Call this rain?

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Blogs and truthiness

No blogging (on this one at least) for a month. Oh well. Mainly due to a change of workload - less thinking and doodling my thoughts out; more disciplined writing for "proper" channels.

My thoughts to some extent now are turning back towards home. One question is whether I will keep these blogs going when I return. The answer is a resounding no. The purpose of the two blogs was straightforward. This one is to keep everyone informed a little about what we are up to. The other is there to capture broader thoughts about US healthcare as they develop. Back in the UK these purposes disappear hence the blogs do too.

The rise of the bloggosphere is interesting. I remember a conversation just before the millenium about the relevance of the internet and I sensed that the ease of publication it afforded threatened to kill the concept of truth - in that anyone could say anything and someone, somewhere would believe it. I wasn't sure of the mechanism by which this would be achieved, but basically its been the blogs that have done this. Funny that seven years later the blessed St Colbert backed me up with his wonderful concept of "truthiness".

There are of course some respectable (or respectable-ish) blogs out there - in the US one thinks of Huffington, Andrew Sullivan, and the Beliefnet group, all effectively the fifth estate operating with greater freedom. Indeed much of the traditional press is trying to operate in this way of which the Guardian's Comment is Free is probably the most successful. I also like Ben Goldacre's work, and there are various private individuals who have something interesting to say and say it fairly well. Professionally, Health Affairs has been a boon, and one or two others have been interesting.

In general though the Bloggosphere is something of an intellectual sewer: about the only thing that can be said in its favour is that it appears to keep relatively large numbers of rather disturbing and disturbed individuals off the streets. One tires of the anti-EU cranks, the BBC-are-the-tools-of-the-Kremlin (what still?) nut-jobs, the Blair-is-the-anti-christ-maniacs, the appalling poets, the foul-mouthed whingers, the whole gang of sentimental, passive-aggressive, Daily Mail programmed morons who besmirch the airways.

Apropos of which - to any chums at the commission - you (we) have been attacked by the lunatic behind the "Burning our Money" website. I once saw a little film he youtubed about the NHS. He managed to make 14 mistakes in about 2 minutes before I grew bored and stopped watching. All I can say if you're winding up this sort of idiot you are clearly doing a great job - so in these times of merger and all hold onto the thought that you must be doing something right! Hang on in there.