Cartoon courtesy of Hoby, courtesy of Iain DaleNow the Telegraph is weighing in, citing charities like the National Trust and English Heritage who are asking people to submit a snapshot of their day to a website (historymatters.org.uk, October 17) in the life of Britain. Oliver Kamm’s words of warning and Iain Dale’s cartoon now seem more apt than ever. Diversity and variety are certainly the spice of life but when we get upwards of 54 million different opinions, mostly repetitive, many barely articulate, [and I don’t excuse myself in this], where does one even start to look? We’re quite simply swamped and even the long-established are swept away by the tide. But perhaps the phase will pass and those left standing will carry on.
The mundanity of the 54 million opinions will be truly breathtaking. Its value to historians will be limited with the possible sole exception that it may provide a good marker of the appalling degree of educational attainment in the country at large.
ReplyDeleteAs for the uselessness of blogging in general particularly as regards its apparent habit of "biting the hand that feeds" in its contemptuous treatment of the MSM is, I think, wide of the mark.
We all know from experience that everything in the MSM is slanted to a particular editorial line, whether this is done intentionally or not and for good or poor motives. Blogging allows the tiny omissions of fact or the elision with another story to which it ought not to be related to be corrected.
That's my view anyway. It gives truth the chance to get its boots on.
One sent from Russia with Love would be an interesting one.
ReplyDelete