Freedom Is Blogging in Your Underwear
By: Hugh MacLeod
Published: April 26, 2012
Format: Hardcover: 128 pages
ISBN-10: 1591844851
ISBN-13: 978-1591844853
Publisher: Portfolio/Penguin
"Having a blog, a voice, having my own media, utterly changed my life", writes cartoonist and blogger Hugh MacLeod, in his very witty and wisdom filled book Freedom Is Blogging in Your Underwear. Through a collection of his most profound cartoons, the author expresses his love for blogging, and his deep commitment to the very fundamental concept of freedom.
Hugh MacLeod shares his insights and perceptions of the very basic idea of what it means to be free. For the author, that journey toward a deeper understanding of freedom was traveled through the medium of a blog. Posting his multi-layered cartoons on his blog, enabled Hugh MacLeod to bypass what he calls the gatekeepers, who include editors, publishers, and executives. Instead of requiring the approval of the official guardians of the media, the author reached out directly to his audience. At the same time, since blogging is at core a conversation, Hugh MacLeod's audience was able to reach out to him as well. For the author, the very act of blogging is an empowering act that seizes bac personal freedom of expression from the gatekeepers.
Hugh MacLeod (photo left) recognizes that freedom afforded by the blog built a career for him through direct contact with his audience. At the same time, the act of blogging created a strong sense of purpose that fueled bis passion for sharing his comics with others. The author views blogging as a personal journey offers insights into that voyage of self discovery with the reader. Hugh MacLeod describes his blog as being a literally life altering experience. Through connections made with his blog, the author obtained all of his clients and business partners. He even met his girlfriend as a result of his blogging activities.
Along the way through this inner travel, the author provides his thoughts and understanding of the various social media options, how they relate to blogging, and more importantly, how they have an impact on personal freedom. That freedom is the direct result of what Hugh MacLeod calls the permanent force of Cheap. Easy. Global. Media. For the author, that empowering principle arrived in the form of a blog. The book is the author's testimonial to the world changing potential contained in the simple blogging platform.
For me, the power of the book is how Hugh MacLeod combines his philosophical examination of the principle of freedom with a manifesto in support of blogging. The author also provides a unique blend of prose and expressive cartoon art as the carrier for his wisdom and ideas. Hugh MacLeod offers a prophecy of how the internet has changed the world in ways that are only now being vaguely understood. For the authors, bloggers are on the vanguard of this deep change in society, where individuals are empowered and no longer requiring the approval of the official gatekeepers.
With this awakening of the blogging public, the potential for fresh ideas and thinking will become a permanent feature of society. The transformation from an individual requiring gatekeeper permission to be heard, to a world where anyone can be a publisher through blogging, represents a sea change in personal freedom. For Hugh MacLeod, the power of the blogging platform doesn't even require the traditional trappings of power or even respectability. A blogger can change the world clad in only their underwear.
I highly recommend the empowering and transformational book Freedom Is Blogging in Your Underwear by Hugh MacLeod, to anyone seeking a highly original approach to the basic tenets of freedom and what it means to be free in an internet connected world. This book, with its profound cartoons and thought provoking insights will change forever the way you think about the interrelationship between blogging and personal freedom.
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