Once a senior colleague who is now dead, gave The Witch Doctor good advice - “To thyself be true. It is good to care about what people think, but not too much.”I knew the first piece of advice, Polonius's advice to his son Laertes, but it hadn't occurred to me that the second follows on from it. Both in my surgery and in writing this blog I try very hard not to offend people. In surgery that is relatively easy because I can get the measure of my patient. If I need to challenge his or her view of the world I can do so tactfully. “I can see why you think so, but it seems to me that...” But when writing for an unknown audience it is impossible to please everyone. Sooner or later I am bound to tread on someone's toes by writing about a subject on which they are sensitive. Recently I was accused of writing self-satisfied rubbish and I was glad to see one of my colleagues rise to my defence. But criticism is a sign that I am reaching a wider audience, who may not all agree with my views and who at least do me the courtesy of reading what I write.
So I have decided that from now on I will try to be as authentic as I can, and say what I think and feel without any censoring. I don't want to hurt my readers' feelings and I care about what you think, but not to the extent of concealing my own views. There's not much point in blogging if I do that.
This is, you will realise, part of a new policy of pretending that I have a high level of self esteem. Who knows, if I pretend for long enough it may even come true.
All polite criticism will be welcome.
11 comments:
go for it
and good luck
I think that expressing an opinion on a personal weblog differs from offering your opinion on someone else's belief. If people dislike your opinion, as long as it is not written in a deliberately inflammatory manner, then they should just stop reading. It would be a different matter altogether if you were leaving comments on other people's blogs, contradicting their belief system, then perhaps they would have true cause to be offended. Unless you are writing about very sensitive issues on this blog, which are already known to be contentious areas of debate, then the most you should expect would be polite disagreement. I suppose by making your blog a public document you do invite polite criticism but anything stronger I would just consider as trolling.
Good Thoughts
Lola
Dr Brown, that's a laudable and healthy position to maintain, methinks!
I really doubt you'll flirt with malice and pernicious diatribes, but if you do drift in such a direction I'm sure we can nudge you :)
I look forward to reading some of your more controversial views!
Hopefully you will also enjoy writing about them.
This sounds exciting. Are you an extraordinary social deviant who hides a string of bizarre pecadillos behind an inpenetrable veneer of respectability and all-round good egginess? I think we should be told.
Someone once advised me that when blogging write what you like. The obvious reason is that you may be the only one reading it (certainly not in your case). The other reason is that when we write for ourselves there is that authenticity that comes through. The writing is so much more passionate and honest. Regardless of whether the reader agrees with it or not, they must respect it.
Sounds like a plan :)
Doctor Brown, it's YOUR blog, and you're clearly entitled to state your own views on it...so go for it...it's (within reason) your right, after all.
If we get offended we can always tell you about it ... it's (within reason) our right too...
So long as we don't transgress the normal good manners of day to day debate, (now there's a challenge - how to stretch rather than break the bonds!), then what's to worry about?
Since I don't know whether anyone reads my blog I write it more like a diary and anyone reading it will have to accept me for what and who I am. In the beginning, I kept a personal diary separately from the blog but latterly they seem to have merged. I am, however, only an occasional blogger due to other commitments (and laziness). As well as working full time and looking after the family (shrinking rapidly with the youngest off to Uni this weekend),I am also studying with the OU for the degree I didn't do after school(hence my blog name).
It is your blog so I think you are entitled to write what you want in it and leave it up to us readers if we want to continue to read it or not.
Thanks all for your advice and comments. It is agreed. I shall shatter my inpenetrable veneer of respectability and flaunt my peccadillos. Good eggs are for wimps!
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