What should you do if you live in a society where the press is beholden to and only parrots the party line of those in power?
What if you live in a society where years of legal and constitutional procedure may soon be overturned by those in power?
What if you live in a society where the independence of the judiciary is threatened - where those in power may control even the decisions of courts?
If you owned a brewery, a simple answer might suggest itself ...
In the mid-18th century, Samuel Adams faced all of the threats outlined - he even owned a brewery. But his solution wasn't to drink up all his profits (he apparently didn't have much profit to drink up anyway).
Instead, "Adams devised a system of Committees of Correspondence, whereby the towns of Massachusetts would consult with each other concerning political matters via messages". [1]
"A committee of correspondence was a body organized by the local governments of the American colonies for the purposes of coordinating written communication" [ibid] Sounds like a colonial blog to me.
"The earliest committees of correspondence were temporary, being formed to address a particular problem and then disbanding once a resolution was achieved. The first formal committee was established in Boston in 1764, to rally opposition to the Currency Act and unpopular reforms imposed on the customs service...
"In Massachusetts in 1772, Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren formed a committee to protest the recent British decision to have the salaries of the royal governor and judges be paid by the Crown rather than the colonial assembly, which removed the colony of its means of controlling public officials. In the following months, more than 100 other committees were formed in the towns and villages of Massachusetts. Soon the committees were being used in every other colony." [2]
By 1773, Dabney Carr of Virginia proposed to Virginia that "the House create a standing Committee of Correspondence and Inquiry which would be responsible for obtaining knowledge of all acts and proceedings of parliament or of the ministry which might relate to the American colonies and to maintain correspondence with the other colonies." [3]
Carr's proposal began "Whereas, the minds of his Majesty's faithful subjects in this colony have been much disturbed, by various rumours and reports of proceedings tending to deprive them of their ancient, legal, and constitutional rights, and
"Whereas, the affairs of this colony are frequently connected with those of Great Britain, as well as the neighboring colonies, which renders a communication of sentiments necessary; in order therefore to remove the uneasiness, and to quiet the minds of the people, as well as for the other good purposes above mentioned;"
In Adams' and Carr's day, "colonial governors and assemblies asserted the power to prosecute and even imprison printers for publishing unapproved views."[4] Effectiviely, that's not very much different from the control exerted today by the handful of corporations that control much of the media. King George's version of the "nukular option" was to dissolve the state legislatures.
Lacking a free press, Colonials could communicate by word of mouth, but that method is too slow and inaccurate for even 13 colonies, much less 50 states. Pamphleteers, like Thomas Paine (or Billmon, Digby and others who follow in that tradition) could broadcast news and opinion, but that's one way communication - too slow to allow the rapid evolution of strategies or ideas and with little or no mechanism for reply and commentary.
The Committees of Correspondence allowed bypassing the media filter, allowed the exchange of ideas rather than only broadcasting, and most importantly, enabled the evolution of ideas and organizing for the various direct actions that later resulted from the committees' work. Sure, the actual correspondence wasn't seen by the majority of the colonial population, but the number of people who incited the revolution was smaller than the number of people who post to or read dKos on any given day too.
It wouldn't be a stretch at all to label dKos a "Committee of Correspondence and Inquiry" and projects like ePluribusMedia have even extended the meaining of "Inquiry".
For those who think blogs will supplant the press or electronic media, I'd suggest that blogs, like the committees of correspondence, fill a need for communication, but not one that's traditionally filled by the press.
Those who think that blogs are a circle jerk or other exercise in futility should look to the colonial committees to discover one possible outcome of communication and exchange of ideas and information among people with similar goals.
The Committees on Correspondence didn't overthrow the last tyrant named George, but they established connections between the leaders of the revolution and eventually led to the First Continental Congress (how's that dKos convention coming?) What could be more American than blogging (and dissenting)?