What will Aguda do? I

It's three days to the big Aguda meeting on blogs, and like the rest of the Jewish blogosphere I am waiting on tenterhooks (whatever the hell that means) for the results. Will the blogs be banned? Will any of us be singled out for special disapprobation? Will Gill and Harry wheedle an exception for themselves?

There are two main directions Agudah could take, one smart, one stupid. As follows:

The smart approach

Agudah should create its own blog, and use it to promote the Aguda agenda and also to respond to the issues bloggers have raised. Instead of attacking from the pulpit or from behind posters, let Aguda join the blogosphere and make its case coherently and constructivly. In an open encounter the truth has nothing to fear. If they choose to ban the blogs, or to otherwise regulate them, it will show us only that the Agudah leadership has no faith in the truth of their own positions. [This, incidently, is why Cross Currents moderates and deletes comments. It's also why I solicit and publish guest posts from every hashkofic and political corner of the blogosphere. One of us is pursuing truth; the other has a different agenda.]

The stupid approach

The worst thing aguda could do is make themselve into a luaghingstock by banning blogs. Why a laughingstock? Two reasons: First, a ban would announce to the world that the Aguda emperor is naked. Only someone who is wrong is afraid of arguments. Second, the ban would be impossible to enforce, and for this reason it would reveal that along with being wrong, the organization is impotant.

If history holds, Aguda will take the stupid approach. Alas.