A blogger’s "maiden speech"

I have a feeling that Subversive Muse will become a favoured double-click of mine. There are many–obviously including myself–who can learn something from what he has to say here:

It’s noble to start a blog with intentions of changing people’s opinions. That kind of idealism is something beautiful but unfortunately, rather deluded. It is in the nature of the reader to seek out information that reaffirms their beliefs, not challenges them. Aldous Huxley said that we live in a sea of island universes, perpetually separated from the experiences of others. We can share something with another person but we cannot truly place ourselves in their shoes. Still, despite our isolation, most of us are comfortable enough within ourselves and particularly, with our own personalised view of reality.

Within this view of reality, we are inherently informed about right and wrong, good and evil and beauty and ugliness. Each event in our lives moulds us into who we are and shapes what we believe. Our attitudes and values towards the world, other people and other beings all struggle to maintain their integrity. Although our lives are in a constant state of transition, we resist it. Apathy becomes the easiest option. We lose any sense of self determination, yielding to the whims of sloth, losing that childlike ability to accept things as they are, yet working to change them.

Accepting this notion, as a writer especially, is difficult. A writer, or anyone who expresses themselves through a craft, would like to believe that they act not only out of love for that craft, but out of the ability to inspire others to behave or think in a way that is out of the norm. Art is an egocentric process only in the sense that artistic work should have an impact on the world and not remain locked in a vacuum, only to be looked upon by the person who created it. So to accept that people are conservative by nature, that they will always resist your images and words, is rather depressing. It makes the author question their sense of identity, and moreover, their sense of purpose.

Merely reaffirming a reader’s views is a hollow practice, in spite of the sense of camaraderie that it may foster. It’s like reading books with the same plot structure over and over again. We begin to accept that a certain structure is more valid than others and then begin to get comfortable with it, forsaking everything new. Authors want to illuminate, to click with something in the reader’s mind that was previously inactive and neglected. The human mind needs constant stimulus, as nothing quite compares to that little jolt of euphoria you experience when you’ve learned something completely and utterly new.

My earliest clear and distinct memory meme

Bruce has sent me a toughie. I have to:

1. Describe my earliest memory where the memory is clear, and where “clear” means I can depict at least three details.
2. Give an estimate of my age at the time.
3. Tag five other bloggers with this meme.

When I was very young I used to share a bedroom with my younger sister. It was an upstairs bedroom in a two-storey house, and where we join the action I was lying on the upper bunk or our bunk bed. I can remember the curtains in the room, which I liked, even if–for reasons unknown–I found them a little scary. (They depicted schooners and ships.) I remember looking beyond the curtains and across the road to where a vacant lot stood. It was just bushland surrounded by houses, and there was a large rock in the middle of the lot which, if you were looking at it from my angle and vantage point, resembled a human face.

I guess that was the first time I noticed it–my sister and I would often remark upon it for years afterwards, until the lot was eventually bought and developed. I think we even tried to locate it once.

Oh great. My earliest memory turns out to be a case of pareidolia.

(By the way–I think I was about three at the time.)

I, in turn, tag Sean, Lucy, Madd McColl, Backyard Missionary and Ninglun.

Dan Dennett on the meme:

The Reality-Based Community online

Via Pharyngula

This is probably not a good thing . . .

According to The Blog Readability Test:

Via Ozatheist.

Five Public Opinions: Rated PG

I don’t get it. A few weeks ago, the Gematriculator rated my blog as “70% Good,” and now I’ve been rated “PG”:

PG!! Apparently it’s because my blog contains two mentions of the word “abortion,” and one of the word “torture.” I guess images such as this or this are now kosher.

(Via Chris, who managed to score an “R” rating.)

This ought to fix it:

Vale Super Simmo?

Super Simmo apologises for this break in transmission.

Super Simmo is one of the few bloggers on my sidebar that I know personally. He’s a teacher in Perth who regularly posts on politics (and rugby union, and games) with passion and conviction.

Now it appears that he has deleted his blog; at least, it seems so: Blogger displays in Japanese characters over here. He did mention starting a new blog, but I no longer have the link. (UPDATE: I do now, and I’ve amended my blogroll accordingly.)

Simmo–if you’re reading this, let me know what’s going on.

Anyway, this is for you, Simmo:

And in the light of recent events . . .

Join the Atheist Blogroll

The atheist blogosphere is growing apace, much faster at any rate than Alister McGrath can publish anti-Dawkins tomes. Mojoey has amassed hundreds of such blogs on his Atheist Blogroll, and if you would like to join, click here.
Just to make it worth your while:

The Atheist Tapes parts 1 and 2: Daniel Dennett

UPDATE: Here’s a great atheist blog I just discovered today.

TEH BIG WORDS

Some blogger (see this post at Bruce’s for more details) has accused me–out of the clear blue sky–of suffering “delusions of grandeur,” just because I used TEH BIG WORDS in a sentence. Here’s the offending sentence:

Presuppositionalist apriorism also rears its ugly head in debates about whether atheists can be moral, whether evolutionists can be moral, etc.

Granted: it’s not the kind of language you’re likely to hear at the footy, but the idea that it demonstrates my having delusions of grandeur is completely nonsequitous (oops! Another big word). The only explanation I can come up with is that whenever this individual sees someone using TEH BIG WORDS, he concludes that it’s all part of a conspiracy to make him feel stupid. Bruce and I only used TEH BIG WORDS, you see, because we think we’re betterer than him.

Well, my friend, I’ve got another big word for you: projection.

Image courtesy of Dinosaur Comics. Click to enlarge.

P.S. I’m actually something of an advocate for plainer English. When I was teaching essay writing earlier in the year, I was amazed at how difficult it was to disabuse my students of the myth that they would get bad marks if they didn’t use unnecessarily big words (many of which they plainly misunderstood anyway) and convoluted prose. They were convinced that to adopt a simpler approach would be to appear “unprofessional”–as if maintaining an image of professionalism is more important than getting a message across.

On the other hand, it is possible to be too zealous about the push for simplified prose. The basic presupposition of the Plain English movement is that anything and everything can and should be expressed in terms accessible to “the man in the street.” I say, however, that plain English is good only when it clarifies a message; plain English is bad when it dilutes or dumbs down a message. (I’m thinking here of those plain English versions of Shakespeare they’re using (not exclusively, I hasten to add) in high schools these days.) As Einstein said: “Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

In any case, whatever my friend’s agenda, I really don’t think it’s as innocuous as a call for plainer English.

Blog Against Theocracy: National Day of Secularism May 26th

The National Day of Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and in an election year you just know the pious frauds on both sides of politics (but let’s face it, mainly the Right) will be screaming more loudly than ever about religion, values (which, as we all know, only the religious possess) and the “spiritual emptiness” that is the hallmark of a secular democracy (apparently).

Well, as Bruce has declared, enough’s enough.

Bye-bye, ta-ta, theocrats take your disingenuous political stunt with you. You
haven’t fooled me or anyone else with a functioning brain.

That’s right, fundies–the evil secularist babykilling hordes are fighting back. Let May 26th henceforth be known as The National Day of Secularism!

National Day of Secularism
May 26th

This is a tagging meme, so I’ll let Bruce tell you the rest:

How the “meme” works
This “meme” works in two steps; first the “Tagging stage” and then the “Blog against theocracy stage”.

Tagging stage
If you are tagged by the meme, then it’s the same old format; mention this entry so
people can see the rules and then tag five other bloggers (preferably Australian given the nature of the NDoT.) You can link back to these rules and display the above (rather modest) banner by inserting this code at the end of your entry

(Check Bruce’s post for the code–Blogger won’t let me post it here)

Feel free to copy the PNG file to your own host and alter the code accordingly, and remember when entering the code to enter it into the “code” window of your blog editor (blogger and wordpress users, I know there is a tab for this above your editing window)!

This meme does however have somewhat of a difference; an additional stage…

Blog against theocracy stage
If you have been tagged (heck, even if you haven’t, it doesn’t bother me) then in addition to tagging others, it is also hoped that you will write a blog entry about the separation of Church and State in Australia. It could be a critique of Pell’s “normative democracy”, the historic anti-democracy sermonizing of Archbishop Daniel Mannix, inevitable discrimination by the funding of (approved) chaplains in public schools, the state backed imposition of bans on forbidden women’s dress or whatever Church-State issue you find important.

Preferably, such a blog entry would be published on the 26th, but I’ve been lazy in getting around to this and I’ve left people little time so there is no deadline as such.
Just a couple of caveats; 1) the church-state anti-theocracy blog entry should mention the phrase “National Day of Thanksgiving”, possibly mentioning that the entry is a response to the NDoT, and 2) feel free to add the (again admittedly modest) banner.

I, in turn, tag the following: A Churchless Faith, BeepBeepIt’sMe, Smogblot, Super Simmo and The Dog’s Bollocks.

UPDATE: We haven’t spoken too soon, evidently. John Howard courted uber-fundies Catch the Fire in January; now Kevin Rudd’s at it. Now let me get this straight. They umm and aahh and fiddle with their diaries when it comes to meeting the Dalai Lama, but they’re falling over themselves to court an organisation whose leader claims to have personally met Jesus “face to face on 21st July 1997 at 3.40am (He spoke to me for 2 hrs. 20 minutes.);” who in the run-up to the 2004 election called on his followers to pull down “Satan’s strongholds,” including brothels, gambling places, mosques and temples; and who in 2005 addressed a meeting of the Australian League of Rights.

What’s going on here? First the Exclusive Brethren, and now Catch the Fire? Has the batshit insane fundie vote really become that significant?

Not that I like to blow my own trumpet . . .

. . . but, according to Dipping into the Blogpond, Five Public Opinions has made the Top 100 Aussie Blogs.

Admittedly, at #90 I’m in the lower echelons of said rankings, but then again, never look a gift horse, etc. In any case, I’m both humbled and ashamed–there are many Australian bloggers, including those listed in my sidebar, who deserve more attention.

Congratulations also to Larvatus Prodeo (#25), Deltoid (#27) and Mr Lefty (#39).

UPDATE: On the subject of great Aussie blogs, Grods has a wonderful post up about teaching.