Common Sense

Take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the crosshairs, and take them down. Just remember, they can buy anything, but they can't buy backbone. Don't let them forget it.

That’s Bill Murray’s character in Rushmore, one of my favorite movies. He’s giving advice, with his usual deadpan delivery, to the not-rich kids who are lucky enough to attend a good prep school. It’s the American idea going back further than Gatsby, and it’s something Europeans can never comprehend.

It also resonates with the changes taking place in today’s media, as the centers of power become subverted by the blogosphere. No one has a permanent lock on wealth or information in this society, because democracy and the free market are systems that (usually, eventually) redistribute those things to the honest and hardworking.

Bloggers can proudly trace this heritage back to Thomas Paine. And the bastions of legacy, mainstream media shouldn’t forget it.