Locke and Demosthenes: A Thought on Political Blogs
With weekly fervor over the United States Presidential primaries right now and Election in November, I am reminded of one of my favorite science fiction novels, Ender’s Game.
A Prophetic Subplot?
In Ender’s Game, one of the main subplot involves manipulating Earth’s various governments and societal sentiments through the use of diametrically opposing political commentaries, written by Ender’s older (genius as well) siblings, and distributed via their version of the internet.
The pseudonyms they used were Locke and Demosthenes, and their writings polarized different groups of people, and thrust their online personas into the limelight. (There’s more to the plot, but that’s enough for my purposes here).
Blogs and their Effects
Of course, in real life, we have blogs.
One would think that blogs can truly be used to broadcast a candidate’s message directly to people out in the blogosphere, and perhaps even engage in constructive commentaries among other politicians (I know, wishful thinking).
And perhaps they are. A little.
A Flaw in Today’s Politicians’ Blogs
When I take a look at the blogs of the major candidates — John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — I notice one thing they all have in common:
None of the candidates write on their own blog (as far as I can tell).
Why is that?
The blogs I’ve seen have posts written ostensibly by campaign managers and other like-minded supporters in their respective camps.
Should Politicians Blog (Subscriptions = Votes)
Could you picture a politician’s blog with 100’s of thousands, or perhaps millions of subscribers, dwarfing the “superblogs” I’ve seen so far? Would it be possible? I’m not sure.
Could you imagine looking at a politician’s feedburner count to see how popular he or she is? Wouldn’t it be kind of like voting?
But, maybe the time isn’t ripe yet.
Perhaps there’s a lack of a critical online mass (e.g. not enough voters are online), or perhaps the recent failures of electronic voting systems make people (and candidates) hesitant about security and authenticity, or perhaps these politicians just don’t have time, being out in the public eye all the time. Whatever.
But as the blogosphere continues to grow, I think blogs will play a more and more important role in shaping societal opinions, public policies and a whole lot of other stuff falling under the realm of governments.
Certainly Local Politicians Should Blog
At the least, on a local level, a mayor or a council member can easily start and maintain a blog to inform and gain feedback from their respective constituents. The numbers would be more manageable, and the communication between politician and people would stay more narrow, focused on local issues at hand.
In any case, I hope to see better, more informative, more constructive ways of using the web to broadcast a candidate’s message, and to engage with people in positive ways.
I realize I’ve only touched the proverbial tip of the iceberg in this matter. It will be interesting to see what happens in the years to come.
What do you think?
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Comments
8 Comments on Locke and Demosthenes: A Thought on Political Blogs
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CatherineL on
Mon, 11th Feb 2008 8:29 am
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Hunter Nuttall on
Mon, 11th Feb 2008 9:32 am
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Nez on
Mon, 11th Feb 2008 9:21 pm
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Barbara on
Tue, 12th Feb 2008 7:53 pm
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Nez on
Wed, 13th Feb 2008 10:17 am
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Barack Obama | NezSez on
Sun, 16th Nov 2008 10:43 pm
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Locke on
Tue, 5th May 2009 2:55 pm
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Jason on
Wed, 2nd Dec 2009 9:20 am
Hi Nez – I’m guessing that if politicians ran their own blogs most of them would be paying people on elance to stumble them and digg them.
I read somewhere recently that a political candidate did something like that a couple of years ago. I think she got them to post comments on blogs telling everyone how wonderful she was, but it didn’t work.
If politicians can’t write their own speeches, then I don’t see many of them writing their own blogs. I’d certainly like to read George Bush’s personally written blog about what he finds on “the Google,” but I don’t see that happening. Blogs are like a conversation, and I don’t think politicians are allowed to have unscripted conversations.
Catherine and Hunter, excellent points.
It’s probably more likely a number of bloggers may at some point have enough influence to get people (subscribers) to action, assuming Net Neutrality reigns (I’m just thinking of China right now, and how they censor sites).
Nez,
In a perfect world all politicians would have blogs, and answer all of the questions in their comment section, however, that wouldn’t last for long, as I’m sure they would claim they had to close down comments because they were receiving too much spam (undoubtedly).
Agreed. At the least, the comments would be probably have to be moderated, but then we get into censorship territory.
[...] must say that when I wrote my Locke and Demosthenes post, I would never have thought that Barack Obama was actually ahead of the curve — just shows [...]
The question of the internet is becoming more and more common these days. Is that really such a good idea?
To bring our politics online would be another large step towards our internet-based future. Computers are fast headed to becoming the center of our lives. Already, many of our relationships begin on the web. Dating sites are a common way to meet someone special. There are also other simple solutions on the internet.
Usually it may be easy to come up with only the good points of these types of crutches for our lazy minds and effort.
However, often these site are full of phantom people, superficial personas dancing around one another. Who can we trust in the fake world our society is now plunging into? How can we trust this artifical space our society has invented and caressed?
Locke, though i understand what you mean, we are indeed falling into a net based world that should not depend on the power of the electric circuit, you must admit people are foolish and therefore the net is a powerful force that can be used for good. Locke within Ender’s Game would of never had a chance to spread his ideas had he released his identity as a teenager immediately, theres simply no way someone would take him seriously. This is how its been for a long time, and now that politicians run the show rather than the general beliefs of the people, the internet is the one place where you have to take an opinion based on its value, not on the one who says it. That is the power of the internet that must continue on.
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