Notice, also, that blogs can suddenly reach a critical mass that then forces something out into the open, into public consciousness. You might think of it as an analogy to the subconscious vs. the conscious.

The image that John's little narrative creates is that ideas are attempting to emerge from the soil and that various authors on the net are kicking up the dirt trying to set them free. That the link's role is to be a spade in the soil. It doesn't serve the site, or the author, or the status economy. It serves the desperate attempt of the ideas to escape.