Believe it or not, it’s only when I got on the blogging bandwagon here that I realised how trackbacks work. What veteran bloggers have known for years is my epiphany for today — that one blogger’s citation of another blogger’s work serves the double purpose of also promoting the former’s own blog (at least if the latter sets their blog to allow trackbacks).

This eureka moment of mine suddenly makes the style of some bloggers suspect in my book — those who pepper their work with so many links to other blogs. I made the observation yonks ago about how the style of a noted blogger has evolved from making very sharp-edged, highly-focused entries to the ones we see today that have more of the stock-take-cum-shotgun approach of a content consolidator.

I think this is quite relevant today as I note that there has been significant debate about the establishmentisation of blogging. Interestingly, I happen to be in the middle of the book Down and Dirty Pictures – Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film by Peter Biskind. I draw some parallels to the blogging debate from the difference I now see between Independent (“Indy”) Films — motion pictures created and produced by real artists with real visions, and Studio (“Establishment”) Movies — motion pictures produced with the singular aim of drawing an audience.

Studio movies use formulas — proven cinematic devices that appeal to as broad a range of viewers as possible. In contrast, Indy films are driven by their creators’ visions and passions. As a result, Indy works are far more edgy, risque, and often (the good ones, at least) leave a deep impression on their viewers. The Indy world is the cauldron of creativity that spawned groundbreaking works like Pulp Fiction using styles and stories that no produced-by-committee movie could ever pull off.

For Indy film producers, an audience is a bonus. For Studio movie producers, an audience is the whole point. The latter is driven by credentialism and the former by insight. We all know mass appeal brings home the bacon, whilst edginess and loyalty to vision attracts a far smaller subset — insightful minds. That ultimately is the choice faced by every content producer, be they film makers, illustrators, writers, and — yes — bloggers.

As Web authors, we need to ask ourselves:

Are we seeing our vision through?
Or are we selling out to the Establishment?

This is not a trivial matter as it brings to light the interesting question of where a groundbreaking, paradigm-shifting idea or framework of ideas is most likely to emerge from — (a) work that merely coasts along the mainstream pandering to popular sentiment, OR (b) work at the cutting edge that continuously challenges established sensibilities.

For a basketcase like the Philippines, the implications of the answer to that question spells the difference between a national destiny of merely keeping up or one of actually seeing ourselves competing head-to-head with the rest of the world. It will take giant leaps of progress to bring our country back into the game. Yet we continue to muddle along debating trivialities and exploring options within an already flawed approach.

Albert Einstein once said: Problems cannot be solved by the same thinking that created them.

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