Well, if you realize bloggers are simply people expressing themselves through a forum that allows communication of ideas to unlimited numbers of other people for next to nothing cost-wise – yes. People can change the world.

The NYTimes had a great piece today by Nicholas Kristof on how the communist Chinese may finally have met their match. But then again, how could any totalitarian regime retain control when people can congregate in massive numbers virtually, without leaving their homes.

The Chinese Communist Party survived a brutal civil war with the Nationalists, battles with American forces in Korea and massive pro-democracy demonstrations at Tiananmen Square. But now it may finally have met its match – the Internet.

The collision between the Internet and Chinese authorities is one of the grand wrestling matches of history, visible in part at www.yuluncn.com.

That’s the Web site of a self-appointed journalist named Li Xinde. He made a modest fortune selling Chinese medicine around the country, and now he’s started the Chinese Public Opinion Surveillance Net – one of four million blogs in China.

Mr. Li travels around China with an I.B.M. laptop and a digital camera, investigating cases of official wrongdoing. Then he writes about them on his Web site and skips town before the local authorities can arrest him.

The pen is mightier than the sword. And a blog is equal to a million pens…..