A friend told a story about being on the subway a few years ago, talking to a companion in an animated way about the excesses and abuses of a certain political figure who still haunts us today, and as he reached a pause in his damning analysis, most of the people on the subway car began to applaud. That story was good for morale at the time, but it's also interesting because it sketches a social agreement, perhaps a latent political force, that recedes into obscurity at the conclusion of the subway ride. This reminds me now of a guest lecture at a nearby university. The famous speaker works up the crowd about this or that issue, and then at the end the audience files out and recedes and fragments into their many private lives. It is a parallel case for blogging and other social media, isn't it? We nod at the end of a message that moves us, but the publishing platform is not set up to encourage and simplify further steps: affiliation with others, for one thing, the power move that gives political beliefs a kind of social body moving, speaking, and echoing widely in the world.
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