Cites & Insights, and the politics of power
Walt Crawford has just released the September 2003 edition of his "Cites & Insights" publication.
Buried at the very end of the newsletter is the following poignant item:
The One that Got Away
The original title for this perspective was "The politics of weblogs." It ended with a one-page essay on "The politics of prominence," based on an unfortunate recent incident in the blogosphere.
In the end, there wasn't room for that essay -- and I could never get my commentary in a form that would serve you and didn't upset me. So why include this non-item?
Because, despite my comments in the other weblogging Perspective, I do believe there's one rule that every blogger should follow, at least if the weblog involves comments by or about anyone other than the blogger.
You know the rule: It's found in nearly every philosophy throughout history. Something about treating other people as you'd like them to treat you.
Unfortunately, the more I thought about this incident, the more I believe that -- for some Very Important People -- there's an escape clause related to the definition of people (worth treating as people.)
And I don't want to write about that.
I completely agree. But I want to note the critical practical difference in the above between statement of values versus statement of fact. Specifically:
Statement of values: "treating other people as you'd like them to treat you"
Statement of fact: "escape clause related to the definition of people"
That is, there's a vast chasm between what people should do, and what they actually do. And the implications of this difference can be very painful (as we see!).
By Seth Finkelstein | posted in politics | on August 19, 2003 08:06 PM (Infothought permalink) | Followups
Thanks, Seth--and I agree with your final para.
You can probably guess *what* incident I was trying to write about... and a side-effect is that respect for a certain law professor has declined significantly.
You know, actually, my experience is that most "real people" do follow the prime rule most of the time. I think if that wasn't true, we'd have complete chaos (instead of the current mostly-livable chaos).
It was the final conclusion--that, for some Very Prominent People, the definition of "people" is different--that finally killed the item.
Well, that and my ongoing attempts to keep the zine down to 20 pages an issue.