A few months ago, I received an invitation to sign up for the Daily Beast podcast (see above). I didn't sign up. In fact, I regularly resist invitations to sign up for podcasts, even when the invitations include the reassuring message that I will be able to listen "wherever you get your podcasts."
Here is one reason why I have never signed up: I don't actually have a place where I "get my podcasts." In fact, I don't think I have ever actually listened to a podcast, which is probably rather unusual. It is perhaps especially unusual because I actually make an annual contribution to support a podcast that I think is pretty worthwhile, the podcast provided by The Kitchen Sisters. They are, of course, while nationally known, a local group, hailing from La Selva Beach!
But... it's true: I have never actually listened to any podcast myself. Wait a minute! Upon reflection, while I think it's true that I have never listened to a "podcast," I realize that I once regularly listened to what I think might properly be called a podcast predecessor, Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour.
At any rate, I hardly ever watch television (or streaming movies on sites like Netflix), and I very rarely even listen to the radio - despite the fact that we have an outstanding local station, K-Squid (KSQD), to which I also regularly contribute. Please feel free to click that link and to contribute yourself!
Since time is limited, I find that I end up spending most of my time "reading," rather than "listening," or "watching." I am not sure that my reading habit is any "better," in any way, than those who do a lot of their interacting with the world by way of a screen or a speaker. "Reading" just happens to be the way I do it.
Thinking about that pitch from the Daily Beast, though, I had a thought that has prompted this blog posting. Taking information in - by reading, by podcasts, by television, or however - is an activity that exemplifies "observation."
Nothing wrong with "observation," of course (we surely need it), but regular readers will remember that my own pitch is that what we mainly lack is not "observation," but "action."
In other words, observing the world, and finding out about the world (however you do it), is all fine and good, but that's just where we need to start, not where we need to end. With respect to this insight, I have given a shout out to Karl Marx before. What he said about this topic continues to resonate with me:
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.
"Action," not "observation," is the way we'll need to do that!
Right on, Gary! Me too. The Internet is a book with unlimited pages. Can't read it all; no time for "podcasts."
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