Go Ahead. We Trust You.
(From March, 2010. And still pertinent.)
As I said a while ago, I'm not entirely sure about continuing to blog.
If this was the principal focus of my day, I'd be happy to opine on all manner of Stuff™. If I were both educated in depth, and employed in, a field that deals with many of the subjects I like to talk about, it's possible I'd be offering original ideas that might have a positive outcome for actual people.
But I do have a job, and a life, and if I spend time here, I don't want to just make wisecracks while passing along the wisdom of others, prophets spraypainting wisdom on their own subway walls. It's not very original, and not very satisfying.
I do like keeping tabs on what's happening. I like having an opinion about things, and putting it out there (It's something the Intertubes is famous for; talk about Democracy -- you can tell people you speak for the High Thetan Council Of the Magellan Cluster, or post your mother's favorite recipes, with equal abandon). I enjoy looking at situations, and can make an educated guess about what may happen based on nothing but what I know, everything I read, and on whatever currents in the culture or world events I smell with my Dog's Nose.
But all that is an illusion -- the idea that making pronouncements about the State Of Things is any better than reading tea leaves... and in that sense I'm no less equipped to prognosticate than a majority of the paid "policy analysts", bombasticating from their Institutes in and around the Beltway. The difference between them and myself is, they believe they can shape reality with their opinions, and are paid handsomely to do so; I know that the world is too slippery a place for anyone to say what will happen, and when. We can't even agree that facts are actually facts any longer, and that spells trouble.
It is a fact that we, in America and elsewhere, have been screwed while still wearing our pants for a long time; and the game is so rigged in favor of a tiny segment of the population that the immensity of it is barely comprehensible. We can see the world in motion, right in front of us, rising and falling in new patterns like a fantastic kaleidoscope every hour of the day. I have opinions about all of it, but they are just opinions, and they are only mine.
I joke that three people and a superintelligent parakeet are the only ones who actually read Before Nine, but in truth I never started doing this for any other reason than to have a bit o' fun. It certainly wasn't about popularity or money.
While I care about politics and economics, I'm neither an economist, financial analyst or political organizer. There are, however, other things I care about -- it's what the masthead says: One Person's Art and Literature. So perhaps this Blog will continue, but if so its focus is likely to change. We'll see.
It probably will, because some people do read it. After all -- you don't want a superintelligent parakeet pissed off at you. You don't. Trust me.
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Keep up the good work. I read and like so many others who do read, I am disgusted by all the rubbish that is thrown at us by the media. You are truly a breath of fresh air. And also, Mongo needs an outlet for his ravings. Thanks
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