Despite Max's guilt -- an no doubt he is guilty of much more serious crimes -- it is best not to make such statements about people on the list, especially when they be easily misconstrued.
Max B. Sawicky wrote:
I plead guilty to self-centeredness. My job and avocation is to disseminate my own writing. I don't know how many people sub to this list, nor how many within that number read my posts, as opposed to delete on site, but my daily readership on my own site now is up to about 8,000 a day (unique visitors). So I'm reaching more that way than I ever could on PEN-L. Also making a bit of money. Plus one's own blog has no volume constraint, in contrast to a listserv. Also meeting new people. I got one comment signed "Cate Blanchett" that said: "I want to have your hairy communist offspring." The advantages are obvious.
As to comments, I have a lively comments section which allows for lengthy replies, including links to whatever, including some pretty stiff criticism of yrs truly.
I haven't been braying about Churchill (Ward), though I could uncork many of the same criticisms of him (and Ted Rall) seen elsewhere if I thought it helped the cause of the proletariat. I don't think it does, as I explained on my own site.
I don't take umbrage at what Louis wrote or see it as a huge criticism. He is right that this is a new and possibly important medium. I'd like to see more radicals take a shot at it. I'd be happy to help. The more the merrier. Most left-of- center bloggers are not very far left.
mbs
But the biggest problem is that the blog is analogous to a lecture where the audience is allowed to ask questions or make brief comments after the lecture is finished. In other words, the blogger sets the agenda. It is easy to understand why an academic or a journalist would want to exercise this type of control. After spending years building up a career and reputation, why would you want to operate on the same level as the plebe? Perhaps the most open recognition of this goal is the aptly named "Max Speak, You Listen", the blog of Max Sawicky, an economist at EPI.
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Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
