And that it is influencing the culture offline as well. For me, political philosophy is the hardest and most intimidating subject to write about. You're up against some of the great essayists, thinkers, and writers of the world - Locke , Jefferson , Bacon , Kant , Paine , and among our contemporaries people like Wendy Kaminer , Andrew Hacker, Christopher Jencks , Henry Louis Gates Jr. , and Cornel West .
Ideologies are amorphous anyway, subjective, tricky to define and document.
Plus, the digital world, alternately overhyped and demonized by the mainstream media, has often itself succumbed to hyperbolic cheerleading proclaiming the end of western civilization and its overhaul and replacement by all things digital. Cranky, cynical, idiosyncratic, and diverse, the online culture is not inclined to see itself as part of an ideology at all. This is a generation that was force-fed the pompous regurgitations of the Washington media punditocracy. It isn't looking for truth from above or beyond. This skepticism is perhaps the healthiest thing about writing in the interactive world.