For those keeping score… [crickets chirping]… I’ve felt that I’ve had a couple of solid insights since I’ve begun writing here. One is the conviction that you must operate in full public view to succeed in a mission to win hearts and minds, and the other is that comment thread flame wars are an insane waste of time: pro-liberty folks, especially objectivists, seem to concentrate on the smiting of enemies instead of working towards goals.
A couple more pieces have fallen into place for me this month. Like I wrote in my straw man dialogue, there’s a tendency for the pro-command political type to trend sadistic when facing a pro-liberty person. There’s a certain joy in the way they remind us that we’re living in their world. That fact, plus the complete apoplexy with which they confront those who’d dare to promote armed defense, leads me to believe that these people are more scared and desperate than I had thought, and they are doubling down in the face of fearing they may have already gone too far. People are prepared to bluff themselves off a cliff, which is not optimal strategy. I’m thinking of a way to motivate the pro-command side to de-escalate, while also giving them an honorable path for de-escalation. A post is coming on this after Labor Day.
We need to triumph over our pro-command neighbors to get our lives back. But getting our lives back is the goal, not defeating a hated adversary. I’ll confess to being motivated by all sorts of revenge fantasies in the past, but that was a mistake. I’m no longer spurred to action by a desire to humiliate anyone. Let’s give our current opponents the respect they deserve as our future partners in freedom.
John:
I agree with you that protracted debates and flame wars are a waste of time when commenting on blogs, forums and other threads. However, my position is that it can be important to register at least one good response to articles or discussions that present a distorted view of facts. This leaves a record in place for any thinking person who later comes across that thread, letting them see that there is opposition to the original opinion, and another way of looking at the topic. You are never going to convince someone of you point of view if their mind is closed to considering a different perspective. But an open-minded person is always a different story, and it is the potential for connecting with that type of person that makes an effort in these situations worthwhile.
Regards,
–
C. Jeffery Small
your blog is heavily philisophical and i appreciate that.
i’ve been wondering lately how your thesis statements could be better supported by citations of current events and history.