Andrew Sullivan's piece, Why I Blog, in the newly designed Atlantic Monthly that just arrived in our mailbox is timely. I've been told all my adult life that I need to write more, recently I've hoped that blogging might just be the medium that helps me develop the discipline. Sullivan provides a marvelously insightful analysis of what's involved (and at risk!) in getting engaged in, what he clearly portrays as, a way of life.
Blogging as he experiences it is not the same as writing for print publication with well thought out arguments. Instead blogging is full contact "conversation"; more akin to talk radio than printing press. Of course there's a spectrum of bloggers from neophytes like myself with less than 10 posts, to the pros (addicts?) who live online like Sullivan and Drudge.
21st century global society is learning about and changing with these new tools. We're coming to understand and expect that new tools don't necessarily displace, rather they compliment, find a place among and change the context for all other technologies, norms and structures. The mix gets ever denser and the speed of change disorients. Some believe we're losing our humanity, our ability to relate in the process of making new tools. Not Sullivan. He sees a grand, rich and immediate global dialog empowering our humanity as never before.
Our commander at US Southern Command started a blog this week - a nontraditional realm for a military Combatant Commander. We're not sure where it will lead, but we're confident we'll learn from the experiment. And I'm confident that, like Sullivan, we, the defense establishment, will be changed by the experience.
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