This comment was first posted on Indianwriting blog as a response to this article by Alan Jacobs. That post disappeared, taking with it my comment, so I am reproducing my comment here.
I think there are many of us who share Alan Jacobs' experience. Speaking for myself, a zillion times I too came to the crossroads and nearly threw up my hands and gave up on blog-commenting.
Though I also point an incriminating finger at the "architecture" of the blogging software for much of what ails this platform - "Right now, and for the foreseeable future, the blogosphere is the friend of information but the enemy of thought" - I think, on the other hand, that there is a lot of "unsociability of men" that Kant (and others) spoke about, that is on open display on the internet world, which makes us (well, makes me) wince. To employ a cliche, we are tempted by the ecstasy of posting/commenting but are cut to size by the agony of the aftermath, by someone whose level of maturity we don't know.
Nevertheless, given all this, and while not belaboring excessively on the "indian blogosphere," there is a difference when it comes to it. Perhaps I mean "there should be a difference."
Personally my experience is full of strange vagaries that come from being an immigrant. But as someone whose comments on " theotherindia.org" I liked - but who I think no longer comments there - said once, even within India there are strong currents of immigrant-like behavior - from state to state, from language to language etc. This is particularly an apt point and at least worth examining with an unbiased and studious eye in the sociology of thought. We ( i.e., folks in Indian blogosphere) haven't even begun to scratch this yet. What is the purpose? To give it a vocabulary, so that knowledge of that social strain liberates us from the knee-jerk reactions, from smug silences, sending signals of indignation at someone's comment, from the rage of a disagreement, or at the minimum, from that ultimate turnoff: a one-word response. After all, if there is one "thing" I feel over and over again stronger, about the social, economic and technological culture that my fellow Indians live in, it is the absence of entire vocabulary of thought in some areas like this.
Religious schools of thought (not necessarily religion), level-headed political thinking, the assumption of habitual protection of individual rights by legal institutions, the presence of law in our lives, the preponderance of ethics in the social participation, in the grass-roots actions, the good-to-possess notion of recasting problems into opportunities, knowing the difference between knowledge and experience-gained-from-doing-something, all these and more are not bred into our instincts when we converse.
I think this is the disappointing finality that awaits all great ideas, discussion, great points, insights etc., that emerge out of Indian blogosphere. It is a travesty. But one still must argue and disagree.
Conversations in US are not like this. The ethical, intellectual, etc., ideas, the waves of changes of opinion, the changed impressions from a recent event, are all much more closely tied to the possibility of a real action - whether agreeable to everyone or not - either by your local county, city, state or even national election. I am not taking potshots at India, I am simply trying to find a way to bring out all that middle-ware habits and instincts of/for public good, (not to confuse with public good/private good in economics) that are supported by the institutions here where I live.
Indian blogs - insofar as, I say this again, they don't come under the sway of what's fashionable in US blogs - can play, a very big role in creating this public good.
What we need is not just more of what's currently vibing, but I'd love to see a whole host of IAS officers, govt. employees, doctors, lawyers, office workers, women, especially that often ignored group of housewives, people who work directly with political figures, minor, major, people who own small-businesses, people who work in transportation industry etc., to start blogging. Language is not nearly the barrier that people think it is. For example, I have this project that I keep deferring due to other commitments: I'd personally pay any group of college students who are willing to visit every week their local court house and blog about the case of that day. There are plenty more ideas like this that the blogging activity in India can encompass. Right now too many people have blinders on.
Regards,
Crazyfinger
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