becoming what I abominate

Jesus, Joseph and Mary!

Google seems to have gotten its hands on Blogger, this site where I do whatever it is I do while I try to figure out what I am doing.

There's a new format (which I dislike), but there are also buttons that not only track the traffic but name the (mostly made-up) names of those who view or read it. There are little pictures of these people, or, if not pictures of people, then pictures of preferred bits of symbology. There is a chart of the number of views.

Suddenly, I have become what I abominate -- a Facebook pimp pretending to a wide acquaintanceship with people I don't even know. It was a shock to find this out, though being shocked probably just shows how un-au-courant I am, how stupid about an age in which the Internet is allowed to define and distinguish and lull people.

My first reaction was to warn all of these neatly-listed individuals to head for the hills ... get the fuck away from this well-lubricated hydra. But, like some badly-made Japanese horror movie, there is no escape. The monster is everywhere and putting on a horror-stricken face or screaming on the cardboard set makes precisely no difference. Mothra or Godzilla or Google or the Department of Homeland Security is here to stay ... and they are murmuring, "It's for your own good, Adam. Just swallow your meds."

Another version of Aldous Huxley's soma! The drug, which was integral in Huxley's "Brave New World," is described on the soma-inspired Internet site Wikipedia this way:

Soma is an allusion to a mythical drink of the same name consumed by ancient Indo-Aryans. In the book, soma is a hallucinogen that takes users on enjoyable, hangover-free "holidays". It was developed by the World State to provide these inner-directed personal experiences within a socially managed context of State-run 'religious' organizations; social clubs. The hypnopaedically inculcated affinity for the State-produced drug, as a self-medicating comfort mechanism in the face of stress or discomfort, thereby eliminates the need for religion or other personal allegiances outside or beyond the World State.

A drug so good that it is no longer described as a drug.

Lordy ... not only am I a pimp, but also a pill pusher.

Funny how Google, with all its soma apps, designates the people who read here or on Facebook as "followers" or "friends."  Question: If everyone is following everyone else, who the hell is leading this lash-up? I know no one likes looking for unpleasant answers, but the bathroom mirror is a pretty good antidote for a soma-shaped life.

PS. I just found a button that allows me to return to the format that existed before the latest update with all its apps. But the genie is out of the bottle: Just knowing I can know all the lulling information about visitors and visits and pictures and charts and numbers and, well, importance means that changing the format does not mean I can change or undo my mind. "Don't think of a purple cow."