The Blogosphere and Its Uses ...

The full text of George Packer's critique of bloggerdom is here. Bloody Peeping Tom tells the world I've been known to post while still in my pj's. His interest is largely in the political blogs and the political moment. Blogs are comparable to 18th century British pamphleteers or those of the early American republic. They are like Theodore White in the late 1960s, except for this: they are addictive and, ultimately, deadly to understanding the body politic. There's no understanding it if you don't get dressed and get out of the office, says Packer.

Perhaps so, but we're still exploring the uses of blogs and they may be more effective in stirring popular philosophical discussion, doing legal analysis and reporting, stimulating historical inquiry, and challenging the academy, within, marginalized, or without it. I find new, interesting academic blogs daily (ed: read addiction). The Invisible Adjunct webring is here, for instance, and Gideon Strauss, research and education director of the Christian Labour Association of Canada, blogs here. These and dozens of other academic blogs seem to perform a service not met by department meetings, professional organizations, journals, or conventions.