One of the more entertaining bits of pressure that I get in my e-mail inbox is the way that Linked In, a professional website where I have done a fair bit of connecting with others, seeks to pressure its users to share their thoughts and opinions. I am not sure why Linked In wishes to promote this. For those who are not aware, this social networking site is focused on the professional world, and it contains a great deal of commentary on things relating to work and the workplace. Unlike, say, Facebook and Twitter, two other social networks, it is not so much interested in supporting the growth of mutually hostile spheres of people who support different agendas who show a violent hostility to competing rival groups, but at the same time not much of what is shared is really all that noteworthy. Most of what I see, at least, are the bland pigeon droppings of contemporary executives and consultants, which is what passes for fortune cookie wisdom among HR managers and the like.

As might well be imagined, I have no particular interest either in sharing this anodyne and generally worthless twaddle nor do I have the stomach to compose it. I have long steadfastly maintained here and demonstrated in my life that while I am a person of considerable politeness, that politeness does not extend to obsequious flattery to those in positions of power and authority. I was neither born nor have I been made to be a courtier. Those leaders–and those leaders are legion–who wish to be treated with such flattery by others had better seek their fix elsewhere. If I am generous in my encouragement to the humble, I am sparing in my offerings to those who only wish to hear praise to increase the size of their already oversized encephalitic noggins. Similarly, those who wish for me to praise the idiocy of contemporary wisdom, or celebrate contemporary trends in the business world, are barking up the wrong tree. In the interests of following Thumper’s mother’s rule, in the absence of being able to say anything kind about the way that businesses are run after the current fashion, I generally just hold my tongue and say nothing at all.

What benefit is there for a person of at least moderately to intensely critical tendencies as I am to share their thoughts and opinions on a social network that focuses on the professional world? I would like to think that whatever intrepidity I possess is balanced by at least some small amount of street smarts and wisely cautious tendencies that lead to self-preservation. I would like to think that I was born with some brains, after all, and that would not be in evidence should I choose to make my thoughts on certain popular trends within the business world too plainly and publicly evident. Much of what I see being offered up as cutting-edge trends are practices and worldviews I view as ranging from at best meaningless nonsense to at worst actively hostile and threatening to my own well-being. I believe that there is a place for honest discussion of such matters, but such a place is not a network that is focused on those who, by and large, are either joyfully participating in contemporary business trends or, even more maliciously, are seeking to encourage and enforce such practices on others. I would merely be a nail sticking up only to be hammered down, and I would rather not perform such a role in life if it can possibly be avoided. Martyrdom, if it happens to be one’s fate, is not something to be avidly sought but rather to be accepted if there is no possibility for avoiding it consistent with truth and dignity.

It seems that those who run social media networks are of the opinion that what is needed on their networks is more speech. It would make sense that in a professional setting, people would understandably be a bit reticent to speak their true opinions about matters. Indeed, I have often found that people are surprised to hear my own true opinions about a great many subjects, since whatever people think and feel, there are at least some opinions of mine that are strongly and even fiercely held that others would not find particularly friendly or welcoming, wherever they happen to stand. It is unlikely that I am alone in this. Perhaps social networks might want for increased activity as a way of expressing widespread support for what is going on in one’s own company or in one’s industry or in the corporate world as a whole. Where such support is lacking, though, most people seek to preserve both a sense of politeness and of self-preservation and honesty by simply avoiding comment altogether. This sort of silence is about the kindest sort of response that people ought to expect about the burning questions that are faced by the business world or indeed any part of our contemporary society, but people long not merely for silence but for speech praising what they and others like them are doing. As one might expect, I would rather not give it to them.