Hobbes on blogging, and how to prove him wrong

Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber has a really good quote from Hobbes's De Cive, about the costs of allowing freedom of speech, which he thinks applies to blogging. Although given what I said in the previous post, it would be rather inconsistent of me to claim that Hobbes's view is the be all and end all of the matter, there is a tendency for discussions on some topics to reproduce the self-aggrandizing shouting past each other Hobbes apparently thought was typical of all free speech. What's interesting and perhaps slightly ironic about the post, given its ostensible subject, is the comments thread: a fine example of polite, considerate and considered responses, from which I hope, not entirely vainly I think, that something vaguely constructive has been learned by the participants. This is, of course, exactly what Hobbes is claiming is impossible, although he may have the last laugh: one of the reasons I'm linking to it is because I have been commenting on it, which fits in rather well with his reductionist psychology.