Over the life of this blog I’ve had many emails accusing, yes accusing is the correct word, me of being some ultra conservative megaphone. The emails generally are accusatory in nature and often include words bordering on hysteria, predicting that if people read my blog and think for themselves, the world is going to end. I also receive notes thanking me for pointing out something the reader had not previously considered or for presenting another perspective on an object/idea already considered by the reader.
For the record I represent no political idea having always considered myself a proponent of truth, logic, justice and those other difficult to define attributes that represent the original intentions of the founders who so tightly struggled with the different cultures found in those thirteen states. They gave us a Law that provided an initial baseline from which we were to have the same justice under the law for everyone. Other the years, when we were confounded, we came together to add to or change provisions in that basic document. I am and always have been a proponent of constitutionality which provides us the blueprint for a nation of laws. I am against swaying with the crowd in the moment for history has proven just how fickle and malicious the crowd can be. That is, in fact, the reason we are a Constitutional Republic, the very first in history. Within that Constitution is the law that provides for elected representation of the people who populate the republic. Without that law we would bend and break to the ever changing direction of the winds of public opinion.
Truth as represented by discernible fact, logic of causality, justice as provided for by law, and sympathy and charity if the situation merits such. Those are the foundations of my belief system. I don’t trust human nature for I am an ardent student of history and have learned that morality does not grow out of human nature. Rather, morality is a stricture we as a society place upon human nature which is intrinsically governed by survival of the fittest and might makes right. Only through not just having a codified structure of society but the enforcement of that codification can right conquer might.
When you challenge me I will question your postulation for discernible facts. I do not accept emotion or supposition only discernible facts. If you tell me someone is a liar, I’ll ask you for examples of their lies. If your words become emotional, I’ll point that out and ask you to return to the world of logic not sentiment. If you state something as a fact and I dissect it to discover that it is really opinion I’ll tell you so and I will do this regardless of your political position. Our discussion will become epistemological in nature until we can sort out the opinion from the fact. Remember that perspective is predicate to perception and perception determines action. A Cape Buffalo looks awfully like a Gnu from the back.
I take on both poles of political/religious belief, for example the very same people who are predicting the end of the world due to climate change are the very people who told us the seas would now be lapping at the Appalachian Mountains on the East Coast. That hasn’t happened so somehow they are wrong. That’s on one side, now the other, the Bible says that Homosexuality is a bad thing, it also says the punishment for sewing a garment with two different threads is death, it allows the believer to sell his daughter into slavery and it warns against eating swine calling them anathema to God. But if the writers of the Bible (we are told by many it was God) was so smart why didn’t he just tell us to cook the pork until it was well done on the inside? So, If we disregard so many other don’t do’s of the Bible how is it that homosexuality cannot be disregarded? Oh, and why doesn’t the Bible warn us about women lying with women? That won’t produce any children to increase the tribe either and that was the real reason for the prohibition. If you’re a small tribe seeking to grow into a large nation you don’t want men lying with men, for there will be no increase in the tribe. All those Deuteronomy and Leviticus do not’s were practical as life was known at the time, but to get people to follow them you had to make the punishment death and then you had to enforce that punishment. They did, and the tribe increased in size so that it would become two separate kingdoms.
So, I don’t favor a side or a particular political position. Rather, I favor logic, a deep respect for history and a knowledge of human nature left unchecked.
Well expressed/