Because I do not read Instapundit - as I have my own cutting and pasting to take care of, thank you - I had no idea that there was a silly book out reviving the 1999-2000 disco era of blogging claims that the world was being made anew. I only stumbled upon reference to the thing in this BBC essay on the relative untrustworthiness of everything:
Blogs do not really exist to provide people with the "news and information" they want on current affairs. They exist to agitate, to question, to swap information, to provide leads and opinions, and generally to act as guerrilla forces against the massed ranks of the mainstream media. I call them an army of irregulars. One leading practitioner, Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit (and a law professor at the University of Tennessee), gives them a more elevated status and has just written a book about them called An Army of Davids. His subtitle is not modest: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths. And that gives an idea of what blogs are about. They are not about providing people with carefully sorted and sifted news.Hmmm...carefully sorting...never ran into that much...beating media and government...hmmm...can't think of many examples of that...guerrilla ranks...not much of that apparent. It is so strange that so much has been said or done for so little real effect through blogging but continues to attract this mytique that it has actually accomplished something...anything. No, this whole thing is a place of bleating voices isolated echo chambers utterly dependent on mainstream media for cutting and pasting opportunities which has either not made one dent in government or has been co-opted by it.
Except for me. I'm great.
Comments
Flea - May 4, 2006 8:42 AM
"Except for me. I'm great."
Which is why you know so much about blogs, the blogosphere and blogging you have just discovered <i>Army of Davids</i>. From a BBC article. How cute.
Alan - May 4, 2006 8:45 AM
I know for sure that DC comics are fairly brainless but I don't read them, Flea. It is funny, however, that for such a group of rugged individuals speaking out and crushing the man that they need a guru telling them what is real despite all the evidence.
Hans - May 4, 2006 9:21 AM
I'd love to see some statistics about how many people in Canada or North America use the internet and/or read blogs. I would guess the former is a large but not overwhelming proportion of the population while the latter would be a small fraction of that.
Ben - May 4, 2006 10:26 AM
Blogging got me my job and allows me to keep that job. I haven't changed the world, the govt, or the mainstream media, but it's led to significant change in my life. That's good enough for me.
It's also led to some valuable personal relationships, which is the real strength of blogging I think.
Gordo - May 4, 2006 10:27 AM
Whoo Hoo! I'm a gorilla!
Gordo - May 4, 2006 10:27 AM
Whoops ... Never mind .. ;-)
Alan - May 4, 2006 10:41 AM
That is true, Ben, and you are like this shining light in my experience of all this writing as not only did you get a job but you got a dream job. For full disclosure, I may wrangle up to $3,000 bucks out of the ads and other writing associated with my blogging but a few of us making money does not make for a conquest of the status quo. I still think, other than email, the internet generally and certainly blogging has not drastically altered the way people do business or run their lives.<p>But even (perhaps especially) the Flea will understand the above as the equivalent of vogueing, a responsive dance if ever there was.
WCG - May 4, 2006 1:13 PM
AL FOR PM!
Flea - May 4, 2006 6:23 PM
"It is funny, however, that for such a group of rugged individuals speaking out and crushing the man that they need a guru telling them what is real despite all the evidence."
Which would be an interesting point except this particular guru is not addressing bloggers with this book. He is, rather, explaining the phenom to people such as the BBC journalist from whom you get your news second hand.
/takes-bow-in-self-congratulation-at-yet-another-startling-demonstration-of-conversational-jiu-jitsu
Alan - May 4, 2006 6:31 PM
I would resent your second paragraph except for your third.
cm - May 4, 2006 7:53 PM
I want to hear more about Gordo's gorilla.
brian - May 6, 2006 2:38 AM
"Except for me. I'm great."
LOL. :)