The Empire Strikes Back! – TOC, the blog that got too big for its shoes

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Well it’s a done deal, it seems like TOC is going to get back into their bone shaker and drive down towards Dodoland boulevard belching black smoke.

If you have been living in a cave and just emerged from darkness, let me give you the latest heads up – the government is planning to reclassifying TOC as a political entity. 

What do I have to say about this? Not very much actually, I am writing this in the train; and the only thing in my mind is right now is how long can I smile at a pretty girl in a short skirt opposite me without coming across as a crazed stalker.

Truth of the matter is I’ve never really had a high opinion of TOC, as I and I suspect many have always regarded it is just another glorified mutual appreciation society that’s just one rung higher than a bunch of cripples who keep on insisting that limbs are unnecessary as wheels are kinetically more efficient – that’s at best a crumbly idea as any wheel bound person whose confronted with a flight of stairs will testify. By the same token when TOC decided to organize “the political event of the year” (you could say they too came up against a different flight of steps, only that one led to swan dive) – the way I see it, they should have realized they were exceeding the ambit of the Singapore definition of a social political blog – say what you like, but in my book its one thing to write about subjects that relate to the political sphere. But when a blog actively seeks to fashion a quorum in the real world to facilitate politicians to air their views outside the confines of blogosphere – then its ceases completely to be a blog and instead morphs into a full fledged political organization.

That is how I see it. 

I realize some of you may disagree with me – but just bear me out – I understand if my position seems to be advocating the idea a blog should be corseted and should never be allowed to exceed its ambit. Au contraire, my point is simply this; a blog is blog; and to try to fashion it as a unifying force that attempts to rally the opposition or ruling hegemony is akin to using a washing machine to mix concrete or attempting to sail the seven seas in a bath tub – I don’t deny one day with the advancement of computing technology along with the growth of an eclectic class that may be able to appreciate the nuances of real political discourse – there is every opportunity for a blog to fulfill this role wonderfully and that may even be the only way politics will be conducted in the distant future, but as it is writing in this period attempting to fashion a blog as a political King maker cum a la Matternich begs the question: is this the best way to for us to stage a 360 degree political discourse that benefits the electorate? I don’t think that’s possible as the blog medium can at best only offer vignettes instead of whole disquisitions; a narrowed narrative instead of one that is able to encompass the larger geography of that allows the electorate to take a sweep of the political landscape – as I have highlighted in one of my earlier blog entries when TOC staged the event of the year; its akin to a man stepping into larger than life shoes, they were bound to take a fall on the very step – and to the preceptive reader the nub of my decision is not based on the card boardish idea the PM forwarded about foreign funding or interference – if that were really a water tight argument then how does one even begin squaring off that idea with cocktail slurping diplomats who regularly make disparaging remarks about our neighbors – isn’t that tantamount to foreign interference? – to me that has to be a red herring. The main contention remains – can a blog be fashioned as a public square to air out all the political set pieces exhaustively? Does it serve as an effective means to create a quorum that stimulates deep spirited discussion?

I admit in Singapore that the notion of the public square may have been monopolized by the custodians of power to deny even the opposition a voice – but that is not the issue, no doubt that may have accounted for the motivation and why so many opposition parties took to that idea of the greatest political event of the year like fish to water. But the question still stands: can a blog be an effective political public square?

That I shall leave to you, the perceptive reader to decide. As for me the answer is a definite NO!

In addition I cant help but feel part of TOC’s relegation from blogoland and redesignation as a political entity is partly due to its misplaced vanity and delusional conviction that whatever it has to offer to readers was irresistible – at some point they may have even begun to believe in their own righteousness that eventually skewered their objectivity and that may have affected their judgement.

To exacerbate their already delusional state they may have even regarded themselves as the gold standard of blogging. Indeed, one might go on for a long time chronicling all the reasons why TOC cannot be described as anything but dull as a blog site; but we ought perhaps to avoid the temptation of tabloid history and pursue the one question that no one seems to be asking: when TOC stepped out of their skin as a blog and staged a catastrophically successful political event of the year could they still remain a blog – in my book once a blog steps out of its skin and dons the political hat, it’s like circumcision – it’s irreversible and they have by default renounced their right to be called a blog.

To cut to the heart of the issue, just as one should never cultivate the bad habit of calling a spade anything but a spade; what do you call a blog that tries to something other than a blog?

I give you the facts you decide.

Darkness 2011

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“My young apprentice. Let me share with you a story. Once upon a time; there was a wrly fox who believed he could be the King of the jungle. So one day he donned a collar of dried savannah grass, learnt to growl like a lion and painted himself a hared tan – then with great fanfare he announced to all the animals in the jungle; “hear, hear, I am the King of  jungle.” At first all the animals looked at him as his demeanor was indeed grand; so all the animals offered him tribute and hailed him as the King of the jungle.

One fine day the real King of the jungle heard about this new Kingdom within his Kingdom – so he sent the wise mongoose to enquire as to the credentials of this fox King who was pretending to be the King of the jungle.

When the fox heard what the mongoose had to say, he flew into a rage and declared in a booming voice to all the animals of his Kingdom –  ”this fool doesn’t know how powerful I am, so be it. I am going to show him, who is boss.” And that was the day when he issued a challenge to that other King of the jungle – so the die was set, a race would be held in the river – the first lion to cross this treacherous stretch of waters would be judged the real King to rule over the animal Kingdom.

On the appointed day; all the animals in the jungle took their positions in the both sides of the river; even the crocodiles would were usually indifferent seemed spell bound by this event – when the Rhino rented loud signal the start – the Kings dived into the river.

It did not take the fox in the clothing of the lion to emerge as the clear winner by a good ten lengths – but as soon he stood on the banks tall and proud; his mane no longer had the splendor of a lion; instead it looked like a mop and the tan paint he had used to mask his dark brown fur had been washed off revealing him as a fox that the maker had made him.

As the fox stood at the rivers edge pounding his chest that he was indeed the worthy King – all the animals in the jungle looked on and some where in the crowd even the oyster who was famous for having a mouth as tight as drum was heard to saying, “he is no King maker!” 

And so the fox was dun in by the rest of the animals. Tell me apprentice, what do you think is the moral of the story? You would do well one day to tell this story to your children my young apprentice as this is wisdom.”

The Book of Ages – Chapter: Wisdom – Pages 3,039 / the Mallabar incident – recorded by the Chronicler of the Brotherhood 2011

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