On blogging and its freaks

I appreciated this article (not just because it started with mathematics) about bloggers at the political conventions because of the strong humility that it conveyed and offered for others to take upon themselves. I see all these offers for advertising on one's blog, for earning money by trying to increase the number of hits to your site. It's all an attempt to make people desire something more from their blog (money, fame, power) than what the blog offers freely (a place to put your thoughts in public space for other people to read).

Blogging, Democratic Convention, "Pamphleteers", and Reaction:
When people speak of "bloggers as the new pamphleteers" or some such, that almost always has a patronizing undertone to me. I hear an unvoiced aspect of "Aren't they C-U-T-E!". Like what you would say to a child doing finger-painting. "That's such a gorgeous picture, err, blog-post. Maybe someday you'll be a famous artist, err, pundit". It's like "Model United Nations" or "Class President". It's not meaningful in terms of power, except perhaps as play-act training in how to behave in those roles. And the flip-side of the "Junior Achievement" expectation is the "Juvenile Delinquent" archetype, those rotten kids today who have no standards, not like their elders.
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The blunt question of readers is always "Why should I read you"? They're asking, what power and influence do you have, what intellectual worth do you possess, what is your place in the social hierarchy? It's not impressive to answer: "Because I am a unique and special snowflake".