At
The Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan posted rather splendid words for the Fourth of July, when we celebrate our liberation from the tyrannical rule of the British Empire. (Slight irony alert here, since I have a good many English friends, and Andrew himself is an immigrant from Merrie Olde England - God save the Queen, and all that.)
Initially, I planned to excerpt from Andrew's post, but I did not find a logical cut-off spot. I hope he doesn't mind that I use his entire commentary. Pop on over to Andrew's site to read the words he quotes from Thomas Jefferson, who is no longer included in the recent revision of
the social studies curriculum by the Texas Board of Education.
"I believe the blogosphere first truly gained traction in America for a good reason. There is something about blogging's freedom from the constraints of conventional journalism that captures an American ideal: civic engagement totally free of anyone else's influence. It is an ideal of a fourth estate hostile to authorities public and private, suspicious of conventional wisdom, and, above all, confident, even when confidence seems absurd, in the power of the word and the argument to make a difference ... in the end. The rise of this type of citizen journalism has, in my view, increasingly exposed some of the laziness and corruption in the professional version - even as there is still a huge amount to treasure and value in the legacy media, and a huge amount of partisan, mendacious claptrap on the blogs.
But what distinguishes the best of the new media is what could still be recaptured by the old: the mischievous spirit of journalism and free, unfettered inquiry. Journalism has gotten too pompous, too affluent, too self-loving, and too entwined with the establishment of both wings of American politics to be what we need it to be.
We need it to be fearless and obnoxious, out of a conviction that more speech, however much vulgarity and nonsense it creates, is always better than less speech. In America, this is a liberal spirit in the grandest sense of that word - but also a conservative one, since retaining that rebelliousness is tending to an ancient American tradition, from the Founders onward. (My emphasis)
....
Here at the Dish, we try and we fail at this every day. But we have never for a second doubted the imperative of this complicated, difficult and exhilarating task."
I echo Andrew's final paragraph, except for the part about never doubting, for I doubt, on occasion.
Andrew's post is heartening to me, since I've heard and read much about the approaching death of the blogosphere. If blogs die, then they die, and so be it. The new online gathering spots, which appear with the speed of storms off the west coast of Africa during hurricane season, are not much to my taste, I'm sad to say, since many of my friends are there.
If Andrew is correct about "fearless and obnoxious", then I have a way to go.