Houses and Rooms are full of Electronic Perfumes

I wonder what Whitman would have thought of our age and, if he were alive, his beginning to "Song of Myself" would have not been more like Ginsberg's "Howl". Though we are living in an age where technology is only getting faster and allowing us access to an infinite trough of information i ask: to what purpose? It seems that we are often held down by this overwhelming access.

A friend of mine said to me that he thought Facebook could be used as a mobilizing tool in which to raise awareness politically. It is no surprise that Acts like NDAA and SOPA/PIPA have been mostly under a media blackout. This same friend posts about these things on his Facebook account stories from AP, Reuters, and other online sources. I have had other people tell me they were thinking of blocking him, feeling that he was spamming their home pages. This is sad because a lot of these stories that he is posting is information that will affect every U.S. citizen. His attempt at using this tool is only met with contempt because, lets face it, most of us just wanna know how X's vacation went in cabo, or see pictures of peoples cats. With this in mind a part of Whitman's "Song of Myself" strikes me:

"Houses and rooms are full of perfumes....the shelves are crowded with perfumes/ I breathe the fragrance myself, and know it and like it, / The distillation would intoxicate me also, but i shall not let it."

This is a calling of abandoning that room. Do not let the things that mask truth intoxicate you. The distillations of perfumes are used to mask truth, and real beauty lies in the truth; for Whitman nature is truth. This could be a metaphor for what I wish to convey. That the internet is stocked to the brim with these "perfumes", these things that keep us distracted from the truth of the situations at hand. Though we can love our "Farmville", "Facebook" or "Youtube" we shouldn't let them distract us. The internet is the greatest tool for information ever created. It is the greatest tool for gathering and learning and organizing ever to exist and perhaps we should start using it that way.

Many people are using it for these types of purposes already. Yet imagine if most of us did. I'm not innocent in checking my Facebook or going on Reddit just to look at funny things, but i am starting to realize that there is potential in these devices for great usefulness. It matters not whether we like these things, in fact everyone needs enjoyment, but we should refuse to use them in a manner that clouds our minds.

I am extremely glad to have had a class that is forcing me to start this blog. I have often thought about it. Thought about the possibilities. Even if no one is reading it, it is out there and available. Not that what i have to say is even that important, but maybe it can inspire someone. I think the rest of the posts here on out will all be almost exclusively Whitman, but it's telling how just a few lines of his poem can speak so much to me in our time.