Some Thoughts:

...on an opportunity squandered

Fascinating, how being in a different time zone can add an unexpected perspective to how news is presented in the United States, and weblogs are providing a lens to magnify the effects.

For decades I have read news from sources other than the United States-based news organizations, foreign sources such as The Economist magazine, the BBC World Service, translations of Japanese news, so the context in which I put the politics in the United States has always been different than those who get all their news from domestic sources. Now, living in France, I'm watching the 24-hour news cycle from a time zone that is six hours ahead of the East Coast and nine hours ahead of the West Coast, and the element of time that was imposed first by CNN with it's 24 hour a day news channel and more recently by the internet providing news on demand at any hour is becoming more obvious.

The political machines get the message of the day out early, try to develop themes of the week, hoping to avoid responding to outside pressures and getting off-message. It is scripted, calculated, and cynical, and yet why should it not be? We have allowed ourselves to be manipulated so long in so many ways by so many sources can we truly call it cynical for the machinations to continue? Being manipulated is so much easier than thinking. Reacting is easier than considering. Jerking the knee is easier than using the noggin. It is a tribute to the designers of the internet that it does not become overwhelmed after every major news event with all the bloggers out there rushing to post their reactions to "the latest." Note I said "reaction," not "thoughts," not "insights." There is no balance of reason with emotion, it is all reaction.

I find it sad, but not surprising, that there is so little thinking in blogworld. The king of all bloggers, Glenn Reynolds, provides little commentary other than the occasional single sentence or even more terse "heh" while posting links galore. Irony abounds in his self-appointed tile of InstaPundit, because even the talking head pundits on television occasionally provide unexpected insights. He is not alone in reacting rather than thinking, however. It is amazingly simple to predict what many of the "big bloggers" will write in reaction to any current news item. Insight is as rare as snow on the Sahara.

The furor du jour...

The drive to make a comment on everything, becoming slaves to the news cycle...

Writing without consideration becomes yet more blather adding to the chaotic cacophony that is creating obfuscation rather than illumination, confusion rather than clarity.

There is a heartbreak inherent in opportunities squandered that is all the more tragic when you recognize it as it happens rather when looking back over the years with the salve of time to ease the pain.