The Twitter Revolution in Action

This weekend, world-famous novelist Margaret Atwood, found herself in a fight that would be unimaginable in the days before social media.

If you want to see the Twitter revolution in action, sign up for the Twitter feeds of Ezra Levant and Margaret Atwood and read back through the past 48 hours.

Atwood is of course a world-famous novelist, a recipient of almost every honor that her homeland of Canada can bestow: twice winner of the Governor General's award for literature; a companion of the Order of Canada; her books assigned in schools and analyzed at universities; she herself the subject of always flattering documentaries and biographies.

Ezra Levant - well, I love him dearly - but I think he himself would be the first to admit that he is the very opposite of a Canadian icon. Kind of a right-wing pugilist actually.

Both subscribe to Twitter. As of 48 hours ago, Ezra had about 2500 followers, Atwood over 82,000.

Then - Ezra started to goad Atwood via Twitter. The topic was a proposed new right-of-center TV cable television channel in Canada. I'll spare you the details, except that Atwood had signed a petition against it. Ezra took up the issue. By using the @margaretatwood key, he was able to send every negative comment straight to her ... and after a few bangs, the famous novelist began to argue back ... first angry, then plaintive, and finally this morning, defeated:

OK, T-Pals: should I stay out of mud wrestling on Twitter from now on? Is it Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas

This is an exchange that it's almost impossible to imagine happening in pre social media days. No way would an Atwood have engaged in such an unequal fight all the way back in, say, 2003, let alone 1983. (Maybe it would have been wiser to avoid it even in 2010.) But it can happen now - and it's transformative.