Jon Morrow vs Rochelle Barlow: What is Your Take?

JON MORROW

VS

ROCHELLE BARLOW

In 2012 New York University Political Scientist Russel Hardin wrote a brilliant essay called “The Crippled Epistemology of Extremism” Hardin contended that most extremist, which include your homegrown terrorist are not stupid, insane or badly educated.

According to Hardin, the real problem is that their information stems from limited sources-which galvanize their extremist belief.

The Linkage

In his highly successful article called “How to be Smart in the World of Dumb Bloggers” Jon Morrow postulated that for you to become a very smart blogger you need to do away with your friends. To use his word-
“Replace Your Friends.

With the flurry of comment that greeted the post two things comes to mind:

Question 1

Why did this post have so many positive comments?

Question 2

What does it say of the power of closed communities?

In my little way, I will attempt to answer these questions- however don’t shy away from adding your view.
To answer the first question; it is my view that Jon had so many positive comments because Jon has developed a kind of cult-like following. So those who comment on his blog are most likely going to adopt what he says even if what he says may seem impossible to achieve.

As for the second question lets’ consider Cass Sustein Experiment. According to Cass, “When we listen mostly with people who agree with us, our pre-existing conviction gets fortified.” And we start to think that those who disagree with our view are evil, stupid, ….. just name them.

How did Cass Deduce This

In an experiment carried out a few years ago, Cass and other co-authors assembled a number of people who were differentiated into two camps-the liberal and all conservative groups.

The two groups were then asked to discuss three issues: climate change, affirmative action and civil union for same sex couples.

What were the findings?

The finding was simple: on all issue both groups became more unified and more extreme after talking to one another compared to when they had discussed these issues outside the group.

This extremity which Cass found in groups having common interest can fully be seen captured in this post written +Rochelle Barlow.

Rochelle Barlow lambasted Jon on insisting that you as an individual should replace your friends like a hand bag in order to become a super successful blogger-the hand bag being my own emphasis.

In order to catch a grasp of the anger on the other side of the divide the article is a must read.

The Connecting Dot

This goes to show that the community we belong to affects how we behave- this can be seen in the ease of indoctrination in a close nit community.

This is why there is an incredible possibility that when we are restricted to a close nit group we easily imbibe the values of that community.

The Take Home Nut

Considering that Blogging according to   +Adrienne Smith and Commenting according to +Harleena Singh are incredible tools in building relationship I advocate that relationship building should be done across several communities.

Why so Important?

The reason why it’s important to build across several platforms is because of the need to diversify our source of information.

So that we do not become entrapped in a self-reinforcing information cocoon that at best makes you enemies with other bloggers due to firmly held convictions.

So What is Your Thought, Are You For Jon or Are You For Rochelle?