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Richard Stengel, Time's managing editor, says, "Thomas Paine was in effect the first blogger" and "Ben Franklin was essentially loading his persona into the MySpace of the 18th century, 'Poor Richard's Almanack.' " Not exactly.

Franklin's extraordinary persona informed what he wrote but was not the subject of what he wrote. Paine was perhaps history's most consequential pamphleteer. There are expected to be 100 million bloggers worldwide by the middle of 2007, which is why none will be like Franklin or Paine. Both were geniuses; genius is scarce. Both had a revolutionary civic purpose, which they accomplished by amazing exertions. Most bloggers have the private purpose of expressing themselves for their own satisfaction. There is nothing wrong with that, but there is nothing demanding or especially admirable about it, either.

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We are going to forget that Will is a brighter than average light, but by no means a Paine or a Franklin, yet has found a way to both express his opinions and pay for lunch.

I think that Will hits on a few points, that we should not be so enthusiastic in praising a person's ability to express small problems. That's the exact reason I hate Roger Roeper, and I do think that a premium should be placed on civic minded thinkers, but I don't know if I agree with his blanket condemnation of bloggers or that the mass of poor bloggers is in danger of submerging the voices of the few great thinkers.

[ December 21, 2006, 05:09 PM: Message edited by: Irami Osei-Frimpong ]
 

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Posted by Zalmoxis (Member # 2327) on :
 
George Will makes the same mistake that a host of other out-of-touch mainstream media types do --- he gets caught up in the self-indulgent mass expression type of blogging/vlogging/podcasting as well as the politicized wannabe AM talk show hosts bloggers.

This is all minor discourse to be sure.

But what he misses is that in some specialized areas blogging and new media is allowing some important discussions and networking on a whole host of topics and making that available to anyone who is interested in that topic -- from religion and philosophy to marketing, law, science, etc. It also means that a lot of folks who have the credentials but not the academic position can continue to be part of the conversation.

It can be democracy and civic building at its best.

The real trick -- and this is something that gets discussed in the blogging community I participate in -- is going to be to take the blogging and turn it [the content, the people] in to more formal work [writing, creative or organizing, etc.] that will have a bit more lasting value.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to go post a Q&A I did with a small publisher that is trying to reach the Mormon, Christian and national markets [although not necessarily with the same titles in every market].
 

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Posted by Irami Osei-Frimpong (Member # 2229) on :
 

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It also means that a lot of folks who have the credentials but not the academic position can continue to be part of the conversation.

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