I think Nick did something similar when he published his ‘How About Aspiring Scholars’ thread (in the Letters to the Editor section) where the letter writer did receive the full FV-treatment.

My point is a general manager’s key skill should be selling and mobilising resources towards a goal.

But I also think that our resources, which are almost purely intellectual, are still quite meagre. Our goal should be to give all those lonely voices, curious minds and thoughtful writers a place to test their mettle, to sharpen their wits among fellow travelers, to keep them honest by exposing them to both harsh and kind critiques. “No blog is an island” was a title of one of my posts in 2005.

So a thing like FV can provide the connection, the glue, the platform to make an archipelago of ideas and visions in which the whole is actually much greater than the sum of the parts.

But we must get comfortable with the central idea that we cannot control that whole, or its direction. The wisdom of a crowd in Nick’s Manifesto is what we must look forward to. Now let’s gather that crowd!

One suggestion I have is this…when you go bloghopping, drop links among promising writers pointing back to articles here at FV, especially with those with whom you disagree. That will ensure “memetic diversity” at FV and make for an interesting brew of writers and ideas.

To be fair, for every million dreamers only one Bill Gates or Steve Jobs is produced.

Still, to what Angela says here…

leading a collective like filipino voices up a mountain of lofty goals, and sustaining the movement, requires nothing less than intellectual grounding and maturity and perspicacity. now if it were djb, well, that would be another matter. that would be really interesting, even exciting — that is, of course, if he can manage to be objective about the left. hope springs eternal.

… I say that is a very narrow criteria that one applies to considering a leader.

I count the following as Nick’s achievements:

- Inviting some of the most, ehem, brilliant minds in the blogosphere to FV — and keeping them engaged and passionate.

- Executing a so-far successful promo campaign that put FV squarely on the map.

- Schmoozing with the right personalities to secure the profile of the brand.

… among others.

The above sounds to me like the makings of the basic job description of a typical CEO or General Manager.

My point is a general manager’s key skill should be selling and mobilising resources towards a goal.

Angela seems to want Nick to be everything — DJB’s Vulcan mind rolled up into Richard Brason’s bravado. That’s an easy call to make — when one is on the heckler’s bench.

It takes one to know one. ;)

I like some of Ricky de Ungria’s poetry, but I think some of what you quoted borders on the solipsism that so infects the Left with an arrogant self-loathing, for example:

“. . . . If, as with the fate of colonized countries, the colonial language remains the main means of intellectual discourse and knowledge creation, …in our particular case there still appears to be no decent intellectual discourse and knowledge creation in English, or our version of it, even in Manila, and still lesser, though emergent (the word “inchoate” came to mind) discourse has come about in Filipino. . . .”

What could be more “inchoate” (and unconscious) than to criticize the inability to create “decent intellectual discourse” using “the colonial language” whilst using the colonial language to do it?

Personally, I am proud to be connected to Filipino Voices, where you never know how your writing will be received, or, and this is more important, whether it will matter to the readers.

Unless you yourself are willing to take that risk, you risk falling into solipsism. When you think you are ready and that your ideas can infect others from sheer merit, coherence, persuasiveness, then you will be ready to join Filipino Voices.

What I think we fail to see is that the topology of this medium ensures that “No Blog Is An Island” (not even MLQ3) though some seem fervently to wish it.

It is the unmitigated desire of many Filipinos to be unique. When we get over that, then paradoxically we will be.

i see FV as a civil forum where all raw ideas, from the sublime to the ludicrous, are aired. it is a crucible where opinions and claims of “truth” are tested against each other in mostly civilized discourse, ultimately giving an unprejudiced mind a chance to go on the side of right reason.

FV can be most effective with open-minded people who are willing to re-examine any pre-conceived notions in their mind, and to modify them as needed. i think it won’t work with those who have uncompromising faith in their prejudices.

Like Benign0, I am often disgusted by the mediocre in the Filipino, but unlike him I’ve already seen the proof, in that First Filipino, that we are capable of genius that surpasses even the greatest Americans, who indeed saw it themselves when they made him our national hero. Besides I will always be more disgusted in my own mediocrity in comparison to him than what I find in others.

fv will become what it envisions it to be.