Legal Commentary

A Real Life Marshall McLuhan Moment

By Big Tent Democrat

Glenn Greenwald wrote about the whole Godwin's Law thing regarding his latest spat with Joe Klein and appears to have experienced a "Marshall McLuhan moment," as Godwin himself explains Godwin's Law:

Just a note from Godwin

While it's correct to say that my original experiment in memetic engineering was intended to be humorous, it was not at all "lighthearted," as Glenn characterizes it.

It was, in fact, with a heavy heart, dismayed at how quickly the enormity of the Nazis and the Holocaust was being eroded in political culture, that I set out to inspire people to think more deeply about glib comparisons.

I've written about Godwin's Law on more than one occasion since formulating it. For example, I explained what I was up to in a 1994 article in Wired, "Meme, Counter-meme." More recently I reflected on the enduring impact of Godwin's Law in Jewcy.com ("I Seem To Be A Verb: 18 Years of Godwin's Law.")

People familiar with my work and writings will find plenty of ammunition there to use against those who would glibly shut down discussions. The purpose of Godwin's Law is to provoke remembering, not forgetting (and certainly not silence).

—Mike Godwin

"Joe Klein knows nothing of my work. How he got to write a column about anything is amazing." Heh. For Greenwald, life is like that it appears.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 01, 2010 (boomark / email).