Thinking about Rosen
The title of this post is not merely a tag but actually indicating what I am doing right now. I will not post a detailed follow-up tonight, as I am busy reading Rosen in his own words. He has been quite prolific, and I admire his commitment to long-form blogging. In the posts I have been reading tonight, he provides at least some of the answers about his perspective that I wish he had been able to provide in this weekend's debate. If your interested, check out here, here, here, and here for starters. I am particularly interested in this posting on Abu Ghraib and related matters, as it gets quite specific and speaks to a larger issue that I am working on for my next post.
I also would like to quickly respond to Dean Esmay (thanks for the link, by the way! -- and thanks to neo-neocon as well). I truly appreciate Dean's point, reminding us of the simple humanity of individual bloggers, something that is easily forgotten in the digital realm.
For me, I write just about every entry with a superego in the back of my mind, in the imagined voice of my best friend whom I have know since childhood. I would describe him as an independent thinker, libertarianish (generally anti-war, socially liberal, pro-free market, but certainly well to the left of me), and scrupulously honest (both personally and intellectually). I don't always listen to that voice, just as we don't (can't, and shouldn't, I might add) always follow our superego's dictates in daily life. But I think it's a great thing for bloggers and commenters to have, to keep the blogosphere civil and constructive.
Like many on the right, I think the blogosphere represents a tremendous opportunity to construct a more positive discourse in this country (as compared to the old MSM monopoly), but we must uphold our end of the bargain as well. There is plenty of room for satire, passion, and a well-deserved hardcore fisking, but there is already more than enough snark and rudeness in our culture. At the same time, I don't think that that was at the heart of the problem with the PressThink thread -- I think it can be more accurately described at the level of ideas (which is what I am pondering tonight). More to come...
I also would like to quickly respond to Dean Esmay (thanks for the link, by the way! -- and thanks to neo-neocon as well). I truly appreciate Dean's point, reminding us of the simple humanity of individual bloggers, something that is easily forgotten in the digital realm.
For me, I write just about every entry with a superego in the back of my mind, in the imagined voice of my best friend whom I have know since childhood. I would describe him as an independent thinker, libertarianish (generally anti-war, socially liberal, pro-free market, but certainly well to the left of me), and scrupulously honest (both personally and intellectually). I don't always listen to that voice, just as we don't (can't, and shouldn't, I might add) always follow our superego's dictates in daily life. But I think it's a great thing for bloggers and commenters to have, to keep the blogosphere civil and constructive.
Like many on the right, I think the blogosphere represents a tremendous opportunity to construct a more positive discourse in this country (as compared to the old MSM monopoly), but we must uphold our end of the bargain as well. There is plenty of room for satire, passion, and a well-deserved hardcore fisking, but there is already more than enough snark and rudeness in our culture. At the same time, I don't think that that was at the heart of the problem with the PressThink thread -- I think it can be more accurately described at the level of ideas (which is what I am pondering tonight). More to come...
posted by neuroconservative at 9:12 PM
2 Comments:
Please go thru neo-neo-con's VERY long "A Mind is a Difficult Thing to Change" -- especially on the Vietnam War.
The Leftist Press policy was:
US OUT NOW.
The policy the US eventually followed: OUT NOW
The result: SE Asian genocide.
And huge mental excuses by the Left on why they aren't responsible for the results when their policy is followed.
-- The Left has never been held responsible. Nor Jay Rosen (against the war). He's in denial.
I note first in your post that you compliment Mr. Rosen. The best piece of advice I ever had in my life came from an ultra-Liberal Sociologist who told me never deny an opponent his/her humanity. That is difficult advice to follow, particularily in the anonymous realms of the blogsphere, where oppositional views quickly morph into the status of being enemy propoganda on which to vent. I am often guilty of this myself, though I steadfastly maintain that in real life, there would exist much civility should Blog opponents actually meet. I like to think so anyway, but maybe technology and real-time events are not as conducive to civilization as we would wish. How often can we bash on the internet before it carries over to real life? I don't know.
Your point of alternate views via Blogs is well taken. Compare the life experience, age and education of your favorite Bloggers (yourself certainly included as you are on my reading list) to that of the average journalist of either Liberal or Conservative bent, and whose presentation and analysis of events do you want to read? Hands down it goes to the Bloggers. I too think in the long run Bloggers will be responsible for holding MSM to a higher standard of accuracy and less bias. People certainly aren't getting what they want from the MSM, that's for sure. I check in on a pro-gun/2cd Amendment type Blog from time to time and in roughly 2 years, 2.4 million people have visited the site. That is impressive whether or not one is a pro-gun type of person.
Regarding Rosen and his Abu Ghraib commentary in particular, I note the time frame of 1975, the US withdrawal from Viet Nam, to 1991, the first Gulf War. This is a 26 year period of time when our nation was not in any major war. Nope! No hundreds of billions spent on killing innocent 3rd worlders during these 26 years, not by our vicious troops.There were interventions and forays, but nothing major. I contrast the pressures of war, the clash of cultures and the nature of terrorism that produced Abu Ghraib with what at home transpired in 26 years of peace. I am speaking in particular about domestic violence and child abuse that occured during these 26 years, when war-mongers and chickenhawks were not at the forefront. It was the Liberal ideology and the Liberal agenda that held sway during this time frame as it pertained to said domestic terrorism. It was the Liberal mentality that maintained the methodologies and resources of dealing with domestic torture. It failed and it continues to fail and it would take considerable effort to tally the number of victims the Liberal ideology has produced. Yes, I am addressing children beaten to death, mutilated, molested, burned, starved, battered and subjected to constant psychological torment. I am talking about countless women who died and endured the same treatment during the same 26 years. How many victims are there? How many women and children have died miserable deaths when our nation was not at war? Please excuse the rough language, but the Liberal bastards can't even remotely hold themselves accountable for any of this. It was their policies and procedures and ideologies that were in the forefront. The Republican Administrations at worst sought to cut funding for domestic programs, but they did not sustain in any way the underlying philosophy that was supposed to manage this hideous problem. In closing, I choose not to comment on the thousands upon thousands of trees killed to produce the paper forms needed to manage the many programs that utterly failed the thousands of children and women who were tortured. I am neither proud nor ashamed of Abu Ghraib, Mr. Rosen, not when you and your kind have repeatedly failed the most vulnerable of our citizens. Put that in your damn peace pipe and smoke it!
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