Why Political Blogging?

At a companion site where I encounter the most intellectual stimulation on the web (www.boileryard.blogspot.com) the question arose about the purpose of socio-political blogging. One contributor advised starting (yet another) "New and Improved" political party. Being of the anarchistic mindset I have cultivated over the decades, I commented that trying to perfect on a broken system was doomed to failure, or worse, disaster. The contributor had no more positive response from anyone seconding his informal motion, and asked, then, "Why are we here?"

My political "sensibilities" have been informed over the years by the thoughts and opinions of others. I have been forced to answer tough questions, and in searching out my answers I have weighed matters and made important changes in my outlook. While there has been a lot of friction, this has only resulted in refining, polishing my own thought processes.

Eventually, people of reasonably similar purpose and view have time to discover one another, fine-tune their perspectives (and arguments), and realize that there is a genuine "mandate" (not a media or party invented one) for change. Ultimately some sort of consensus about methods of producing change evolve, and a revolution becomes inevitable.

This process might take decades. In the past is has required as much as centuries. My hope is that, with the benefit of the Internet, such "grassroots" developments can bring about a more timely change. Unfortunately, the "democratic" nature of the web can result in the most "vocal" having more impact on the change than the more "thoughtful."

I don't see that intelligent, and well-meaning discourse is ever wasted.

Besides allowing people another outlet to voice their passionate beliefs (and unload some of the stresses related to these passions), forums such as the Boileryard contribute to a non-media distribution of information (and, sadly, mis-information) and ideas. The talking heads in the tube are not the only arbiters of concepts and data. People who are more similar to one another than the Beltway or Broadcast sub-species share more relevant expression, and actual, workable solutions may be found.

There is a lot of "down side" to any revolution, web-facilitated or not, but I find more hope in it than concern. IF a significant turn is to be made for the better, more rational sort of citizenship, I believe it will be through the ad hoc efforts of people in the REAL world, without a political career agendas.