Fellowship of Punditry

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Cul Heath

Mick Arran

Jeffrey Barbose

Inspector Lohmann

Eric M. Fink

Michael Lane

Rep. Mark B. Cohen

The Fellowship is accepting new members. Inquire within.

The Sages

  • David Weinberger
  • Jon Lebkowsky
  • Jay Rosen
  • Rebecca MacKinnon
  • Nova Spivack
  • Dan Gillmor
  • Jim Moore
  • Lawerence Lessig
  • Ed Cone
  • Jeff Jarvis
  • Joi Ito
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  • Jim Hightower
  • Wonkette
  • Political Animal
  • The-Hamster
  • Matthew Yglesias
  • Pandagon
  • Altercation
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  • Donkey Rising
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  • Buzz Machine
  • Orcinus
  • Brad Delong
  • Eschaton
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    Distinguished Colleagues

  • Tom Burka
  • The American Street
  • wood s lot
  • Rox Populi
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  • Cut To The Chase
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  • Dohiyi Mir
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  • Abuddhas Memes
  • ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES
  • Post-Atomic
  • Van Ramblings
  • Friends of the Fellowship

  • Texas Native
  • Chuck Currie
  • To The Teeth
  • Radically Inept
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  • Blogged In the Desert
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  • Blogging Resources

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  • Into the Blogosphere
  • George Orwell

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    Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

    In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

    If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.

    But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.

    Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.

    Whatever is funny is subversive, every joke is ultimately a custard pie... a dirty joke is a sort of mental rebellion.

    In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.

    All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.

    At fifty everyone has the face he deserves.

    Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.

    John Stuart Mill

    Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.

    The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time.

    The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.

    Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men.

    A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

    Mark Twain

    Don't let schooling interfere with your education.

    All generalizations are false, including this one.

    A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.

    Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

    Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

    The Public is merely a multiplied "me."

    Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial "we."

    Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

    Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.

    Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

    Winston Churchill

    The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

    I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

    Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.

    Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.

    Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.

    However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

    In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.

    Otto Von Bismarck

    When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.

    I have seen three emperors in their nakedness, and the sight was not inspiring.

    Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.

    Be polite; write diplomatically ;even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.

    Voltaire

    A witty saying proves nothing.

    If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.

    When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.

    I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it.

    To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

    Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

    It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

    The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out.

    Karl Marx

    Philosophy stands in the same relation to the study of the actual world as masturbation to sexual love.

    All I know is I'm not a Marxist.

    The writer may very well serve a movement of history as its mouthpiece, but he cannot of course create it.

    Sunday, May 30, 2004

    To whomever interested: Information Strategy, soft power, and the Network

    By Nick

    These documents explain some theoretical concepts of information strategy and practice. Those who are naturally curious will no doubt enjoy them.


    (Above: Vassily Kandinsky, "The Yellow Rose")

    The Emergence of Noopolitik: Toward
    An American Information Strategy

    "Noopolitik is foreign-policy behavior for the information age that
    emphasizes the primacy of ideas, values, norms, laws, and ethics—it
    would work through “soft power” rather than “hard power.”
    Noopolitik is guided more by a conviction that right makes for might,
    than by the obverse. Both state and nonstate actors may be guided
    by noopolitik; but rather than being state-centric, its strength may
    likely stem from enabling state and nonstate actors to work conjointly.
    The driving motivation of noopolitik cannot be national interests
    defined in statist terms. National interests will still play a role,
    but they may be defined more in societywide than state-centric
    terms and be fused with broader, even global, interests in enhancing
    the transnationally networked “fabric” in which the players are embedded.
    While realpolitik tends to empower states, noopolitik will
    likely empower networks of state and nonstate actors. Realpolitik
    pits one state against another, but noopolitik encourages states to
    cooperate in coalitions and other mutual frameworks."


    The Aspen Institute: The Rise of NetPolitik
    "Netpolitik is still an unfolding doctrine. It seems to be characterized,
    however, by a higher velocity of information, new time pressures on
    thoughtful policymaking, a more robust pluralism in international affairs,
    and new challenges to the power of the nation-state and traditional
    diplomacy.Netpolitik seems to be a volatile force because of its great reach:
    affecting everything from the exercise of state power and military might to
    issues of deep personal identity and social values. We barely understand
    how the Internet is being used across the world; understanding how it is
    remaking the conduct of international politics will require much more
    research, study, and debate."

    The Accountable Net: Peer Production of Internet Governance

    "The key problem with creating any centralized authority over the internet is not just the need to assure the
    accountability of such an authority but also the reality that the values of the population to be controlled are so
    diverse that no single set of rules will enjoy the widespread support necessary for legitimacy. And any explicit
    devolution by that central authority of the power to create local rules would necessarily create havens for
    activity that impose on other users what those users consider to be unjustified harm. We will not soon be a
    global nation, democratic or otherwise -- certainly not one with a constitution that includes a supremacy
    clause."

    posted by Nick at 5/30/2004 11:55:00 PM |

    Comments: Post a Comment

    About US

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    "Netpolitik is a new style of diplomacy that seeks to exploit the powerful capabilities of the Internet to shape politics, culture, values, and personal identity. But unlike Realpolitik — which seeks to advance a nation’s political interests through amoral coercion — Netpolitik traffics in “softer” issues such as moral legitimacy, culturalidentity, societal values, and public perception." - The Rise of Netpolitik

    PUN-DIT (n) : A learned man; a teacher; a source of opinion; a critic: a political pundit.

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