There was a word or somesuch. Something dramatic like that.

So, this is the first post at one more promethean. I’ll try and refrain from entering into a long-winded explication of who we are and what we’re about, since this post basically exists to commemorate the fact that it is the first post. It’s self-referential like that.

I’ve had this domain for a while now, using it as a portfolio for my poetry, but obviously I was never going to be prolific enough to justify regularly updating the site. And as we all know kids, websites are all about new content. So in one sense, this newborn blog exists purely as an exercise in shameless self-promotion (both for my own work and for Lucie’s photography).

In another sense, I think a blog is possibly the most good that a normal, literate person can do in this world. I’ve been thinking about the possibilities of social/political change lately, and have come to the conclusion that it all depends on the free dissemination of alternative ideas. Now I realise this is hardly a groundbreaking discovery, and yes maybe its been said before, but sometimes you realise things you’ve known all along and they suddenly make much more sense. We’re saturated in all this media all our lives, and yet it’s so much of a muchness. That may be because it’s all basically owned by fewer companies than you’ve got fingers… (Brits may be disturbed to know that ITV is 25% Disney; Americans should know that NBC is owned by General Electric – possible conflict of interests there when the news coverage of the Iraq war is made by the same people who sell weapons used in said war). But then at the same time, even the supposedly independent media (BBC etc) largely conforms to a certain worldview, where only certain things are sayable.

And as much as I think there may be elements of conspiracy/suppression in the media (heard about the BBC reporting the collapse of WTC tower 7 twenty minutes before it happened? With it actually standing there in the background as they announced it? Ha.)… as much as I think thats the case to an extent, its as much to do with the habits of normal people. Foucault called it capillary power – we sort of self-censor and regulate ourselves without the need for ‘The Man’ to do it for us. My point being that even when there is wilful suppression of viewpoints in the mass media, we often won’t recognise this lack.

And of course, thats where the net comes in. Its already a cliche that the internet is the last great bastion of free speech, but given the recent debates (if you can call them debates) about net neutrality it seems like the task of the internet generation is suddenly much more urgent. There’s an obligation, I think, to make the most of the net’s potential for communication, rather than just piss about on youtube watching people in retro 80′s leggings dance funny. You know there’s something wrong when the people talking the most about freedom are the Bush administration, and those talking most about real communication are Vodaphone and Orange. And well, realistically, I think the corporate powers that be would shut down the internet in some way or another given the chance. So that might be state-directed censorship a la China, or Federalisation a la the IDENT system in Southland Tales (which was a surprisingly bad film by the way), or more realistically just a commercialisation of it to the point where it becomes even more a passive shopping experience.

And don’t worry, if that makes you want to rage against the machine, there’s Avril Lavigne t-shirts that’ll sort you right out. The money will no doubt go to Avril-sponsored third-world children with big, sad eyes. Probably not to the ones who make her t-shirts though. Although, hey, she dresses herself (apparently), maybe she even makes her own t-shirts. On a loom. Hardcore. But I digress. This blog, thank fuck, is not about Avril.

The point is, this site in its current form grew out of a feeling that it was a necessary thing to do. And every time I watch the TV, that feeling is reiterated. I don’t know how many people will see this site (which reminds me I need a counter widget), but as the cliche goes, if we get through to just one person… it’ll all be worthwhile.

OK, so that’s bollocks and we need massive social change in the next few years or we’re all fucked. That’s obvious. But come on, its only the first post. Keep the dream alive.