Monday, March 20, 2006
Where Does This Stuff Come From
It's been written about at CNS, in The Corner, by Charles Krauthammer, and somewhat tongue-in-cheeky by fellow SCBA member Cheat Seeking Missles, just to name a few. What? you ask - POLYGAMY.
Yep that thing that same-sex marriage would never lead to has arrived - as Krauthammer suggests, much to the chagrin of the same-sex marriage crowd. But what fascinates me is that all this discussion has arisen "spontaneously" from two sources - Newsweek and HBO. Are these two sources of information related? - Not really, but orchestrated for sure - and we bloggers need to be really beware of it.
You know that some PR guy for the HBO series whispered in the ear of some Newsweek editor about what a great story it would make, maybe even gave the reporter some sources. After such a confux of "primary" chatter - all the "professional chatters" like Krauthammer pick up the meme and then us amatuers join the fray - it's scary somehow, and I think we bloggers need to ask what our legitimate role is.
See, we may decry polygamy for the junk it is, but the net result of all the chatter, pro and con will be more people tuning into HBO and reading Newsweek and the pro-polygamy getting a hearing that it might otherwise be denied. Once an abomination like this has a hearing you can be fairly sure society will move in that direction, even if it does not completely jump off the cliff. When you are trying to legitimize something like polygamy, just getting people talking about it is a victory. There is a reason somethings are spoken of only in hushed tones.
There are no doubt a lot of hits to be garnerd by participating in this discussion, and if it runs a certain course, joining the fray will be unfortunately unavoidable, but just once, I'd like to see us be smart enough not to start echoing.
Related Tags: HBO, Newsweek, polygamy, Charles Krauthammer, NRO's The Corner, CNS
Yep that thing that same-sex marriage would never lead to has arrived - as Krauthammer suggests, much to the chagrin of the same-sex marriage crowd. But what fascinates me is that all this discussion has arisen "spontaneously" from two sources - Newsweek and HBO. Are these two sources of information related? - Not really, but orchestrated for sure - and we bloggers need to be really beware of it.
You know that some PR guy for the HBO series whispered in the ear of some Newsweek editor about what a great story it would make, maybe even gave the reporter some sources. After such a confux of "primary" chatter - all the "professional chatters" like Krauthammer pick up the meme and then us amatuers join the fray - it's scary somehow, and I think we bloggers need to ask what our legitimate role is.
See, we may decry polygamy for the junk it is, but the net result of all the chatter, pro and con will be more people tuning into HBO and reading Newsweek and the pro-polygamy getting a hearing that it might otherwise be denied. Once an abomination like this has a hearing you can be fairly sure society will move in that direction, even if it does not completely jump off the cliff. When you are trying to legitimize something like polygamy, just getting people talking about it is a victory. There is a reason somethings are spoken of only in hushed tones.
There are no doubt a lot of hits to be garnerd by participating in this discussion, and if it runs a certain course, joining the fray will be unfortunately unavoidable, but just once, I'd like to see us be smart enough not to start echoing.
Related Tags: HBO, Newsweek, polygamy, Charles Krauthammer, NRO's The Corner, CNS
