Adopt an Intellectual

[softwareNerd]

A small idea about intellectual activism.

Blog Comments: Ideas spread when advocates make the case for them: in books, art, speeches, letters, chats with friends, etc.. Other people get interested; other people agree; they tell others; ideas spread. Letter to the editor are one means. However, today, influential bloggers have replaced journalists as providers of commentary about current-events. So, blog comments today are like letters to the editor of yesterday: a way of spreading ideas.

Focus on a few Blogs: Bloggers do read comments on their blogs, and often respond to them. Of course, the attention they pay varies a lot. Here's an activism idea that struck me: adopt an intellectual. Find a non-Objectivist intellectual who blogs and who seems pretty reality-oriented: i.e., someone worth the effort. Then, adopt the intellectual in this sense: without stalking them, comment on their blog whenever one has something worthwhile to offer. Do so only when one can do so politely and when one feels confident about the topic. If you do this well, over time, the blogger would recognize you as an opponent in some areas and a friend in others. He will also see you as a polite and worthy one -- the type of opponent an honest intellectual wants.

Obviously, this approach is not for everybody. The idea can be re-stated this way: comment on blogs of various non-Objectivist intellectuals, you might be able to have a more long-term impact if you focus on one.

Caveats: As I said above, this does not mean one should virtually "stalk" someone. The premise of "each one teach one" and "big brother" schemes is that the other person -- soon -- welcomes one's "advances". A second caveat is that one should choose a blogger who is near one's own level as measured by the "depth" to which they want to explore politics or philosophy. Finally, don't comment unless confident about your ability to explain your position.

[softwareNerd]

In the recent ARI Impact, Dr. Brook talks about spreading Objectivism and advises people who spend time on online political/philosophical discussion with other Objectivists to spend some of that time on activism with non-Objectivists [caveat: I might have misinterpreted the point] It reminded me of the idea of influencing bloggers (above). Here are some additional thoughts:

High-traffic blogs have so many comments, that the impact of any one is pretty limited. For such sites, it probably makes more sense to be selective, only commenting when there is a topic for which one can provide a link to some really good article from the ARI, or from The Objectivist Standard, or a "One Minute Case" series, or a blog post written by some Objectivist, etc.

Low traffic sites are more like changing one mind at a time. I think the best targets would be sites that are updated fairly regularly, and followed by an audience, often getting a few comments on each post, but not much more. These are sites where one can be heard.

There are two ways one can comment. Firstly, when someone blogs something you agree with, you can provide them with better arguments and with links. For instance, a GOP-leaning blog, speaking against socialized health care can be given more solid arguments, and (say) a link to FIRE. Or, a Left-leaning blog calling for stem-cell research might be given positive arguments on that topic. Secondly, one can argue against positions taken by such bloggers. I think one should be selective in this. Most such bloggers have pretty firm opinions, and a light-weight "anti" comment is going to carry near-zero weight. So, I think that one should limit negative comments to the provision of really good links or to particularly incisive criticism.

Finding Blogs: Finding blogs is simple with Google's Blog-search. For instance, if you type in the issue that you wish to comment on (say "stimulus package" or "single payer") you'll easily find relevant blogs. Nobody likes hit-and-run comments, though. I think the longer run approach should be to identify a few decent bloggers who are reasonable and not extremely partisan, and set up a RSS feed to check whether they have anything worth commenting on.

[DarkWaters]

To this end, another good medium is leaving comments on Facebook notes.

[softwareNerd]

I haven't check out Facebook, do some people have philosophical / political pages and blogs?

[DarkWaters]

I haven't check out Facebook, do some people have philosophical / political pages and blogs?

You can write "notes", which are the equivalent of a blog entry. You can also "tag" some of your friends in your note, which brings the note to your friend's attention. Similar to a blog entry, you can also leave brief comments on your friend's note. I think the medium is helpful enough for briefly presently an Objectivist perspective.

To address your question, many users often leave political and/or philosophical notes.

[LilVicky]

I think on all social networking pages like Facebook or MySpace you've got the chance to make your own blog or at least something that looks like a blog.