Why profundity doesn't pay
Occasionally I'll come up with some profound observation about something and most of the time I won't write it down. On the few occasions I have, and the fewer I've shown someone what I wrote, about two-thirds will give that reaction of "Hmmm, interesting...", which is also, not coincidentally, what you say when you don't really know what to say about something; the remaining third will say something like "Well, duh!", which indicates that they are either much more savvy or have completely missed the point. And people wonder why philosophers end up committing suicide.
Anyway my latest braindrizzle comes from getting into a couple of political arguments with both a friend in my journal and a friend in his own. I disagreed pretty sharply with both, but would hope that they would agree that the discourse was at least civil while being animated. Anyway, the observation is this: All politics, at least in the United States, is pretty much comprised of your views on two nominally separate questions: where does my right to swing my fist end, and your right not to be punched in the nose begin? And, what is an acceptable level of risk, and how do we mitigate it?
I suspect I have answers to these questions that do not resemble anyone else's - perhaps not even those of most Greens - which would go a long way toward explaining why I do end up disagreeing with so many folks in such a fundamental way. This puts me in a difficult spot, because as I've said before, I got into politics because I did not want to be "the smartest guy on the barstool". Anyone can have a bunch of clever theories; you must also have a willingness to go out and attempt to apply them to Real Life. This is where Libertarians and...well, hell, many Greens, fail. (Most Republicans and Democrats fail on the first bit.)
On the bit about risk, I'll mention two things. First, I'm convinced that 24-hour news channels are the greatest threat to our country in terms of preventing us from doing this. The media goes for the sensation, and 24-hour media takes that and repeats it like a mad echo chamber. The result is a distortion of the truth and a destruction of the usefulness of the medium. We can't assess risk properly as a country with that as the basis which we use to do so. I purposefully avoided the news channels during the tales of the shootings at Virginia Tech, because it prevented me from assessing the newsworthy parts of the story...it was the same reason I turned the TV to a PBS kids' show on 11 Sept 2001 and kept myself appraised of the story through the Internet and a periodic check of the radio.
Second is something related to my last post. I've found a rather nice and fairly cheap passport wallet that blocks RFID. It's rather handsome and also has a place for one's cards and plane tickets and such. I think this may be the way to go with this passport dilemma.
In other matters, I think I'm doing okay with the play, but Ghod knows for sure...once again I'm in this serial second-guessing mode where I don't really know how I'm doing and don't really trust those closest to me to provide an opinion. Oh, and somehow, I've found myself in the cast for Volpone...
In other other matters, my fantasy baseball team, the Gatecrashers, somehow jumped from seventh to first yesterday. WTF. I'm not thinking that this is much of an accomplishment, however...as the sixth-place team is only four points behind me. I do see however that Manny Ramirez hit a home run today, which gives my formidable one-two punch of Soriano and Ramirez a total of...one for the year.
In other other other matters, it looks like it may in fact finally be spring now. The high for tomorrow is set as 21, for Saturday 23, and for Sunday 26. Hey, that last is downright hot.
Anyway my latest braindrizzle comes from getting into a couple of political arguments with both a friend in my journal and a friend in his own. I disagreed pretty sharply with both, but would hope that they would agree that the discourse was at least civil while being animated. Anyway, the observation is this: All politics, at least in the United States, is pretty much comprised of your views on two nominally separate questions: where does my right to swing my fist end, and your right not to be punched in the nose begin? And, what is an acceptable level of risk, and how do we mitigate it?
I suspect I have answers to these questions that do not resemble anyone else's - perhaps not even those of most Greens - which would go a long way toward explaining why I do end up disagreeing with so many folks in such a fundamental way. This puts me in a difficult spot, because as I've said before, I got into politics because I did not want to be "the smartest guy on the barstool". Anyone can have a bunch of clever theories; you must also have a willingness to go out and attempt to apply them to Real Life. This is where Libertarians and...well, hell, many Greens, fail. (Most Republicans and Democrats fail on the first bit.)
On the bit about risk, I'll mention two things. First, I'm convinced that 24-hour news channels are the greatest threat to our country in terms of preventing us from doing this. The media goes for the sensation, and 24-hour media takes that and repeats it like a mad echo chamber. The result is a distortion of the truth and a destruction of the usefulness of the medium. We can't assess risk properly as a country with that as the basis which we use to do so. I purposefully avoided the news channels during the tales of the shootings at Virginia Tech, because it prevented me from assessing the newsworthy parts of the story...it was the same reason I turned the TV to a PBS kids' show on 11 Sept 2001 and kept myself appraised of the story through the Internet and a periodic check of the radio.
Second is something related to my last post. I've found a rather nice and fairly cheap passport wallet that blocks RFID. It's rather handsome and also has a place for one's cards and plane tickets and such. I think this may be the way to go with this passport dilemma.
In other matters, I think I'm doing okay with the play, but Ghod knows for sure...once again I'm in this serial second-guessing mode where I don't really know how I'm doing and don't really trust those closest to me to provide an opinion. Oh, and somehow, I've found myself in the cast for Volpone...
In other other matters, my fantasy baseball team, the Gatecrashers, somehow jumped from seventh to first yesterday. WTF. I'm not thinking that this is much of an accomplishment, however...as the sixth-place team is only four points behind me. I do see however that Manny Ramirez hit a home run today, which gives my formidable one-two punch of Soriano and Ramirez a total of...one for the year.
In other other other matters, it looks like it may in fact finally be spring now. The high for tomorrow is set as 21, for Saturday 23, and for Sunday 26. Hey, that last is downright hot.