Given my pessimism about the economy and the cynical politics that co-opts popular discontent and diverts political action into a morass of pointless food-fights, i've grown tired of most poli-blogging and conventional nano-punditry.
Actually, i've been tired of it for a long time. I wrote this five and half year ago:
There are plenty of blogs that have good traffic and run on autopilot. They start out with the premise that Rummy is always right or that Bush is the worst president in history. They make liberal use of "wingnut' and "moonbat". They link to other sites just like their own blogs. Each community of blogs has a ready-made readership of intense partisans who like shallow arguments.
In his book The Fifth Discipline Peter Senge distinguishes between discussion and dialogue. Discussion (which is linguistically related to concussion and percussion) is about scoring points, winning, having our viewpoint prevail. Dialogue is a means of learning together. The blogosphere is increasingly about discussion and not dialogue.
What was once boring is almost intolerable now given the monumental problems the nation faces.
A bright exception to this situation is Rod Dreher. In his blogging he is honestly trying to find workable solutions to the crisis that besets us. Although he is a conservative, he is willing to engage the arguments of liberal and left thinkers. Even more admirable is his willingness to understand those (like the public faces of Occupy Wall Street) whose solutions are wrong-headed but who are honestly dealing with real issues.
By all means check him out here.
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