On Self-Reliance and the Wisdom of Crowds

Tonight was the first session of a three-part course on the transcendental writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson that I signed up for at the New York Open Center. Each session is a facilitated discussion of a specific essay by Emerson, and tonight centered on the old saw "Self-Reliance."

Led by Barbara Solowey, who also lectures at the School of Practical Philosophy and teaches English at the Beacon School, tonight's session was basically a paragraph-by-paragraph guided reading of the essay, in which we sussed out key points and themes, and discussed how we might apply them to our lives.

One of the things that struck me was Emerson's concerns about society -- and group thinking. "Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater," he wrote. "The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs."

Later in the essay, Emerson criticized the use of group affiliations as shorthand for understanding (or presuming to understand) what somebody thought, stood for, or believed in. "If I know your sect I anticipate your argument," he says. "Most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some one of those communities of opinion."

What does that mean in these days of smart mobs and wise crowds?

Collective intelligence might be greater than the sum of its parts, but the real wisdom of crowds still relies on self-reliant actors participating in those crowds, I'd offer. And even though the less wise might just need to open their receptivity to cosmic consciousness -- or the noosphere -- how open are we to universal truths? "We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and organs of its activity," Emerson wrote.

Would he be a fan of smart mobs? I think not. Even in systems designed to work around actors who aren't self-reliant -- take our voting system, which is in part based on the concept that polls cast by educated voters will mitigate polls cast by uneducated voters (and I mean educated on issues and what's being voted on, not education in the most general sense) -- such group thinking can be flawed. William Poundstone's Gaming the Vote might be a good entry point to further exploration of this.

That said, these are also days in which prediction markets are all the rage.

Does the success of smart mobs, wise crowds, and prediction markets depend on self-reliant actors?

Learning Kicks A$$

But what I love most about SXSW is this.

You have an idea. You meet someone. You share said idea. And magic happens.

I described an idea I had to John from Metanotes, and he made it happen. The result: Everything I Know About X, I Learned from Y.

We're going to find a proper place to host this (right now, it's a gift), and we'll see what happens.

For now: What have you learned... from whom?

Class Action II

I just received an email from a student who's registered to take this spring's NYU class Enter the Blogosphere. While I've yet to confirm that there are enough students registered for it to be a go, things look heartening.

It's not too late; if you're interested in taking a 10-session media studies course focusing on blogs and blogging, check out last time's class blog to check out the syllabus, reading list, and other reportage on the course.

And please consider signing up! Should be a great class.

Using Zines to Construct and Craft Meaning

A piece I wrote in the early '90s, "From Fandom to Feminism: An Analysis of the Zine Press", has been reprinted as part of the current Stepping Out course book published by Pearson Professional Learning in Canada.

The course book is a 250-page guide to constructing and crafting meaning for writing instructors who specialize in grades 7-12 education. I originally reprinted the paper, which was written for a class while in university, in the spring 1997 issue of Media Diet (the print zine). Chip Rowe later included it in his Web site for The Book of Zines.

And now, it's included in a writing teachers' guide, accompanied by the following questions.

In your opinion or experience, is zines' material or topics likely to be useful to your subject area?

How important is it that -- as a teacher -- you stay abreast of popular culture influences, such as zines?

It's an honor to be reprinted in such a book, and if you're at all involved in writing education, please consider the Stepping Out resources for your class work.