Wednesday, November 11, 2009
An analogy
Dreher is moaning and groaning about a vigilante who beat up a Greek priest. The vig apparently believed that the priest was a jihadi, or else believed that the priest was making a sexual advance. There's obviously more to the story than meets the eye. I'm not really concerned with the details, which may never be clear.
Here's the point: Vigilantes are often sloppy and unprofessional, often hit the wrong target. But when the professionals (police, judges, military) refuse to do their job, refuse to protect the people from regular criminals or Wall Street criminals or foreign attackers, someone has to do the job.
Consider an analogy with blogging. Professional journalists have stopped doing their job. They no longer tell us what's happening, no longer try to find facts. Most of the time the pros work very hard to present the exact opposite of the facts.
Bloggers, who could be called vigilante journalists, grew up in response to that total failure by the pros. Bloggers are sloppy, often hit the wrong target, often exaggerate, but they do not intentionally and consistently present complete falsehoods, nor do they intentionally and consistently delete the real story.
Same with science. Many branches of science are still honest, but climatologists have gone rogue, surrendered their grasp of reality to the bizarre Gaia religious cult. We're blessed to have amateurs like Steve McIntyre volunteering to do the real job.
In all cases the professionals could stop vigilante action by simply doing their assigned job, doing the job they are nominally PAID TO DO. This won't happen, because the people who pay them are obviously happy with the total betrayal of duty. ¶ 10:49 AM
Here's the point: Vigilantes are often sloppy and unprofessional, often hit the wrong target. But when the professionals (police, judges, military) refuse to do their job, refuse to protect the people from regular criminals or Wall Street criminals or foreign attackers, someone has to do the job.
Consider an analogy with blogging. Professional journalists have stopped doing their job. They no longer tell us what's happening, no longer try to find facts. Most of the time the pros work very hard to present the exact opposite of the facts.
Bloggers, who could be called vigilante journalists, grew up in response to that total failure by the pros. Bloggers are sloppy, often hit the wrong target, often exaggerate, but they do not intentionally and consistently present complete falsehoods, nor do they intentionally and consistently delete the real story.
Same with science. Many branches of science are still honest, but climatologists have gone rogue, surrendered their grasp of reality to the bizarre Gaia religious cult. We're blessed to have amateurs like Steve McIntyre volunteering to do the real job.
In all cases the professionals could stop vigilante action by simply doing their assigned job, doing the job they are nominally PAID TO DO. This won't happen, because the people who pay them are obviously happy with the total betrayal of duty. ¶ 10:49 AM
