Ever since Socrates told Plato, "my young acolyte, what goes around, comes around," Western social critics have clung to the Eastern concept of karma like boner drug pharma logos to Nascar fenders.
But it never rang true, really. I mean, you know, how do you explain the Josef Stalins, the Donald Trumps, the Robert Novaks of the world? It doesn't always seem to come around in the Platonic/Hindu tradition, does it? Sometimes the links don't work.
Until now. Thanks to little wonders like RSS and a giant web of correspondents, it really does come around. Take these little gems from my own blog-consumption lifestyle:
The Overheard Pitch: My friend Fred Wilson is a well-known New York venture capitalist and an inveterate blogger and media experimentor. His firm invested in the oddly-named tagging conglomerate del.icio.us and his new investees showed him a cool way to use the sweetly-monikered tagging service to create a feed that outsiders could use to send MP3 files to his iPod. Cool concept: use Fred's podcast tag and his iPodder software grabs the files for him. But Fred being a VC and having access to - well - many millions to invest in young companies brought a different kind of "music" to the list, as I discovered on the 7:58 from Bronxville. Yep. On Fred's feed was an aural elevator pitch from a would-be entrepreneur. So for Fred the VC, what goes around, comes around. (I'm sure Fred thought it was cool, too).
Outthinking the Right: As close readers know, I'm an active board member of the so-good-it's-scary Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, otherwise known as the little lefty think tank that could. Last year, I helped to coin one of our working trademark mottos: Outthinking the Right. The other night, we had our annual fundraising reception in the penthouse of Dennis Rivera's 1199 health care union. My buddy Andrea Batista-Schlesinger, the youngest 50-year-old I've ever met, is the ED and ran the event, which honored Harry Belafonte and Arianna Huffington for "speaking truth to power." Belafonte's remarks were powerful and moving, recalling the civil rights movement and keying off the introduction by DMI's elegant chairman, Andrew Young. Al Franken intro'd Arianna and was, shall we say, less serious. But hilarious. Franken killed. And Huffington loved it. And she digs DMI ... so much so that when I checked the RSS feed for Huffington Post today, the little phrase was there: "Outthinking the Right." And there was a post by the intrepid Andrea about DMI and our programs. So for DMI, what goes around, came around - and brought a larger audience.
Tip-Jar Tom Watsons: A few weeks ago, blogger Jason Kottke announced to the blogosphere (all 347 of us) that he was quitting his day job to begin writing for the Web full-time. As this coincided with a decision nearly a decade ago by Chervokas and me to do the same crazy thing, I felt it incumbent upon an old Web gaffer to toss a few bob into his tip jar, PayPal style. No big deal. So when I checked the one of the old RSS Ego Feeds today (provided kindly to narcissistic old netizens by the good folks at Bloglines) I was surprised to see my name twice on Jason's list of micropatrons. Damn those fools at PayPal! I knew this online payment thing wasn't safe! They doubled my little contribution. Oh, wait a minute....hold on, mate. What's that dot-UK address? Why yes, it's my very own MP and online buddy, the Right Honorable Tom Watson, Labour, from Birmingham, Britain's blogging pol (and, I might add, a properly proud new dad). Tom and I correspond a bit and cross-link, and apparently, read many of the same blogs back and forth, across the digital pond. So for Jason Kottke, full-time blogger, what goes around, comes around, via two TW's.
Once you're tagged, logged into Google's endless memory, or launched onto the RSS flyway, it's guaranteed these days. What goes around, comes around.
