Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom

Well, the Blogosphere—that’s what we call the global network of blogging—is not just about our self-expression and talking about your favourite bands, though that’s very important, of course. It’s also one of the best sources for news around. There’s a new kind of journalism—citizen journalism. It’s taking power from the elites and giving it to you. If you really want courageous, independent thinking on current affairs, look at blogs such as Harry’s Place and Oliver Kamm’s. (You see, we can make links to these blogs—it’s a real network!) These guys are rebels, aiming at establishment punditland—you know, those so-called experts you see in the conventional media who like to tell you what to think. Mainstream media content is prepackaged and sent down a narrow channel; blogs belong to the network world. It’s like the samizdat journalism in Eastern Europe that overthrew the Communists.

You’ll find a great variety of independent, daring thought in the blogosphere. It’s really challenging the old established guardians of privilege. Everybody gets a say—just like our blog lets us all have a genuine, open dialogue with each other, with all sorts of views being debated. ‘Let a thousand flowers bloom’: we’re taking a cue from that famous revolutionary, Chairman Mao and his Cultural Revolution. Of course we don’t condone Mao’s actions. I hope we’re not quite as bloodthirsty! Though look at the phenomenal—and slightly scary—success of Chinese society today—not to mention the benefits the highly-motivated Chinese guest workers have brought to our shores. On the other hand, we do have to worry about the very real danger of an overswollen China devouring the Earth. But I digress—what I mean to say is that the Blogosphere allows every kind of flower to bloom, just like the new society we’re building: Community 2.0.

Chaotic? Unstructured? Even mindless? Yes, I suppose you could say we’re anarchists here! ;-) Everybody in the community gets a chance to speak and you’re no longer following any authorities. Except, of course, and I’m being a bit more serious here, we all accept the authority of the public good and community values. We stand for the community, not selfish greedy individualism. But we’re anarchists in that we’re against all systems and arid intellectualism. We improvise our strategy spontaneously and act practically rather than from abstract ideals. We value the emotions—human things. This is the new world of self-expression, communication, sharing knowledge with the community.

The Blogosphere enables the redistribution of cultural capital so that no one is excluded from the digital community. Our collective, multiple intelligence is harnessed for the community. And many of these bloggers are now advising business on how to leverage the power of the blog, so it benefits the economy, creating wealth for all of us. And it’s a tribute to the democratic spirit of OfPax’s programme of human intervention that most of these very radical bloggers—by no means slaves to convention or servile apologists for our government—support us in our War for Freedom.