Some months ago, I wrote about Milton’s Areopagitica: “Where there is much desire to learn,” wrote Milton, “there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.” For Milton—and I think he was right—the Truth wasn’t something we inherited and had to coddle; it was something to be discovered and unearthed, often through rather rough investigation and dispute. A diverse, and loud, chorus of voices wasn’t a sign of heretical social decline, but was instead an indication of “the earnest and zealous thirst after knowledge and understanding which God hath stirred up in this city.” The freedom of speech and thought Milton advocated, and helped to win, was vital to the west’s progress; it also, along the way, made sure we have seen a lot of blasphemy, slander, and stupidity.
As our own city—the blog and its readers—has grown, so too has the chorus of voices in the comments section—much to my delight. Because of this, for some time we have been thinking about the best way to manage this situation and would like to explain our comments policy.
We welcome comments from readers and encourage lively debate. There are, however, limits: this is and will remain a family-friendly website and we will not publish comments unsuitable for the whole family. Nor will we allow this space to be used for personal attacks, or other disrespectful and discourteous behavior, especially (but not limited to) anything that is hateful or meant to harass or intimidate. We strongly encourage those who choose to comment to refrain from monopolizing the discussion or crowding out debate. There are plenty of places to be rude on the internet; this is not one of them. If your comment can’t find a place here, I’m sure it can somewhere else. Not posting something here doesn’t limit the national debate or prevent people from using the internet to express their views in whatever way seems best to them. We will post only the comments which–in our admittedly fallible and arbitrary judgment–further our goal of making The American Interest website a lively and civilized space.
Importantly, Team Mead is not highly-staffed, and creating and maintaining the blog is only one of the things we do. Similarly, The American Interest itself has a small staff with a lot of calls on their limited time. Therefore, we apologize in advance if we are slow to process comments. The manner in which we address or remove certain comments may appear arbitrary, but we are doing our best. Pressed as we are for time, we are more likely to delete a possibly questionable comment than spend a lot of time agonizing over whether to post it; that’s just a fact of life and while it may not be an ideal solution it is the best solution available given the resources we have.
I am with Milton when he said, “I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.” I’m glad that readers find the ideas here worth engaging with, even when you do not always agree. As a teacher I feel that stimulating and challenging students to think more clearly and more vigorously for themselves is the point of the exercise — not producing carbon copies of myself. As a writer I feel the same way; the most valuable ideas may be the ones that spark discussion and debate, bringing forward new insights and perspectives.
All of Team Mead has been delighted by the way in which our readership has grown and produced a lively debate in the wake of each post: we greatly value the reactions and insights contained in your comments. I hope that you continue to think about and discuss the topics of our day with me and with the growing community of readers who choose to make this site one of their regular stops as they browse the web. Personally, I continue to browse the comments and I particularly value the observations of some of the longtime readers of the site. In the future I will be less involved in reviewing comments to determine whether they should be posted, but you can be sure that I reflect on the comments the blog receives, and while I don’t often respond directly in the comment section, the questions and reactions in the comments help shape future posts.