April 02, 2007

“All of us together - do add up - to something heroic.”

Prof. Elliot McGucken organized the Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship Festival which took place Saturday at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Panelists and speakers discussed entrepreneurship in media such as blogs, videogames, film, etc., in terms of the hero's journey as discussed by Joseph Campbell. Per McGucken:

Entrepreneurship is the force that continually rights the world by rewarding those who serve--those who battle the bureaucracy with a better way. Entrepreneurship is an epic story wherein the world is continually "begun anew," as the humble risk-taker--the reluctant hero--the fount of lasting cultural and monetary wealth--happens upon an innovation, invention, or epiphany, and takes a risk in rendering it real for others.

It was an excellent event. Panelists and speakers included David Whatley, who demonstrated some amazing world-building software his team is using to create the upcoming Hero's Journey MMORPG; videogame writers Flint Dille and John Zuur; Andrew Breitbart, co-founder of the Drudge Report, and founder of Breitbart.com; screenwriting guru Skip Press; film producers Jonathan and Deborah Flora; William Fay, Executive producer of the film 300; and others, including -- me. Prof. McGucken asked me to join a panel to discuss blogging.

Here are my introductory remarks (from my prepared notes):

Hi, I'm Vik Rubenfeld, of the Big Picture weblog, at BigPicWeblog.com. I'm a Pajamas Media blogger. Pajamas Media is one of the biggest stories in the blogosphere over the past year or so. Pajamas is like a Drudge Report of the blogosphere, bringing together links to many of the best blog articles each day; it's also a place where many leading bloggers and pundits post original articles.

This is a key time in world history, and it takes all of us who are interested in this, to contribute to figuring out what's going on, and what to do about it. It used to be that to make a contribution to the public debate, you had to be elected or appointed to some substantial position. The blogosphere changed all that.

Even at this time, mainstream media pooh-poohs the blogosphere. I'll read you 3 sentences from an AP story that ran this past week:

Blogs are Web sites that tend to be narrow in focus and directed at a niche audience. Most operate without editors and give instant reaction to the news. Their freewheeling, open nature makes them popular but also ripe for unverified statements.

When I post something that even has an implication that someone might disagree with, I hear about it, from commenters. So there is a lot of fact-checking in the blogosphere. On the other hand, you've all probably heard about the phony photo that AP ran. They had to withdraw it. Patterico.com busts the LA TIMES every day on errors and omissions.

So I think the strength of blogosphere is precisely that it does not have editors. Bloggers are free of the restrictions on what can be said within a giant mainstream media institution.

I'll give you an example. This is from something I posted yesterday. You're probably going to hear a lot today about the film 300. Many commentators are greeting this film as a possible signal of the end of moral ambiguity. The heroes in the film are fighting for something that is an absolute moral good. So I jumped off from that:

An end of moral ambiguity could have a massive impact on global geopolitics. To take one example, it's time for Israel to thrill the world by saying, loud and clear, that Israel stands for freedom, democracy, achievement, science, and equality of the sexes, and that those who do not recognize its right to exist, have neither freedom, nor democracy, nor achievements, nor science, nor equality of the sexes. That alone would electrify - and change - the world.

You may agree with me; you may disagree with me; the point is that I was able to say it and have it be heard and discussed. It was linked by Pajamas, and as of this morning, it had been seen by 400 people.

So blogging gives us all a voice and a chance to be heard. And all of us together - do add up - to something heroic.

Thank you.

My remarks got big applause. It was a pleasure to appear at this event.

11:23 AM • Blogroll The Big Picture! • Email This to a Friend

Categories: Blogging, Mainstream Media, Movies

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