1. What is the Avant-Garde?

My area of academic "expertise" is radical, or "avant-garde" poetry. While most people probably think of various snippets of pretentious, incomprehensible gobbledy-gook they may have been exposed to at one time or another when they hear the term "avant-garde," those collections of art and groups of artists properly known as "avant-garde" all shared two important characteristics unrelated to the content of the work itself:

1. The primary goal of the avant-garde has always been to relocate the primary purpose of art away from an aesthetic function (which would, inevitably, result in a blurring--or even an erasure--of the difference between art and other forms of human activity). However, since there have been so many varied manifestations of the avant-garde, the desired alternative to the aesthetic function has varied greatly.
2. In order to accomplish this goal, avant-garde "movements" (there are no avant-garde individuals--just collectives), have always created counter-institutions for the production, judgment, distribution, and consumption of art. These "counter-institutions," operated independently from established institutions for the production, judgment, distribution and consumption of aesthetic-based art.

The many different avant-garde movements of the past century (and there are probably close to one hundred), produced their own journals, ran their own theaters, wrote their own criticism, made their own publicity, developed their own audiences, generated their own networks, became their own editors, solicited their own projects, bought their own printing materials, secured their own gallery space, ran their own bookstores and, in short, developed full-fledged artistic counter-institutions (even artistic counter-economies). In fact, many movements developed counter-institutions that were so strong you have probably even heard of them (The Beats, Language poets, dada, Surrealists, etc).

2. Hey Jack Kerouac

A few months ago it gradually dawned on me that, according to this model, the Blogosphere is the avant-garde of political and opinion journalism. I even once cracked to my brother that "kos and atrios might be the Ginsberg and Kerouac of our generation." (Now that I think about it, Jerome would be Ferlinghetti). Of course, I phrased my comment in order to get a rouse out of him and start a good conversation at a bar, but even though the analogy is extreme, consider the following:

Production
Even though a significant percentage of the articles in the Blogosphere are commentary with links to wire reports, op-eds or other products of established institutions of political and opinion journalism, the vast majority of content in the Blogosphere is original. Further, actual reporting and/or first-hand descriptions of major news events have become quite common in the Blogosphere. During the war, people blogged from Baghdad. During the primary season, many people blogged from rallies, after canvassing, during meetups, or even from campaign HQ. This summer, we will blog from the conventions. The Blogosphere is a full-fledged producer of opinion and political journalism.  

Judgment
Virtually every single political blog features a series of links of other political blogs. These "blogrolls" function as a form of judgment on the part of the various site hosts and site masters. Linking a blog, whether in a blogroll or a front-page article, signifies that the host feels that blog is worth a look.

The new "Scoop" system of Dailykos and of MyDD allows for community moderation and judgment through a post rating system. "Scoop" also allows diary entries by non-hosts to be promoted to the front-page of blogs

There are even the "Koufax" awards at Wampum, where the best of the lefty-Blogosphere is honored every year in many different categories. Also, there are many "objective" forms of Blogosphere judgment, such as can be found at The Truth Laid Bear.

And who could forget about the Blogosphere's favorite form of judgment, Internet polls?

Consumption
Like many people, I found the Blogosphere because I was extremely dissatisfied by mainstream media political and opinion journalism. Around two years ago, I found dailykos and MyDD in the same Google search while looking for thorough information about the 2002 midterm elections ( at least more thorough than the crappy political generalities and outdated polls offered by CNN, NBC, the New York Times and their ilk).  I quickly bookmarked both sites because they clearly offered a higher level of information on the political news topics I wanted than any "major" news outlet bothered to offer. After the midterms, I stayed for the superior coverage of the primary season and the War.

I have little doubt that in this manner the Blogosphere has been able to develop its own set of consumers and its own type of consumption. People found the sites that compose the Blogosphere because they wanted more from political and opinion journalism. People stay in the Blogosphere, and eventually act through the Blogosphere, because its interactive nature provides them with a satisfying, social experience. By offering both niche and high quality products, the Blogosphere develops its own consumers. By allowing those consumers to socially participate within the production of what they are consuming, consumption itself changes (and becomes addictive).

Distribution
The participants within the Blogosphere provide the tech work behind the many websites of the Blogosphere. They have developed personal connections with other bloggers, even to the point where entirely new networks have been formed. Blog ads, blogrolls and word of mouth provide self-produced publicity. The Blogosphere has become a phenomenon largely because of its remarkable ability to distribute itself.

Production, judgment, consumption and distribution: the Blogosphere has every aspect of a full-fledged institution.

3. The Political Opinion Complex

While the Blogosphere is clearly a institution of political and opinion "journalism" unto itself, in order to be an avant-garde counter-institution it needs to be, well, countering an existing institution of political and opinion journalism. Frankly, this piece of the puzzle is the easiest one to find. The Blogosphere is countering a phenomenon I previously identified, The Political Opinion Complex:

We all know and complain about the corporatized state of our media and our political process, but so far we do not have a properly insidious label for the institutional level of degradation we are witnessing. I think "Political Opinion Complex," rolls off the tongue rather nicely.

4. Raison d'Ette

If the Blogosphere is in fact a counter-institution of political and opinion journalism challenging the dominance of the Political Opinion Complex, what is the goal of this rebellion?

This is the question that for some time prevented me from completing and posting this article at length. While the poetic and artistic avant-garde sought to relocate the primary purpose of art away from the aesthetic function, I had a very difficult time figuring out what the Blogosphere sought to do differently than the Political Opinion Complex. However, at long last I think I have it.

While the corporate funded Political Opinion Complex seeks to distribute information primarily for the purpose of consumption, the primary goal of the Blogosphere is to distribute political information for the purpose of agitation / direct action. The POC only wants you to consume what it produces. The Blogosphere seeks for its consumer to act after, or even as a result of, consumption of its product. To put it another way, The Blogosphere is a counter-institutional formation that seeks to relocate the primary purpose of political and opinion journalism in agitation toward action rather than in profit-based consumption.

If that ain't Avant-Garde, then I don't know what is.

Baby, welcome to the revolution.

5. There was no bubble, and it has not burst

Amidst the relieved proclamations within the Political Opinion Complex of the demise of the Dean Campaign as evidence that the power of Internet activism was greatly overestimated, we are now subject to analogies that compare its crash to the bursting of the dot-com NASDAQ bubble four years ago. However, let me offer a different analogy for the power of Internet activism during the primary season. Admittedly, its not the most flattering analogy, and certainly some wingers will find it amusing, but here goes nothing:

In Milton's Paradise Lost, after being expelled from Heaven for engaging in a rebellion against God, during a debate in Hell Satan urges his forces to continue their struggle. While they had failed, he argued that it was not a complete failure and that the rebellion "shook the throne" of Heaven itself.

While Dean did not win the nomination, his stunning and meteoric rise to front-runner status would not have been possible without the Blogosphere and the netroots the Blogosphere have nurtured. The dominance of the establishment Political Opinion Complex was directly challenged and clearly shaken, even if in the end TV pundits and other POC cronies still won the day. If it had not been for the netroots, Dean would have remained an asterisk in the polls, just as he was until late June 2003 when New Hampshire was the only state that he was either in double digits or above fourth place.

Any argument that the Internet activism generated by the Blogosphere was a failure either did not pay attention to the entire primary season (especially the invisible primary), or assumes that the only form of success is total, utopian victory. Internet activism made both Dean and Clark's candidacies, and has now come to help sustain Kerry's campaign. There have never been more participants in left-wing meetups, and because of the vast reserves of online fundraising, never have more candidates taken the concerns of the small political donor seriously. In fact, at least as many candidates run blogads on dkos as run 30-second spots on CNN.

Besides, Dean may have lost, but Chandler won the KY-6 and Herseth is on the brink of capturing the SD-AL. Clark may not be the nominee, but he is now a far more serious candidate for a high level cabinet position.

Anyway, I do not mind when people say we failed. It allows us to maintain the element of surprise in future campaigns.

6. The Microprocessor Revolution

As a small note, I should mention that the Blogosphere could not have surfaced in another form without the Internet. Much as the so-called "mimeograph revolution" of mid-twentieth century made the concurrent explosion in avant-garde poetry movements possible by greatly reducing publishing costs, the rapid rise of the Blogosphere as force in political news and action could not have taken place without the Internet greatly reducing the costs of distributing political and activist news. Material causes thus played at least as much a role as ideology in the the Blogopshere rebellion

Also, check out my now somewhat outdated musing on Why the Netroots Lean Left.

7. Appropriation and Tokenization

As with any successful avant-garde movement, the Blogosphere is no longer entirely on the outside looking in. In fact, the difference between inside and outside institutions have already begun to blur, as the POC has begun to create its own blogs, solicit small online donations, start meetups, and take the netroots at least somewhat seriously.  

Successful counter-institutions always have a transformative effect on established institutions. Sometimes this only takes on the form of cheap tokenization and appropriation by occasionally publishing sanitized forms of counter-institutional products. The way William Carlos Williams' Spring and All, or basically anything by Gertrude Stein, is often reproduced in poetry anthologies is a good example of this. However, it can also be positive. If the Blogosphere rebellion results in more thoughtful, detailed, and independent political and opinion journalism, then the rebellion will have succeeded. If it results in small donors becoming more important to political campaigns than those with deep wallets, then it will have succeeded. If it results in a conscious, serious and repeated attempt on the part of the POC to solicit meaningful, participatory, inclusive action from ordinary volunteers, it will have succeeded. Simply put, if more people take part in the political process rather than just following it like a reality TV show, it will have succeeded.

8. Get off your Ass
Why are you still reading this? Stand with your fellow blogger revolutionaries and go to the Democratic Party Meetup tonight. Don't forget to tell your friends.