Why I hate blogs

I have been resistant to the idea of having a blog for a very long time. I've disliked blogs in several incarnations. When they started out as online diaries in the mid-1990s, I felt that one would have to be deeply narcissistic to believe that others would care to read your journal. Later, in the early 2000s, when the political blog emerged (e.g., Daily Kos, Andrew Sullivan), I disliked the glorification of mainstream political figures. Isn't Howard Dean so great? God, I hate Dick Cheney!

Of course, I like the democratic nature of blogs, but too often the Bush-era blogs focus on the individual ups-and-downs of politicians and less on the institutions that actually assert power. That is to say, too much talk about Bush choking on a pretzel or Cindy Sheehan's God-like/Devil-like characteristics and not enough on The Media's construction of the pretzel-choking incident as a news story or how America's deep and abiding anti-intellectualism has stunted resistance to the war. Or when was the last time one of those blogs discussed something like, let's say, structural inequality. That's not to say that blogs have to be a heavy, sociological mope-fest. The only two blogs I currently read and like (Bighead and Le Blog Bérubé) are often most enjoyable when they take on light topics. But in addressing serious issues, I think most of the later type of blog have approached them in unoriginal, unthinking ways.

Briefly, we heard a lot about how blogs would supplant traditional media. I think (or I hope) blogs have passed their peak and people have recognized that bloggers can never serve the same function as investigative journalists. The power of blogs lies in their ability to (occasionally) shift the agenda of the traditional media to unexamined problems.

So, given my aversion to blogs, why would I set one up now? Well, it's at least in part out of the narcissistic belief that other people might be interested in what I think about things. More importantly, however, I would like to help point out issues/questions/problems that aren't being raised in the traditional media and among politicians (or aren't be addressed well). I think the "Comments" feature is the best part of blogs and I hope that I will have readers who engage with my observations or tell me that I'm missing the more important question. Of course, who knows what, if anything, I'll end up writing about.