Tired Ideas And Meaningless Debate
"My concern with accuracy is on a higher level than nickels and dimes."
An anonymous e-mail took issue with a post in which I may have inferred that the Pope was a bigot. Which is fair enough, I suppose. After all, I'm not seeing too many homosexuals in the rush to have the guy sainted. That said, when you're the Pope, it kinda comes with the territory. There isn't much call for guides who want to take the path less travelled in the Vatican.
That's a belief, by the way, defined as a mental acceptance of truth. It isn't the same as truth, which is verifiable and inarguable. In all honesty, I don't care very much about the Pope and have little interest in writing on the subject, I just wanted to point out that two opposing beliefs being in existence at the same time is a perfectly natural and sane thing to have occurred and does not, in any way, mean anybody has to get massively offended and write barely literate letters to anybody else. We can have a sane and rational debate about it, if anyone's inclined. If people want to get hysterical, well, my side of the debate has only two words.
Clue: One of them's 'off'.
I could do a lot of social and political commentary on the blog, I really could. It's not as though I'm not that way inclined, and it's not as though we couldn't get a debate going. The problem, as I see it, is that I don't want NFADR to be one of those sites where all the "liberals" and the "fundamentalists" and whatever else people call themselves when they gather in large groups and forget how to think independently get together and have a big fight because what drives them isn't a desire to see a better world but another opportunity to say "Christians are pooheads" or "The Bible says liberals are pooheads" or whatever. I mean, all well and good if that's what makes you happy, but please stop pretending like you're fighting for some greater good when what you're really doing is looking for some ill-defined evil that validates belief systems you have no confidence in. It's old, it's dull, and I really think it's about time we moved on to some new ideas.
Here's one: Nobody's going to win. I appreciate that this may come as a shock to some of you, but I'm afraid it's completely true. Nobody is going to win. Not liberals, not libertarians, not muslims, not catholics, not communists, not black, white, male, female, gay, straight, believer, or non believer. Nobody Is Going To Win. Absorbed that? Good. I know it probably seems a naive idea to those of you that consider yourselves thinkers, but I'm concerning myself with higher truths here. If you think I give a fuck that you can quote Nietszche or Chomsky, you're on the wrong page, and should probably go find somebody who's impressed that you can copy text out of a book and then misuse it to score points.
Shit, they say cricket's dull because it can go on for five days and still end in a draw. If that's the case, how are we supposed to feel about arguments that have been going on for hundreds of years and are still no closer to an impossible consensus? Now, I know someone's going to say, "but Michael, discussion and debate are important ways to broaden our minds. Through these mediums, we can all grow and learn as individuals and a society." That's all well and good, and when I stop laughing, I will give you my number. When you come up with an angle I have never heard before, call me and we'll start the revolution. Until then, please don't be too offended if I choose to sit in my room and write fuck-stories. I am enlightened, and I know that there aren't any new ideas, just repackaged ones.
So I say God is dead, and I say Democracy is dead, and I say your thoughts and ideas belong to an age that has passed. That we, as a race, have failed to notice that fact is what makes this the era of tired ideas and meaningless debate, where most thought is inspired by the television and most people are more concerned with opposing things than actually trying to make any kind of difference.
Of course, those are just my beliefs...
An anonymous e-mail took issue with a post in which I may have inferred that the Pope was a bigot. Which is fair enough, I suppose. After all, I'm not seeing too many homosexuals in the rush to have the guy sainted. That said, when you're the Pope, it kinda comes with the territory. There isn't much call for guides who want to take the path less travelled in the Vatican.
That's a belief, by the way, defined as a mental acceptance of truth. It isn't the same as truth, which is verifiable and inarguable. In all honesty, I don't care very much about the Pope and have little interest in writing on the subject, I just wanted to point out that two opposing beliefs being in existence at the same time is a perfectly natural and sane thing to have occurred and does not, in any way, mean anybody has to get massively offended and write barely literate letters to anybody else. We can have a sane and rational debate about it, if anyone's inclined. If people want to get hysterical, well, my side of the debate has only two words.
Clue: One of them's 'off'.
I could do a lot of social and political commentary on the blog, I really could. It's not as though I'm not that way inclined, and it's not as though we couldn't get a debate going. The problem, as I see it, is that I don't want NFADR to be one of those sites where all the "liberals" and the "fundamentalists" and whatever else people call themselves when they gather in large groups and forget how to think independently get together and have a big fight because what drives them isn't a desire to see a better world but another opportunity to say "Christians are pooheads" or "The Bible says liberals are pooheads" or whatever. I mean, all well and good if that's what makes you happy, but please stop pretending like you're fighting for some greater good when what you're really doing is looking for some ill-defined evil that validates belief systems you have no confidence in. It's old, it's dull, and I really think it's about time we moved on to some new ideas.
Here's one: Nobody's going to win. I appreciate that this may come as a shock to some of you, but I'm afraid it's completely true. Nobody is going to win. Not liberals, not libertarians, not muslims, not catholics, not communists, not black, white, male, female, gay, straight, believer, or non believer. Nobody Is Going To Win. Absorbed that? Good. I know it probably seems a naive idea to those of you that consider yourselves thinkers, but I'm concerning myself with higher truths here. If you think I give a fuck that you can quote Nietszche or Chomsky, you're on the wrong page, and should probably go find somebody who's impressed that you can copy text out of a book and then misuse it to score points.
Shit, they say cricket's dull because it can go on for five days and still end in a draw. If that's the case, how are we supposed to feel about arguments that have been going on for hundreds of years and are still no closer to an impossible consensus? Now, I know someone's going to say, "but Michael, discussion and debate are important ways to broaden our minds. Through these mediums, we can all grow and learn as individuals and a society." That's all well and good, and when I stop laughing, I will give you my number. When you come up with an angle I have never heard before, call me and we'll start the revolution. Until then, please don't be too offended if I choose to sit in my room and write fuck-stories. I am enlightened, and I know that there aren't any new ideas, just repackaged ones.
So I say God is dead, and I say Democracy is dead, and I say your thoughts and ideas belong to an age that has passed. That we, as a race, have failed to notice that fact is what makes this the era of tired ideas and meaningless debate, where most thought is inspired by the television and most people are more concerned with opposing things than actually trying to make any kind of difference.
Of course, those are just my beliefs...
posted by Michael at 11:35 AM
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