blogging project is a class I am currently taking at Fuller, "Transforming Contemporary Culture" with Dr. Ryan Bolger. Much of the class involves discussion about new and emerging forms of media and their impacts on culture and the church. Blogs are a big part of the discussion, as they represent a new form of communication and dissemination of information. One of the interesting things about blogs as a medium is that a typical blog post is an unfinished, unedited thought put out to the public so that others can interact with it. This is very different from a paper or a book chapter that has been carefully constructed and presented as a clean, finished product.

So, I'm going to put these thoughts out there and see what happens. In the past I've generally thought I could only write about whatever was happening at that particular moment, more like a diary of my personal life. I'll still do that some, but I'm going to try writing about some other things as well, hopefully things of a little more weight. Maybe the few of you who read this will join in the conversation and something good will come out of it. Maybe I'll get bored, distracted, or disillusioned with the project in a few weeks and abandon it altogether. And maybe in the end this is just an exercise in solipsism, me writing for myself to help me sort out my own thoughts. I suppose that in the end, that would be OK too.

dear blogger:

I just abandoned my Xanga after five years of chronicling my life and whatever else seemed interesting at the time.

I am now turning to you as I attempt to find something worthwhile to do with a new blog.

I don't know what you are going to look like yet, but I guess we'll just have to figure this out together.

Maybe this will be the only post I ever write, but maybe this is the start of something new and exciting.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Sincerely,
Andy O