It’s been twenty-three days since I began this effort at daily writing. So has it been worthwhile? Thinking aloud in a semi-public manner has a strange appeal. Some people read these writings or at least web browsers keep making requests for the pages. Fewer still leave comments. But that’s alright. It’s mostly been useful to me as a way to clear out the cobwebs and to speak about the concerns that I have.
One of the more interesting books I read a few years ago, when I was reading about creativity, had the wonderful title ‘Shaving the Inside of Your Skull.’ That’s what this exercise of blogging feels like. A chance to clear out the dead wood and clarify my own thoughts. If someone happens to read a particular cri de coeur and find support or solace here so be it. It’s what every author would wish for.
Looking back over the recent spate of entries and thinking about what I’ve been reading over the past few weeks I think I’ve identified some of the things about the world that are really bothering me.
- Climate change. I saw An Inconvenient Truth last weekend, July 1st. The movie was well done but I felt like I was listening to tape recording I’d already heard many times before. And yet there are still people who bury their heads in the sand and refuse to recognize reality when it hits them in the face. The world is changing, humans are the cause, and we must decide what to do about it.
- Intelligent design. Foolishness abounds in this debate and it never seems to cease. I remember reading about creationism during the mid-1980s, when the tide of Darwin doubt was at its last high water mark. I read the criticisms of evolution with as much openness as I probably ever will. Then I read the responses and the debate ended for me. Evolution is supported by mountains of scientific evidence and yet the battle against stupidity never ceases. The argument from design is silly because the perception of design is inside of our own, very human, heads. It’s a massive projection of ourselves upon the world. A projection that the awesomeness of the world doesn’t need.
- Globalization and outsourcing. I’ve become more and more disillusioned with the Washington Consensus on economics over the past few years. It may be the continued inequities in America’s economy or the shrill complaints of those who never learnt that trickle-down economics was a farce. The canard that education will save the day is just the latest frustration I’ve vented.
- Information commons and community. This is one I haven’t mentioned much in recent weeks. I’ve followed the work of Lawrence Lessig for a number of years since the Eldred case. The control of corporations and business over intellectual property has reached absurd proportions. Something needs to be done. So more activism, more research, more writing.
