um, dan, as a regular reader of MattY, I can pretty much reassure you that the bolded excerpt in your post is mild sarcasm on matt's part. the line about "great public service" should have tipped you off.

Francis

Hmm.

I'm not quite sure I understand what you are objecting to. I had read MY's article before I read your response. When I read the "egomaniacs" line, he actually wasn't using it in a derogatory way, he was being tongue in cheek with it. (And it probably has a lot of truth to it, especially applied TO Matthew Yglesias!)

And MT's other point, I thought, is that ALL "think tanker's" would do better to start having blogs, since this is, in a sense, a cost-effective way to get their positions and policies communicated.

I don't think Matt's being sarcastic. His whole point is that there aren't nearly enough academic bloggers, and surmises this might be because they don't have as much incentive as the think-tankers.

Having a bit of experience (as have you, Dan) in both worlds, can I offer a complete and utter wimpout to the effect of: there are a**holes in BOTH spheres, but also plenty of mensches as well (up and down the hierarchy, it's worth pointing out). I don't read Yglesias--or any other prominent DC-based bloggers, because while they may be well-informed, they are so inside their own heads, every day must be like living in a Charlie Kauffman script.

The difference, as far as I can see, is that everyone in DC (especially thinktankers) has to be his/her own PT Barnum or they go nowhere. No one is going to "discover" you in DC--you've got to push yourself in front of the right people until they notice you. That bimbo who's skirttails Wonkette rode to "fame" was unusual only insofar as she was a complete whore--most of her peers only have to be whoreish. And to be fair, the girl was extremely bright, as so many in the capital are. But brains will only get you your first job. After that, its hustle, hustle, hustle.

Beyond all that, I find the idea that thinktankers what any of US, the great unwashed, to read and be influenced by them absurd. Only a very very few of them can or choose to speak in a language any of us (PhDed or not) understand--Michael O'Hanlon is the only guy that comes to mind. What's in it for them? No, there is no natural intersect between the blog and thinktank worlds. Thank God.

Hi Folks,

I'm an egomaniac and I'm not even close to being a lawyer. I'm not an academic either, but I know a lot of them so I can offer a reason why lots of them aren't blogging. Surfing the net is just a bit over their competence level.

They have minions and lackeys AKA graduate students to take care of clerical matters like teaching, advising students, grading papers, writing scholarly papers, and the like. Their time is spent on their social lives and academic politics, like who got the best parking space and sizing up the incoming freshmen girls.

A very savvy academician once sized up the causes of faculty angst by positing that it's caused by their never knowing when they're on vacation.

Thank god for academics' blogs. They're the only ones worth reading. I've yet to find a non-academic blog that doesn't sooner or later become the dullest of diaries.

I would point out that bloggers by definition have a healthy ego... else they'd not be bloggers. One needs to have an imagine of one's self that supports the concept of others being even slightly interested in what you write, after all.

And not just once, but on an ongoing basis...

Understandably defensive, folks. As an ergonomiac myself, I can reflex.

I was kidding, kids. A little of the old self-deprecating humor. You want to talk egomania, consider someone who wants to be a journalist and writes for two blogs. Why do I think anyone cares what I think?

How could he say that? One look at your humility refutes him instantly. Just reading this post, I can tell you're one of the humblest people around. Matthew should apologize on bended knee for implying otherwise. He's darned lucky you decided to smite him yourself instead of assembling a coalition. You bow in humility to nobody!

I think academic bloggers tend more to megalomania - ego centrisity's just so small town by comparison!

I must confess to no experience inside the Beltway, but I did hang around several Universities for nearly twenty years.

University professors routinely have comely, young, and attractive people (sometimes in the hundreds!) hanging on their every word, writing it all down dilligently, and asking them earnest questions about it as the sum of all relevant wisdom.

Under such circumstances, who could resist egomania?

As a practical matter, I observed that about fifteen years from the first tenure-track position was the point of no return where a professor became completely disconnected from reality.

I loved the game while I was in it. But I must remark that I'm glad to be out of it.

MY: A little of the old self-deprecating humor.

I think most of us didn't get the self-deprecating part because you're not an academic. Had you been making fun of journalists, we'd probably have gotten it.

Dan, Matt Y was somewhat kidding. My evidence is beside yourself, who else is a good outsourcing pundit. I guess, Brad is, but this is neoliberals at it's most violent. I guess it's ok.

My thought's are you are a neoliberal, but just don't know how to accept it. I can understand, there are very few of us. Brad takes the violent edge; you take the republican edge, and hey, do your best.

"Juan Cole is great, but why don't we have two, three, four Juan Coles."

Let's see we need three more anti-Semitic, anti-American, Communist professors -- Like a hole in the head.

I favor a law limiting blogging to teenagers on Live Journal.