Ben Franklin: Colonial Blogger

I am thoroughly enjoying Ben Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson that was published in 2003.  I enjoy biographies and autobiographies in general, but this one is so well-researched and well-footnoted that it puts what we all learned in high school U.S. history to shame.  During his life, Franklin referred to himself as a printer.  That vastly understates his talents as a pamphleteer and editor of his own newspaper.  One of the themes of the book is Franklin’s use of anonymous essays to make his points.  Here at the Voice we have occasional flare-ups about not requiring commenters to use their real names, but Franklin set the precedent for American journalism by publishing as Homespun, Pacificus Secundus, Busy-Body, Silence Dogood and Alice Addertongue among many, many other names.  On page 227 of Isaacson’s book he notes

As has been frequently noted, Franklin often wrote anonymously or using a pseudonym.  Sometimes, he was trying to to be truly anonymous; at other times, he was wearing only a thin mask.  This practice was not unusual, indeed it was quite common, among writers of the eighteenth century, including such Franklin heroes as Addison, Steele, and Defoe.  “Scarce one part in ten of the valuable books which are published are with the author’s name,” Addison once declared, with a bit of exaggeration.  At the time, writing anonymously was considered cleverer, less vulgar, and less likely to lead to libel or sedition charges.  Gentlemen sometimes thought it was beneath their stature to have their names on pamphlets and press pieces.  The practice also assured that dissenting political and religious writings were rebutted on their merits rather than by personal attacks.

I find Old Ben’s thinking on this quite sound.  I’m sometimes asked why the Voice doesn’t require registration, real names and verification.  There is the answer from 260 years ago.  I highly recommend the book and expect to be taking on other Franklin thoughts relevant to very current issues in the coming weeks and months.

Comments

[Bruce Dickinson]

Joe, as you can probably already guess, Bruce Dickinson is a big fan of Ben Franklin! ;)

One of my favorite Ben Franklin quotes:

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."

Bruce Dickinson would like to hope that he has done both!

[[email protected]]

Give it a "Rest Big D."

[Joe]

Here's another example of why I recently added the "Sacramento Stupidity" category:

California state lawmakers are advancing a bill that would constitute yet another brazen attack on the First Amendment. In a world where people can freely express their opinions and ideas on social media, anti-speech progressives in America are constantly seeking out new ways to prevent people from expressing viewpoints that run counter to their ideology on digital platforms.

SB 1228 would require social media companies to attempt to verify anonymous users who are considered to be “influential,” whatever the heck that means.

Under SB 1228, by State Sen. Steve Padilla, D-Chula Vista, social media companies would be required to “seek to verify” the personal information of “influential” users, including seeking government-issued identification from “highly influential users.” Influential users who do not comply would have a “notation” on their content for two seconds showing the user is unverified showing the rest of a post, after which the notation would still be visible.

“The average person does not have convenient tools at the moment to distinguish between content produced by a reputable news source or AI generated misinformation,” said Padilla at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for the bill. “Numerous studies have shown that online anonymity results in increased unconstrained postings.”
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"Unconstrained postings". Steve Padilla--speech fascist in Sacramento.