Intent and Ideas

I was asked recently what I wanted this blog to be – what was my overall intent?

Is it a hobby? Something to market at a later point? A professional starting point for other works?

As I have said before, my initial purpose has shifted from writing about old firearms to a place to compile my academic stories, to a platform for my own experiences… Overall, it has become a collection of my various thoughts and observations on a varying and diverse set of topics and one without much directed focus. The folks who have found their way here through luck or invitation might have found what they were looking for (I’m still fascinated with the hits from Ukraine on the post about Suvorov – thank you for your continued and anonymous interest, by the way); others might have been exposed to a different perspective on a contentious topic… while others may possibly have disagreed with any and/or everything I have offered and left in a huff – never to return.

To each their own.

This blog offers long-form ideas. I have mulled over the notion of starting a podcast or other verbal version of this, but I cannot really bring myself to go that route. I have a hard time with statements without footnotes or hypertext links to source whatever it is I am referring to, and, combined with my annoyance at the sound of my own voice, writing is the best medium for what I have on my mind.

Oh, and there is so much on my mind, lately.

First and foremost is an interview with Tulsi Gabbard on The Joe Rogan Experience from 26 November 2019. The entire video is worth the considerable investment of time, but a point made by Representative Gabbard resonated:

I think when you look at this this cancel culture how […] I was attacked on the debate stage for going on Fox News… How do you think you’re gonna lead this country – all Americans – if you’re completely not only shutting out and not willing to talk to half the country that watches Fox News, but you’re in fact disrespecting and dismissing them just because they may disagree with you or they watch a different news channel than you do? I think that’s the bigger issue here […] there’s a political consequence. You’re never gonna be able to have a dialogue with what to speak of win support from people who you treat like garbage, who you disrespect, you call names, who you call “deplorables,” but… how do you expect to lead as the president of every single American in this country when you’ve thrown half of them away and saying “you know what I actually don’t care about you I only care about people who I agree with.” That’s […] the worst part about all of this

@134:58

Another interview on his show – this time with Douglas Murray from 26 February 2018 – found me opening up Word yet again to copy noteworthy parts the transcript:

…The question I always want to ask, among other things, is: do you know where this is going to lead? Do you know what its gonna do if you keep breaking down definitions and terms and words? Do you know what happens, for instance, down the road if you keep on saying that Sam Harris and Douglas Murray are having a conversation about something is hate speech…. do you know what relief that’s going to give other people down the road about what they’re going to be able to get away with?

@04:35

There are other quotes which would begin to eat up my own blog, but to summarize, Murray warns against the dilution of accusations of hate speech through “erroneous claims frivolously for our own short-term gain and for our own short-term comfort” as well as the potential for empowerment of radical ideologists by using those very accusations to their advantage as they can distort the narrative in a way that paints them as victims.  

Murray uses a term which I immediately appreciated: “idea sport.” Where discussions are not about the content and efforts to understand or reach an agreeable course of action, but merely a contest of winning. A discussion which started about the cost of living on Oahu and rapidly deteriorated into entrenchment found me asking a long-time friend:

Are you looking for a victory here…? I mean, what is the point? I am starting to think that no matter what we offer back, you will go off on a tangent about some detail that detracts from the larger point […] What is the end goal? Will you change your mind if you are offered contradictory information? I already have – in fact, I have clarified a lot of previously held notions on several points over the last hour of researching and writing… but not in the direction one might think.

Do you see what the theme here is?

Contempt.

Blind confidence in absolutes.

Reaction clouded by biases.

Both Representative Gabbard and Mr. Murray understand that, and this gives me hope that there are voices out there who have a more effective platform to speak out about their concerns on these issues… to share their perspectives on what is going on and what this might mean for our society down the road. That there will be a political consequence for what we see today, whether it is the impeachment… the growing effectiveness of “cancel culture” and the easily offended… the stifling of voices however unpopular or troublesome… the rapidly shifting goal posts of what is allowable speech…

On the role of the social media influencers and gatekeepers against extremists, Murray had a solid point:

these people have all […] the ability to create those people… and empower them, which is something. You don’t want actual racists and Nazis to have legitimate grievance claims and you don’t want them to be able to disguise themselves of something they’re not.

@8:47

I have said before in many posts – The Anthem, Football, and Observations, Controversy and History, Thoughts on Charlottesville, VA, and many others – I love the fact that we can, at the moment, engage in some serious and thoughtful discussions on where we are and where we would like to be. I dislike ideologies which reside in the extremes of human behavior, but by attempting to understand where those ideas originate from – the operating system that makes them cyclic and, therefore, predictable – I can better understand what steps I can take to make sure that my kids might be part of a workable solution down the road… or that they are better prepared to react to whatever society challenges them with.

What is my overall intent for this blog?

I hope that part of it is a means to nullify those destructive themes mentioned before with a nod towards those who read with an open mind, share with no malice or other ulterior motive, and strive towards being better…

It is for you the reader to ponder.