Blogs in History

Suppose you had to choose articles to read today, and these two groups were your options:

1) Michael's daughter" "Daddy has been the best;" McNairs weren't planning divorce; Jackson's doctor denies giving dangerous drugs.

2) Boiling emotions in China; Cyber-attack targets White House - North Korea suspected; White House and Hospitals reach agreement on health care.

I'm listening to a Great Course about the "Great Debate" that took place while ratification of our Constitution was being considered. The founders of this nation expected the populace to devote themselves to educated participatory government. I'm pretty sure we all know which set of articles they would want the voters to be reading.

As the lecturer gives both sides of the Great Debate, he quotes frequently and extensively, both from the Federalist Papers and from the Anti-Federalist counterarguments. Striking to me is the articulate, learned language used by all of the authors. Similarly impressive is the depth of knowledge of history possessed by these early statesmen. Take, for example, this quote from Federalist Paper 18:

AMONG the confederacies of antiquity, the most considerable was that of the Grecian republics, associated under the Amphictyonic council. From the best accounts transmitted of this celebrated institution, it bore a very instructive analogy to the present Confederation of the American States.

The people writing these papers were, in one sense, very much like the political bloggers of today: they believed the topic was important, they had a point of view and they espoused it publicly. In another sense, they were very different: they were educated, articulate and meticulous in using source material that could be verified. Certainly, some of the best bloggers are doing this, but many are not.

But, to the primary point I want to make today, they also assumed that the people of the United States would be interested in reading and debating the topic, and that those same readers would consider it a responsibility to remain educated enough to engage in the debate before voting.

Given our society's seeming unquenchable hunger for "news" of the first sort above, I sometimes wonder if we even deserve the nation we've inherited.

And yet, that's one of the unintended and unpredicted results of the genius of our inheritance: we can enjoy the fruits without planting the seeds or tending the trees, as long as enough of "US" are doing the job.