I can't hear you. Photograph: AP
Thanks to Johnnie Moore, who was speaking at a blogging shindig yesterday, for reminding me of the classic TV footage of Romanian Communist dictator Nicolai Ceausescu on the balcony of the Central Committe Building being jeered by the crowd. It is, as Johnnie said, the perfect metaphor for authority that has been arrogated by an individual being snatched back by the people.
Watch it again - it's a classic, and check out the spooky guy in the trilby who pops out and probably says something along the lines of 'er, Mr C, they're not cheering. Stop waving and get off the balcony ...'
Anyway, the context was the power of blogs to humble people who assume wrongly that their voice should be heard above all others or who assume the consent of their audience because no one answers back. In fact the audience might just have switched off.
Then, one day, they shout back en masse.
So when will bloggers claim their first big political scalp? Perhaps it has happened somewhere and I don't know about it. Steve Bowbrick suggested the EU constitution might have been a case, although it's not clear how much of a role blogs played in the French and Dutch 'no' votes. Was blogosphere resistance just a reflection of public opinion or a formative influence?
Other cases? Dan Rather doesn't count. Lynching journalists in the blogosphere is, at best, a very circuitous route to political empowerment. (Although I would say that, being a journalist 'n all.)
Still, it seems inevitable that a gang of Davidblogs will some day topple a political Goliath. But who will it be and where will it happen?
Other insights from yesterday's do will emerge on the blog over the next few days. Meanwhile, some irrelevant thoughts of my own:
1) I remain ambivalent about public speaking. Attention good, sweat bad. Note to self: score some beta-blockers.
2) No one likes the word 'paradigm'.
3) Although the silent 'g' rules.
4) In Turkish there is special letter 'g' with an accent on top that is always silent, or rather, it acts like a 'y', extending the previous vowel sound.
5) That alone is reason for language geeks to back their accession to the EU.
