For heaven's sake, it's a blog

Like Ebrahim Harvey, who could not be further removed from me on the ideological scale, I too “feel compelled” to take a broader view on the Vincent Maher/Dominic Tweedie; black/white; male/female; Thought Leader/Mail & Guardian; Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young/Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich brouhaha.

Ebrahim argues a good case, until his bias begins to show. Which is a vast improvement on Dom’s diatribe — which I still don’t understand and, having tried hard and read widely, have wasted enough effort and my endangered lifespan on. From what little value I could scrape out of it, his thought led me nowhere. Circuitous, belaboured, anachronistic, tempting (in the way an alligator snapping turtle’s dancing protuberance on its tongue is tempting), but ultimately suffering from the Hollywood scriptwriters’ strike.

I wonder if Tweedie will target MXit next, and why doesn’t he take up why my applications to the Black Management Forum and the Black Lawyers’ Association have been rejected? So what if I’m not black, in management or a lawyer? And what has the SACP or PAC or Cosatu or ANC got against rational thinking and sound leadership?

As for the whole demographics argument and Vincent’s lucid explanation of what TL aimed and aims to achieve, four billion years have proved beyond doubt that some people will blog and others will not. Unlike the ANC, which reminds one so much these days of a fat person dressed entirely in a feather boa desperately trying to maintain its dignity in a hurricane, TL‘s doors are open and there’s a huge neon sign inviting applications.

What more do they want? A slogan or an anthem or a dancing meerkat? Or are we back to the shit-shining debate again?

I like the name “Thought Leader” for several reasons. First, it sounds grand and, by extension, anyone who contributes to it sounds grand too. For us marginalised mlungus on the red data list, that is very important.

Secondly, getting in is not dependent on your levels of melanin, serotonin, endorphin, methamphetamine, adrenaline, oestrogen, testosterone, how many acronyms you know or even who you know. Which, I think, is Tweedie’s problem.

Thirdly, when you get in you have to think about when, where and what you say, why you say it and how you say it. Which might explain a whole lot about the demographics issue. It is also valuable to note who stays in. And I say that with great deference to Marx … Groucho, not the other ou.

And, fourthly, there is that cursed word, “leader”. Maybe this is where we need to allow Vincent and his colleagues a little rhetorical licence, because “thought stimulator” sounds so much like something you buy from Verimark. Even if it is possibly more accurate. We all know how vexed an issue “leadership” is in South Africa and how the best ones just don’t seem to be here any more. Just browse the membership lists of the ANC’s NEC and NWC and you’ll find NIX.

The more important questions to ask are: What are the roles of blogs? Must they assume some fiduciary duty on behalf of a sector of society? Should they educate? If so, on behalf of whom and how will we measure them? What should bloggers earn? Can you get a doctorate in blogology?

The point I’m making is, for heaven’s sake, this is a blog. It is a form of media. It is new, it has limitations, it’s trailblazing for the wagon trains, it’s accessible (did I mention limitations?), nascent and among tumultuous swirling throngs of others. Enough with these stubborn, evil, unnatural social engineering and well-intentioned, but misguided shit-shining exercises. Allow it to evolve and find its niche. Other forms will come too, rise and wane and be replaced. And none of this is new!

But, ‘ey, Vincent’s reply got us thinking, didn’t it? Next time I’ll tell you all about Oom Cordier and his impact on the presidency of the ANC …