Rick Nelson

I’ve joust about had it with the Internet getting credit for everything
June 23, 2008

Where would we be if Al Gore hadn’t invented the Internet?* We wouldn’t have jousting, according to one of the more ridiculous claims I’ve seen published in the Wall Street Journal. Here is a quote from a front-page article today titled “A Knight's Tale: Modern Jousting Sees Renaissance”: “The advent of firearms ended the medieval sport of jousting in the 17th century. But the Internet has resurrected it and, today, mounted men in full armor charge at each other for glory and global rank.”

The article never again mentions the Internet. Now granted, a Google search for jousting returns 1,890,000 pages, and I have no doubt the the Internet facilitates communication among the jousting community—just as it does for practically any community. But surely, modern jousting events predate the Internet.

Granted, one organization cited in the Journal article—the International Jousting League—was created in the post-Internet year of 2004, and it may well owe its success to the Internet. But I seem to recall that King Richard's Faire has had jousting events for just about forever—well, for at least the 27 years of its existence, making it older than the Internet, even if it doesn’t extend back to the 17th century. I expect that many of the other 1,889,998 pages that Google finds describe organizations and events that predate the Internet as well.

*OK, I know Al Gore never actually claimed to have invented the Internet, but it’s election season, and if I can include politicians’ names I might get more clicks.

Posted by Rick Nelson on June 23, 2008 | Comments (0)