A couple of days ago I announced that I am trying to do something completely new with my blog: instead of asking people to become co-bloggers, I am trying to surround myself with great columnists. Rich Horton agreed and published his first column today: “In Praise of Incivility.”
The idea of having ‘columnists’ is that I – and I am sure some of you as well – get tired of constantly reading (and writing) about the latest (breaking) news. Thoughts are often best expressed in columns, which do not have to be written in 10 minutes time, and do not need to be a reaction to the latest breaking news. Columns can be, gasp, thoughtful.
I greatly encourage all of you to read Rich’s column. The intro:
It says something about our society that even after all of this time the internet can still give so many folks the screaming heebie jeebies. You cannot swing a nice four-letter expletive around without hitting a main stream media lament about the state of American discourse. The culprits, we are told, are various bloggers of the left and right, anonymous commenters with dubious language skills, and assorted other evildoers who add to the near certain ruination of our fine republic. For the most part, bloggers react to such criticism by stomping their feet and shouting, “You don’t understand me! You’ve never loved me and you never will! I hate you!†If there was an internet equivalent of running up to their room and slamming the door, I’m sure they would add that as well.
This little drama seemingly repeats itself every month or two; so often in fact that I sometimes feel like I’m stuck in the movie Groundhog Day, except without the ability to actually change anything. The reason nothing ever changes in this scenario has to do with the intersection of human nature with the nature of the internet. Believe it or not, it is a question with philosophical import and it has quite a pedigree.
In his dialogue The Laws, Plato discusses what has to be the best analogous practice to the internet in all of the history of philosophy: the drinking party.
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