"To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing,
if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

The Power of the Blogosphere

by Lee

This was just left as a comment to the post Willing to Go to War by a reader named Gail-Marie.

I’ve been reading this site for a while now (a month or so) so I’m not really “new” just haven’t posted here before.  Reading this blog and all the posts really got me thinking about what my views on this war are.  I’m a college student and sometimes I feel like we’re all suppose to have a passionate view one way or another about this whole thing.  I think this whole situation has sorted of blasted me into reality, during the Gulf War I was too young to really pay attention to anything, I just remember that the cartoons weren’t on, and even two years ago I wasn’t really concerned with things like this, I just figured someone else would take care of it and I wouldn’t have an opinion one way or the other.  Since 9/11 though, I’ve paid more attention, sort of.  After things calmed down I just sort of let my attention go elsewhere and didn’t concern myself with it.  When things started getting lively again with a talk of war, I realized that I needed to be informed, even if I didn’t have an opinion.  I can no longer just expect the “adults” to take care of things because now I’m an adult.  Early on I was against the war, as I started reading more and looking into things my views got muddled in all the information, but reading everyone’s opinions on here has made me really be on the side for the war, even if I don’t like Bush.  I think that I was already leaning that way, but this stuff (not the bullshit between broken and everyone else, the actual opinions and critical thinking that has taken place through this blog) has pushed me all the way.  I’m still a little skeptical and keeping my opinion open ended, but that’s the way I usually am, I can argue either way if I need to.

These words exemplify what I believe to be the true power of the blogosphere: it’s the world’s largest bullshit detector.  You can take a number of different articles on a particular subject and the collective wisdom of the blogosphere can put them into perspective.  You can take the same article on, say, Yahoo News and read 20 different interpretations of it on 20 different blogs. You can be exposed to ideas that you never possibly could have through the major media, or even the alternative media like conservative AM radio (or left wing lunatic radio, like Pacifica or NPR).

Gail-Marie, welcome to the world of adulthood.  Enjoy the ride. :)

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