November 9, 2005
One year ago today…
One year ago today, I was sitting in front of the computer, putting the final touches on my post The Dumb American. I had gotten bit by the idea of blogging after my good friend Wilson started (and then quit) blogging. And watching as “the blogs” started driving the debate before the election, I had decided that I wanted to play too! So I sat back after the election, looking to find my first idea. I didn’t want to just say “Hi” to the blogosphere, I wanted to write something impactful. The Dumb American was that entry.
Yep. Today is my one-year blogiversary. It’s hard to believe I’ve been writing this blog for a whole year, and even harder to believe that after a whole year of doing this, people are still coming back to read it! Looking back, I can say that it’s been an experience that has been rewarding on many levels, frustrating on others, but that through all of it, I’ve constantly been learning.
I’ve always said that if you stop using your brain, it will die. At times, before I got into blogging, the ol’ melon was on life support. I like my job, but at times, you just get into a rut doing what everyone else wants you to. And while engineering can be mentally challenging most of the time, I’m not a design engineer, and thus it doesn’t exercise my creativity. With the amount of time I was spending paying attention to politics, it was simply not enough to exercise my role in the democratic process at the ballot box, I decided to become part of the debate. When I first started, I thought I was off to a roaring start. But looking back at those early posts, I see a lot of disjointed writing, clumsy phrasing, and clumsier ideas. Over the past year, I’ve learned how to express my thinking much more clearly to the world, and in the process, begun thinking clearer as well.
But looking back at The Dumb American, I’m struck by just how much I haven’t changed. At that time, I had some issues with President Bush, but I had even more concern about John Kerry in the White House. Since, I’ve grown to believe that outside of the War on Terror, George W. Bush is really not that great of a President. But at the same time, I still think John Kerry would have been worse. Given the same choice, I would not hesitate to cast my vote now just as I did then.
We are faced in our world today with a fight. This is a fight between the individual and the state, and it has been raging since the dawn of government. The outcome of that fight is far from being determined, as the “progressives” have been doing a great job over the last century to ensure we’re constantly making progress towards European goals, and they are sworn enemies of the individual. I think our ideas are better, both empirically in the results they generate, and because they fit more closely with human nature. Some days I look around and feel like we cannot fail in this fight, yet too many other days I feel like it’s hopeless.
I find myself today in one of my lowest points, because I got into an email exchange with a good friend that left me wondering if the “average” people of the world will ever be swayed by my ideas. I fear they choose not to even inhabit the world of ideas at all; and trying to wake up the walking braindead is only slightly easier than raising the actual dead. Today is one of those days where I feel like if I bang my head hard enough against the wall to knock the sense out of me, I’ll get along better in this world.
But at the same time, this blog has allowed me to reconnect with an old friend, who told me today that the “discussions” we now have over the blog and email, while not quite as fun as going out to the bars, are a great way to keep in touch. And at the same time, I’ve met many new friends as well. As long as I have the honor of keeping company such as this, I’ll have the strength to soldier on.
Below The Beltway linked with Congratulations
8 Comments
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Holy cow! While 55-70% of the American people are saying this President lied about Iraq, his administration is covering up bigger crimes and that the country is well onto the wrong track, you’re saying you’d still cast your vote for Bush today??
Please explain how Kerry could be worse. I don’t get it…
Brad -
Happy Blogiversary! (I must get around to writing the Happy Blogiversary song one of these days.)
As for whether our ideas would ever grab the attention of the average people, I offer a small historical question: Who in the colonies in 1760 would have believed that in less than two decades they’d be living in a republic that embraced life, liberty, and property?
I’ve been reading you regularly since March, and believe I’m better for it. Congratulations on the milestone! (thanks for the mention)
calmnsense,
To put it mildly, because I’m not in that 55-70%.
I don’t necessarily want to debate this point, but I’ll explain. I happen to think that Bush is doing well in the War on Terror, and I happen to think that we have put Iraq on course to a democratic society that can be a lasting improvement to Iraq. I think it can become a beacon to the rest of the middle east; a focal point in transforming the entire region.
Outside of the war, he’s been a mediocre president. He’s increased spending by astronomical levels, while cutting taxes. I hate the former, love the latter, but we can all agree that you can’t do both at once. Outside of spending, he’s been relatively unable to get anything done. I was hoping that he’d have a chance at getting some reform of Social Security, and that didn’t happen. His tax reform panel is a joke, and I don’t think he’ll enact any meaningful change there. I’m not that big of a fan of the agenda of the evangelicals, which I think Bush is pushing. He tried for educational reform, but we got “No Child Left Behind”, a system that adds tests and requires us to label failing schools as failing, but without any vouchers or other meaningful reform to improve them.
So how do I think Kerry would be worse? First, I think he’d lose resolve fighting the war on terror almost immediately. We’d go right back to ignoring the problem and hoping it goes away. But on the domestic front, I can guarantee that his spending programs would be bigger than Bush’s, he would raise our taxes to support it, he would push for socialized health care, would push for more money for education without any additional accountability, and he would further allow government regulation to control our lives.
Given the question between bad and really bad, I chose bad. Had the Democrats put up a better candidate than Kerry, I might be regretting my decision. But given the choice, I’d make the same one again.
Brad, Congradulations on your first year of blogging. I started reading you in about May and I have enjoyed it and I have learned a little, no a lot about you. Keep it up young man.
Brad, your blogiversary is one day before mine! One year ago today I wrote my first post. Wow, I thought your blog had been around awhile longer than mine. Here is the link to my blogiversary post if you would like to take a look: http://fpffressminds.blogspot.com/2005/11/fearless-philosophys-first.html
Hey, linked to me on your blog-iversary? Cool.
Like kids who claim seniority by age, I’ve got seniority over you by a whopping ten days. Now, do as I say, and have a happy day.
Uncle Jack
Congratulations
Congratulations are in order to fellow LLP’ers Stephen Littau of Fearless Philosophy for Free Minds and Brad Warbiany at The Unreprentant Individual, both of him are celebrating the first birthday of their respective blogs.