I saw the weirdest thing recently. While we are all having conniptions about privacy, the last person I would ever think threw a wrench in the entire argument about having privacy. Maybe.
A fairly obscure blogger (who I like to read), named Hasidic Rebel, decided to unmask himself as Sholom Deen to the greater Jewish Blogging World (and only a few days before to New York Magazine.) What makes this situation even more interesting is that Mr. Deen, a former Skver Chassid, blogged on and off anonymously for nearly 7 years, including a totally anonymous interview with the Village Voice.
It is someone whose family probably can (and was) socially shunned for his behavior, and if he took it over the line for too long, attacked finacially, at a minimum (depending on the behavior). To come out is not an easy thing at all.
He’s written about his children, his sex life, religion, food, everything under the sun. Some very intimate details of his life are spilled out on his blog and on Unpious.com. It seems so od
And this is happening as my college friends slowly jump Facebook for privacy shifts.
It’s all very interesting to watch, because as our New York article and favorite quoatable Jewish Person on bike controversies, Baruch Hertzfeld (he runs Traif Bike Gesheft) mentions:
“Once a Hasid shaves his curls, he’s a hipster,”
And while it’s true (or sort of true, it’s a process, just trust me on this one, and no, I’m not a Chassid…don’t ask…), it’s just interesting to watch the techie-hipsters of New York slowly “take apart” parts of the tools that allowed this to happen in the first place- things like Facebook. Now privacy is in, when for these whole other group of people, coming out is probably going to be the new thing. (no guarantees, depends on Rabbis and how rebellious 20 somethings get.)
Maybe we all need to re-examine this privacy thing more closely. Social media makes us banal. We’re exposed: our tastes, our loves, our passions, our joys. (and our negatives, but lets not harp on the bad). it feels excessive strange when social media suddenly has made us more exposed to marketing via our emotions.
It flattens the world- it makes the center of gravity of culture pull towards the center. What if you are barely orbiting that ball- and you want to grab ahold of it. Some of that marketing, and some of that community building, is extremely useful. That flattening process is much easier if information is available in the hows and whys, and you can document what is happening to you. Especially if in the process, you build a community along the way.
Maybe we need privacy to hide the last of our nonbanality, our quirks, our hopes and dreams, and that is what disturbs us all: that too much of the outside can see those elemental parts of us, and attach themselves to it, and reshape us without us knowing.
If you are a chassid, perhaps, the reach to banality is much longer, and the journey needs more exposure to the disinfecting light of the sun. All those details need support and help along the way, it’s a huge transition, and an isolating one at that.
This is why Sholom gets to walk out and say his name. Who knows though?
One of the oddball things t0 say now: Sholom, you are now banal. There is nothing serious to hide, so now, maybe, you can get the “in thing” about privacy. There is less of struggle, you fulfilled the biggest step. It’s now all about the little pieces that the center of lives (aka what those artisens/hispters/artists/what have you), those creative class types now come up with which you can co-imagine. You’re part of the world now. Congrats man.
And here is hoping I don’t get attacked for this…It’s speculation, not an assumed position about chareidi politics or life.
While everyone else was having a Privacy Scandal
I saw the weirdest thing recently. While we are all having conniptions about privacy, the last person I would ever think threw a wrench in the entire argument about having privacy. Maybe.
A fairly obscure blogger (who I like to read), named Hasidic Rebel, decided to unmask himself as Sholom Deen to the greater Jewish Blogging World (and only a few days before to New York Magazine.) What makes this situation even more interesting is that Mr. Deen, a former Skver Chassid, blogged on and off anonymously for nearly 7 years, including a totally anonymous interview with the Village Voice.
It is someone whose family probably can (and was) socially shunned for his behavior, and if he took it over the line for too long, attacked finacially, at a minimum (depending on the behavior). To come out is not an easy thing at all.
He’s written about his children, his sex life, religion, food, everything under the sun. Some very intimate details of his life are spilled out on his blog and on Unpious.com. It seems so od
And this is happening as my college friends slowly jump Facebook for privacy shifts.
It’s all very interesting to watch, because as our New York article and favorite quoatable Jewish Person on bike controversies, Baruch Hertzfeld (he runs Traif Bike Gesheft) mentions:
And while it’s true (or sort of true, it’s a process, just trust me on this one, and no, I’m not a Chassid…don’t ask…), it’s just interesting to watch the techie-hipsters of New York slowly “take apart” parts of the tools that allowed this to happen in the first place- things like Facebook. Now privacy is in, when for these whole other group of people, coming out is probably going to be the new thing. (no guarantees, depends on Rabbis and how rebellious 20 somethings get.)
Maybe we all need to re-examine this privacy thing more closely. Social media makes us banal. We’re exposed: our tastes, our loves, our passions, our joys. (and our negatives, but lets not harp on the bad). it feels excessive strange when social media suddenly has made us more exposed to marketing via our emotions.
It flattens the world- it makes the center of gravity of culture pull towards the center. What if you are barely orbiting that ball- and you want to grab ahold of it. Some of that marketing, and some of that community building, is extremely useful. That flattening process is much easier if information is available in the hows and whys, and you can document what is happening to you. Especially if in the process, you build a community along the way.
Maybe we need privacy to hide the last of our nonbanality, our quirks, our hopes and dreams, and that is what disturbs us all: that too much of the outside can see those elemental parts of us, and attach themselves to it, and reshape us without us knowing.
If you are a chassid, perhaps, the reach to banality is much longer, and the journey needs more exposure to the disinfecting light of the sun. All those details need support and help along the way, it’s a huge transition, and an isolating one at that.
This is why Sholom gets to walk out and say his name. Who knows though?
One of the oddball things t0 say now: Sholom, you are now banal. There is nothing serious to hide, so now, maybe, you can get the “in thing” about privacy. There is less of struggle, you fulfilled the biggest step. It’s now all about the little pieces that the center of lives (aka what those artisens/hispters/artists/what have you), those creative class types now come up with which you can co-imagine. You’re part of the world now. Congrats man.
And here is hoping I don’t get attacked for this…It’s speculation, not an assumed position about chareidi politics or life.