So, if you are Elmer Fudd...

Most people think of the internet as an echo chamber; users establish habits and tend to visit sites that reinforce what they already believe. While you may be absorbing more information than you could with newspapers and cable news alone, in neglecting opposing viewpoints the level of discourse is brought down. Pretty soon all you can argue is ‘rabbit season’, while the other guy can only shout back ‘duck season’.

I’m Daffy in this metaphor.

While I have any number things to do throughout the day – washing and hanging laundry, grocery shopping, visiting neighbors, teaching classes, exploring the valley, attempting new and exciting variations on the pancake – I would be lying if I said Peace Corps volunteers don’t have a good amount of free time. We all have books, some have movies, and the fortunate even have tv. But few of us share the same media (at least concurrently – wow have I gotten some fun books from other PCV’s), which means that I have no one to debate with over the latest John LeCarre novel or the six month old episode of LOST I finally got off itunes and my friends on the other side of the country can’t call up and ask my opinion on Christopher Hitchen’s latest opus. So all our accumulated information just sits in our brains, congealing without any real challenge to our understanding or assumptions. See where I’m going with this?

I’ve felt academic withdrawal before (let my nerdiness be noted for the record!), but now its like my mind is being dulled, especially as I lose my English vocabulary to my growing command of Tashlheet. Couple this with the fact that most of my daily interactions lean towards the simplistic, and the net effect is that I feel rather dumb.

And so I would like to try something. Since I’ve entered stasis mode here (the lack of posts isn’t blog neglect, but the fact that the most exciting news I generally have is village gossip, which I won’t air here…but man you would not believe what went down last week!), I thought I might open things up a bit more to non-PC Morocco topics. Like what I read. Or maybe more Morocco in general. Perhaps we can discuss!

In any case, don’t be surprised if I start getting all existential up in this here blog. I may be picking apart a six-month-old Fareed Zakaria thesis, but its news to me. Feel free to email or comment. Or call! I love phone calls. My cell phone ring sounds like the X-Files theme (triple nerd score!).

And I apologize in advance if all I’m shouting at you is ‘rabbit season’. With any luck and a little practice I can get back to talk about hunting licenses.

Did you know it took me five attempts to spell license before I gave up and asked the computer to just tell me how to type? “Me fail English?”