“The absence of alternatives,” said Henry Kissinger, “clears the mind marvelously.” That would probably explain why my mind has been so muddled since I started blogging. The blogosphere contains far too many alternatives, too many choices about what to read or what to ignore. The posts accumulate by the thousands and even Glenn Reynolds with his stable of indentured servants armed with laptops and T1 connections can’t keep up with them all.
We gather a select few on our blogrolls and count ourselves fortunate if we find time to ready them daily. Our view of the blogosphere gradually narrows, becoming parochial and staid. To compound the problem, we bloggers tend to gather with our own kind, preferring not to venture far from our cozy end of the political spectrum. On our horizon we are able to see the broad outlines of our ideological opponents positions but we miss the nuance and subtleties that are hidden beneath the surface.
Obviously, it would benefit us to have exposure to other thoughts and ideas and have them tested against our own. But we hardly can find the time as it is to keep up with the conversation among our circle of peers. What we need, however, is not more time but a different tactic.
A modest solution to this problem would be for every pundit to “adopt” a blogger from the opposite political pole. If the liberal/conservative* blogger has a post that is worthy of notice he could bring it to the attention of his circle of readers who would then be able to spread it to their own audience. In this way, the blogs that don’t find their way onto the “common grounds” (Instapundit, for example) would gain greater exposure.
The plan is not foolproof. What is considered worthy of notice by one blogger may not be viewed the same by their peers. Still, the scheme offers a way out of our current political myopia.
Though the idea may not catch on, I’ve decided to test it out for myself. As a conservative, I’ve decided to “adopt” Matthew Yglesias’ blog. Yglesias is smart, articulate, prolific, and more often than not, infuriating. All in all, I consider him to be a perfect choice. He possesses both a better education and more skill at writing than I do but I believe it’s sometimes necessary to punch above one’s weight class. The only drawback is that he has such a large volume of output that I might need someone to share the load. (Perhaps, Anti-Climacus could help out.) I’ll attempt to cull his posts down to the essential marrow and bring it to the attention of my own limited readership.
I’m hoping that others will take up this idea and make it their own. If you decide to carry out an “adoption”, please leave a comment detailing which liberal/conservative blog you’ve chosen.
*I’ve purposely excluded the libertarians since there are more of them on the web than there are bloggers to cover them.
1
Without doing a shameless plug, let me just say that what you say here is much of my motivation for PunditFilter. I like your particular take on it though and it'll be interesting to see who adopts whom.
posted on 12.29.2003 3:16 PM2
Nice selection. Down with those Harvard-educated elitists! :-)
posted on 12.29.2003 4:52 PM3
Am I the only one who thinks Glenn Reynolds is really an AI?
posted on 12.29.2003 5:36 PM4
Count me in... I was going to blogroll Matt anyway, as I seem to end up checking up on him several times a day. Do you have a suggestion for a division of labor, or should we just catch-as-catch-can?
posted on 12.29.2003 5:52 PM5
Nick,
I'll let you have first dibs and I'll take the leftovers.
posted on 12.29.2003 5:54 PM