The Shadow Cursor: Cicero the Blogger
by The Shadow
We lawyers tend to equate living in the electronic age with having reached a new pinnacle of evolutionary progress. But we can’t deny that much of what we consider to be part of the “e-revolution” is in fact a repackaging of old-fashioned skills and tools that lawyers have employed for millennia.
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Esquire – whom many consider to be one of the greatest advocates and orators of all time – never performed Internet-based legal research, e-filing, or telecommuting. But what is not evident to many is that in the first century B.C. Cicero actually engaged in an activity that so many of us assume was invented just years ago: “blogging.”
Blogging is the offspring of the concept of the World Wide Web and the old-fashioned log book. Combined, the two terms become a “web-log,” or more succinctly: “blog.” A blogger sets up a web page on which he or she maintains a running commentary on a particular subject. Oftentimes blog readers will add their comments and join in discussions related to the blog’s particular subject or theme. Some bloggers have achieved wide-spread fame (or infamy depending on one’s perspective): Matt Drudge, Arianna Huffington, Andrew Sullivan, Michelle Malkin, and Josh Marshall to name a few.
Blogging, most would agree, can be very positive and educational. But many also view blogs as contributing to a polarization of the modern forum of ideas. While traditional newspapers and network news strove to report the news with a detached tone and neutral perspective, blogs have become notorious for providing information and opinions with a distinct bias.
Many modern lawyers maintain blogs as a marketing tool, to educate, or just to air their frustrations. The real difference between us modern lawyers and our forbears is semantical. What we call “blogging” they called “public speaking.”
The practice of law in ancient Rome was seen as more of a means of political than professional advancement. (The other ladder to fame and fortune was military service, i.e., the route chosen by Julius Caesar.) Legal combat in ancient Rome, which was essentially pro bono, often had political overtones. In representing their clients, Roman lawyers often were able to educate the public or to advance an agenda on various matters of public concern. Thus, Cicero’s litigation practice and public addresses carried out functions that were very similar to those which modern blogs perform.
But we could still learn an important lesson from the ancients.
Today, public discourse on issues of fundamental concern to our world has become polemicized and monopolized by actors the legitimacy of whose motivations is questionable. As lawyers, we know all too well that there are corporate and political interests that purvey ignorance and reactionary political discourse to achieve their selfish goals. Tort reform, regulation of the market place, “cap and trade,” public subsidies to industry, legislation of morality, and hundreds of other hot-button issues have become over-simplified and unnecessarily polarized.
Blogs’ polarizing influence on modern thought underscores the need for our profession to take up Cicero’s mantle. Given the sheer volume of blogs, web pages, cable TV networks, and other sources of information that have flooded our modern forum lawyers cannot sit idly by while forces inimical to the public interest and even to our profession monopolize public discourse.
Ancient skills and tools that lawyers have employed for millennia remain vital. Ironically, Cicero ultimately failed in his efforts to unite the Roman Republic. Perhaps we modern-day Ciceros can unite to save ours.