The Idea Festival blog turned me on to the Post Secret blog. Post Secret publishes anonymous post cards that reveal some secret about the sender. As I wrote a comment at Idea Festival, I came to the conclusion that Post Secret is fundamentally in support of evil. Here's why.
Some of the cards at Post Secret provide a very sad and distorted view of the world. We are all sinning creatures, but to gain a view into the internal mechanisms of sin warps reality. Yes, most of the postcards deal with people who have done or thought wicked things, but the fact that they're writing these anonymously and not shouting them, it reveals some concern for the feelings of others.
Also, the PostSecret site seems heavily skewed in favor of evil. No one's going to write a post card to them that says, "I've passed on 18 oppotunities for infidelity to my wife because she is worthy of the most sacred love I can give" because they can simply say that out loud.
And they do say that in words and deeds, every day, all around you.
PostSecret supports evil by making it seem far more common that it really is. By making things like infidelity or lying seem more common, you give individuals excuses to do those things themselves. At some time in our lives, we have all seduced ourselves into bad deeds with the rationale, "Everyone else is doing it, we shouldn't I?"
Post Secret also has some beautiful cards, like the ones where the guys says he's going to propose to his girl at certain a place and time or someone writes a corny, but heartfelt statement of faith.
It's kind of a mixed bag, but I still get the feeling that it provides a basis for the acceptance of evil. Am I over-reacting?
KT, I seem to recall a commercial or maybe it was a forwarded slide-show email based upon this premise.
ReplyDeleteThe problem I have with it is that it seems a little too contrived... a little too clever. Nothing straight-forward like, "I'm addicted to blogging" or "I don't work out like I used to because of my stupid blog"... you know, stuff like that.
I used to read Post Secret, but I had to stop. So much of the stuff that gets put up on the website is just outright disgusting.
ReplyDeleteThere's an offshoot of the blog, where people just anonymously post their secrets as comments to a blog, and that's just as bad, if not worse. I came to the realization after a while that a lot of the people who post there are looking for what you get out of going to Confession.
Oromin, my exact first reaction...
ReplyDeleteConfession for non-Catholics. I've not gone past the first page, but if I do, I'll probably post on it.
If we take each card "individually", it's really kinda what I was doing in the beginning....the high school girl who saw her private thought posted in front of 200 of her classmates gave her a different sort of view into herself.....
When your secrets aren't secret, you can look at them better yourself?
Tough one, KT.....I shall ponder.
Wollf
You might enjoy looking at a new similar site called CommonTies.com.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
David
Common Ties