Public journals and politicians
So Tom Daschle says he’s putting a travellog online…
People like to use buzzwords to poster over deep things that [for the thousandth time] come to local prominence. There is great power to making one’s private thoughts and life public — it encourages rumour, giving these thoughts the second fastest propulsion in the universe.
Right now people are talking about politicians blogging. Well, two rather distinct uses of this word that come to mind:
- blogging – Using a modern blog tool, such as Manila or MovableType (or, via back-formation, any wiki tool).
- blogging – Making a stream of one’s personal observations and reflections public.
A few politicians have public sites that use modern tools to blog in the first sense; none of them yet have opened themselves to the idea of blogging in the second sense. They use these modern online fora as one more place to promote their platform and carefully-honed positions, but have no sense of real-time interaction with commenters, writing from the heart, or conveying their humanity outside of their stands on popular issues. And yet these same people understand the value of kissing babies, grasping hands firmly, and sharing a human connection in person…
So I’m excited about Tom’s new travellog. I hope it comes from the heart. And I hope he adds to it early and often in the coming month…