Revolutionary Moderation

The Revision Thing

I've just been watching The War of Words: The Story of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists (and for those of you who haven't yet watched it, go. Go now.). It got me to thinking about my own previous blogging, and the stands I took at various times. I'm particularly proud that I was willing to stand by my faith that the UN inspectors didn't find any WMD in Iraq pre-war because there were none to be found, and declared that as early as February 10, 2003. At the same time, I'm sure a more thorough search would find contentions I'm less proud of. I'm willing to change my mind in the face of new evidence or cogent arguments.

The point is that I'm happy to allow my work to remain on the record, if not to continue to hold every opinion I've ever expressed. To the left, you can find links to every word I've posted here, although changes to how I manage comments mean those will disappear from time to time. The reason I make this declaration now is that, as I developed this post, my search for things I might be less proud of reminded me that I've recieved criticism in the past, and I thought those criticisms might lead me to some sort of post I was less than proud of now.

Instead, what they led me to was Brock! On the Attack!'s archives, in particular, his post of February 29, 2004, where I was hoping to find some link to some post I might no longer stand by. Instead, I was reminded that the post contained some vauge ad hominem attacks and no substance.

Can't find it? It's because he dropped the post! Everything else still seems to be there, but for some reason, that post is gone. Fortunately, The Wayback Machine archives these things, so it can still be read. I don't know why he dropped it. But it raises an interesting question, to me, anyway. Do other bloggers regularly edit their archives to reflect their opinions in the here and now, the way the United States Administration keeps moving the target on reasons for war in Iraq? Is it wrong to do so? I'd be interested to hear from other bloggers on this.