Just Some Thoughts & Questions

Hey, you'all

I've just been rambling along with some thoughts this weekend and well, since that's what a blog be all about. . . Plus some recent comments have got me to thinking.

I think Ancient One just took a fair amount of space to tell me that my spelling ain't so gud. I also have two techniques that I utilize in posting. Some, like this one just gets hammered out in the ole blogster text box. Others I write up in Corel WordPerfect (Yes, indeed, some of my postings actually take me more than one sitting to compose.) The problem with that method is that some of the formatting from Corel does not transfer into html all that effectively, and I end up with BR's in the wrong places and such. Sometimes I think the hassle in transfering it over just ain't worth a few misspelled words. Besides, english is a living language, and we bloggers are on the cutting edge of innovating new approaches to communicating with it.

I also feel like some of the gist of my open letter here got missed. I do not feel that public radio and television have been sucking up taxpayer dollars to disseminate liberal propaganda for the last thirty years. I think liberalism and journalism are highly intertwined, since as a population becomes more informed, they begin to make descisions that are in their own best interest and the interests of their society. The current neo-cons have to utilize deception and misinformation, since I doubt too many red-blooded americans want to see our country reduced to a third world with a bankrupt and completely useless government that cannot challenge the power of wealthy individuals and their corporations. 'Starve the beast' that's their plan, they have discussed it openly on many occassions. But, whatever, I can't force people to engage their critical thinking skills.

My complaints regarding public radio concern the much more recent structural changes that have been made. Bill Moyers has spoken quite eloquently on the matter. This administration has gutted public radio and turned it into a mere Ministry of Propaganda. Worse, they took their journalistic castration without even a wimper. But, whatever, I can't force people to have integrity or balls.

The fool comment don't bug me much, I went to his site and it still does not qualify as a stupid blog - since he is being honest to himself and giving us a great window of insight into how someone of that Weltanshauung interacts with the world of Ideas.

It works as a fair segway, however, into the meat of this posting and the unresolved concerns I have about some of my posts in progress. The purpose of this post and my appeal to the wisdom of my fellow blogizens.

Most of you are aware that I'm both an athiest and a liberal. I've been working for the last few weeks on a series of postings that will deal specifically with the major lies of some forms of modern religion and try to generate some good debate regarding the issue. I intend on making one entire segment in the three part project devoted to Compassion. See, I think that a lot of folks who have been hoodwinked by some of these more vile religious organizations refuse to engage their critical thinking because it would make them feel so bad to realize that they've been lied to and manipulated for so many years. Like Mr. Mulliniks, and what we all know about second chances and old fools.

Still, I also have visited dozen of sites and have spoken to many theists who are not a threat to our country or really hurting anyone. Aside from that last little jab a old fools, I truly try to follow a respect thy elders approach to life - I'll give those my age and younger a hard time about what I feel are weak or stupid concepts, but why should I torment someone's grandma in the twilight of her years.

Should I just post a warning at the top, similar to how I headed my raving manifesto?

What I set out to do with this Seeker's Blog, was to encourage a more complex and socially responsible level of spirituality in others. I think a major myth lurks in the notion that as an athiest I somehow deny the existence of spirituality. Evolution proves spirituality: if you were lacking the emotional characteristics to engage your society on a spiritual level, you would find it hard to remain in that group or find a mate to pass such characteristics on. I know that's an oversimplification, but still. . .

Plenty of christians are also on the path that I see as complex and socially responsible spirituality, so how do I avoid harming them? Perhaps I cannot.

Finally, I think the whole issue can be summed up with the word 'Fundamentalism.' AR accused me of being a fundamentalist a while back, and that always stuck in my craw. I've always believed that Liberalism does not oppose conservatism (which is really just a made up ideology of the last twenty years to advance the power of a small group of bastards anyway) but that it opposes Fundamentalism. Liberalism and Post-Modernism are designed to be able to accept multiple points of view and various truths. We strive to always remain capable of deciding that our point of view might not be the most advanced or appropriate for a certain situation - one cannot really interact politically if one is not willing to compromise. Fundamentalists believe that there is some virtue in never changing their position (What Emerson referred to as 'dragging the corpse of the past around') and seem to have a problem with the fact that others do not believe as they do. I think that fundamentalists are always wrong, except when one is engaged in total war, but that's way off topic.

Thanks to all of you out there who read and comment on me blog. I think you are all some groovy hep-cats that are really happening in a far-out way.