Linking: Blogging Can Lead To Social Change

This morning, linking from Genuine Curiosity (Dwayne Melancon) to Ripples (David St. Lawrence) to BPG's Big Picture Small Office, I found myself drawn into the "Small Office" story. Below are a few choice quotes that resonated with me, pulled from a series of BPG's posts:

The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. If the Elizabethans were an inspiration to Samuel Johnson, the author of these words, I have no doubt he would have found endless stimulation in the Small Office.

All of which proves that you don't have to understand something to debate it and you don't have to care about something to vote it down.

"The state has been taking liberties," said E.P. Thompson, a British socialist historian, "and these liberties were once ours."

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "Man's mind, stretched to a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions."

There is no better defense against the impact of a new idea than stupidity.

Note: another good reason to branch out and read new blogs...their link lists (thank you Dwayne and David).

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TERRY WEBER asks, in today's issue of the Globe and Mail, are "Blogs moving Mainstream?" He cites "the results of a survey released Wednesday by research firm Ipsos."

The poll, which sought out the opinions of 2,537 American adults, found that about 30 per cent of on-line Americans had read a blog at least once.

Among those who regularly read blogs, 38 per cent said they clicked over to them at least once a week.

Although blogs have traditionally been viewed as hit-and-miss in terms of their reliability, the tide now appears to be turning.

Of those who said they read a blog at least once, more than half described them as either somewhat or very accurate.

"Blog readers are also more likely to judge other media sources more accurate than their non-blogging counterparts," the poll suggested.

About 54 per cent of blog readers felt the medium had an influence on public policy. Six in 10 said blogs were at least somewhat influential when it comes to mainstream media.

As if we needed reasons to write...