On the Probability of Self-Absorbed Group Blogging

From its inception, Times and Seasons has been an ego vehicle for a relatively small handful of self-absorbed people who enjoy talking about themselves and how clever they are. While the group is relatively diverse on political and social issues, they are all united in how impressed they are with themselves.

It has always been thus.

The first four members of Times and Seasons were Nate, Adam, Matt and Kaimi (who are all very analytical, reasonable, intelligent, and thought-provoking, and each puts a high value on the norms of civil dialogue...just ask them...except Matt, since he doesn't really participate anymore). Because of that heightened sense of self-importance, they think they can discuss issues intelligently and at length, despite substantive disagreements, without the conversation degenerating into garbage. But, the reality is most of what they post is garbage, and they frequently don't know what they are talking about, unless it is on pet matters of legal esoterica that nobody else cares about. Point that out to them, and you will be attacked.

Throughout its development, Kaimi loved the fact that Times and Seasons was an ideologically diverse group. That diversity, in his eyes, was one of the primary reasons they founded the blog (the other primary reasons, which trumped that one proferred, are the ego-driven desire for public adulation and the inability to actually publish in paper journals). The permament T&S roster reflects this as they surround themselves with groomed sycophants who rarely, if ever, question and always praise and defend the core members.

And do note how well the T&S guest list reflects on them. Where else can one find a guest list that ranges from Susan Staker to Joseph Stanford, with stops in between for Dan Peterson, Fred Gedicks, Jeff Lindsay, Damon Linker, Richard Bushman, and Greg Prince, along with dozens of others? I mean, come on, doesn't that just boost their credibility? What scholarship, what brilliance they keep company with. Not to mention they get to go to Millers-Eccles and represent the Bloggernacle. That must prove something! Birds of a feather, right? Or is it just they were first out of the gate and inertia keeps them afloat?

At its best, Times and Seasons offers a chance to have friendly, intelligent discussions across ideological divides (as long as you don't show them to be wrong and you constantly praise them for being so smart and skilled at writing). One can watch them preen, and, really, what is better than that? Times and Seasons offers dialogue — real dialogue about itself and how good it is. Because, if it were half as good as they said it was, they wouldn't have to talk about it, it would be patently obvious. Not something they need to convince you of.

It is vital that each of the group members and conversation participants prize dialogue. A commitment to maintaining the atmosphere of dialogue must trump partisanship. Which is easy, when the real purpose of the blog is currying adulation for the participants, and not genuine dialogue.