Democracy in Action: Why Bloggers Will Rule the World

There is plenty of injustice in our world, more than we could know. We do know about a portion of it. We care about even less of it. We do something about even less of it. When I say "we" here, I'm mainly talking about Americans. We are comfortable and complacent, and whether fuel costs nearly $5.00 per gallon, or our civil rights are trampled by our government (by, of, and for the people?) we will likely take the path of least resistance, which means, we'll roll with it.

Recently, there has been a scandal involving ePerks and a blogger named Vlad. (Here's a great summary of the story.) Vlad is a real estate blogger who wrote some things about ePerks that ePerks didn't like. He talks about the events here. The company retaliated by attempting to damage Vlad's reputation and basically trying to bully him down. Vlad suspected as much and blogged about that. Now ePerks is suing Vlad.

If this were happening in regular America, we would see it in the news and think, "That isn't right, the way they're treating that poor man." Then we'd pick up the phone and order a pizza, and forget all about it.

However, in the blogosphere, people are willing to stand up for what's right. Maybe it's because they're already writing and might as well use their powers for good. Maybe they're looking for easy traffic. Regardless of the reasons, which are likely as unique as the participants, Vlad's fellow bloggers are standing up for justice.

I don't know Vlad. I'd never heard of him before this. But I respect open dialogue, and it seems that ePerks may not. Honesty is a hallmark of good journalism. Even if it's opinion, it's more important to be honest than to just be nice.

So good job bloggers. Keep up the good work. Hopefully the rest of us will take a cue from you, and band together when we're stepped on, rather than simply changing the channel to find a better life.