It’s been a little over four and a half years since we wrote anything on this site. That last post didn’t actually have much to say, but did include a tenuous implication that there were more posts to follow in the near future… followed by, well, absolutely nothing.
It’s taken weeks to write this post, and it was in danger of becoming a ridiculously long and random essay with a chunk about culture strikes in Lithuania, a number of quotes from Tim Berners-Lee, and a lengthy section discussing confirmation bias. I’ve managed to chop all of that out and rein it in a lot, but it is still slightly rambling, please do forgive and bear with me.
If you really don’t have six minutes to spare, then you can skip to the important news at the end, but know that you will be reinforcing one of my points that you didn’t read along the way.
So why did we stop? Why a new post, why a more clear promise that we will, and an honest intention to, write many more of them, now?
More than one reason for sure, but at least one big factor in why we stopped writing here was the way that the internet was changing…
People used to write online for one of a few reasons. In some cases to report on events that censorship or a lack of mass media interest meant were not otherwise covered. Other people created content because they truly thought they had something to say and wanted their words to be read and their voice to be heard. Then of course there were businesses who hoped creating informed and relevant content would help drive customers or otherwise monetise what they were doing.
Then the deluge started: content solely for the sake of posting something, sites that regurgitated things written elsewhere with new clickbait headlines, endless top ten lists (largely unresearched, or sponsored). And all of that was just a prelude to the mass distribution of fake news, and the rise and rise of AI drivel posted endlessly everywhere with zero editing and less than zero purpose.
Maybe we just felt that there were enough blogs in the world, enough voices saying all of the things we might want to. The world currently produces an absolutely vast amount of online content. In the absence of any verifiable figure, scientific estimates I found put it at somewhere between 4.4 and 8.2 million blog posts per day, which gives a minimum estimate of 51 per second. Those are just blog posts, that doesn’t include anything posted on social media or any video content.
It’s completely reasonable, if a little sad, to assume that the vast majority of those articles posted are going to be absolute crap. But even if we take the minimum daily estimate and then dismiss 95% as less than good, then it’s still slightly egotistical to believe that your single post out of the 220,000 published that day is the one that is worth reading.
The volume of content out there becomes a more acute problem, when you think about the fact that in this new world of social media and AI overload, less and less people are actually reading blogs or any other form of human content longer than a sentence or two.
So why bother to restart now?
Two reasons really…
The first is that when there is so much bullshit and misinformation out there and so many batshit crazy and dangerous ideas being supported then maybe it isn’t enough to just be quiet and maybe you need to say what you think.
This is not supposed to be a political website, the things that we write about are generally pretty inclusive, we really aren’t self-important enough to feel the need to voice every personal political opinion. The reality is though that things like human rights, equality, and freedom of all kinds, including of speech and from persecution, are bigger than party or national politics, they must be inalienable, and if we refuse to comment on them and call out those who try to erode them, then we have become part of the problem.
So, yes, we will write about things we put in our mouths and songs that make us move our feet, for everyone regardless of faith or political persuasion, but partisan views on other issues will sometimes creep in as well, and I’m not going to apologise for that. Some things matter too much not to be said.
There are conflicts and abuses occurring all over the world all of the time, but historically we are all pretty good at ignoring the ones that don’t affect us. Right now though, it’s really all going wrong a bit too much and far too quickly to let it just wash over you.
Women’s rights, LGBT rights, and freedom of speech and expression are going backwards all over the world, science is taking a back seat to religious dogma and conspiracy nutjobbery. Lukashenko and Putin have been at the autocracy thing for decades but the west kind of let them get on with it within their own borders, which Vladimir seems to not be content with anymore. Meanwhile, Israel gets to trade off of a hellish history and commit genocide without anyone really saying too loudly “Now, hold on a minute”. Plus there is plenty of sabre rattling across Asia and rearmament by pretty much every nation everywhere.
Oh, and to top it all off, the most heavily armed country in the world is led by a man who, apart from a total lack of ethics and compassion, seems to have an increasingly tenuous grip on global reality, and arguably on sanity, these days. Personally, given the choice of giving control of the worlds biggest military to someone evil, or someone with questionable sanity, I’d probably take the first option.
In the face of all of that, the things that this blog was started to write about might all seem a bit trivial, but actually they are even more important now than ever. Things that can draw people together when political divisions, idiocy, etc. are ripping them apart.
Why food, music, and culture are important is way too long to go into here, and the subject of another near future post. Right now, it’s enough to say that they truly are, they are things that bridge gaps and build communities. They can unite across socio-economic divisions. There are few things that everyone on the planet has in common, but we all have to eat and most of us would like it to taste pretty decent when we do.
A slightly lighter second reason perhaps?
The second reason that I am back here writing again is that Mysterious Beans is on a journey of transition. It’s always existed as a place that lives in our heads, and an online platform to write random thoughts. In the nearish future we are going to distil all of those thoughts down into the philosophy behind our launch of a real world offline place to eat.
We are creating a food business where everything we believe in and have written about here over the years informs what we do. A highly seasonal and hyper local experience where carefully curated music, sustainability, ethicality, and of course amazing food and drinks all come together.
So, that’s the future, and we will be chronicling some of that journey here along the way. Until we get to actual food on actual plates, what else might you expect to find here though?
More culinary creativity and food history, including discovering things I didn’t know were edible in our garden (hello magnolia), explorations into Baltic ingredients most people have never heard of, and my pursuit of the perfect pintxo. Plus, the same old sustainability rants, music playlists that are directed by actually listening to stuff and not algorithms, and intentionally or not, probably a little more social commentary as well.
Do stick around, and feel free to comment, it might just get interesting.