Why The Uncertainty Principle?
I recently had a nasty exchange of words with a young gentleman, who shall remain nameless for the moment, on an internet message board. The problem centered around the 4th Amendment to the Constitution - he had made a blanket statement that it protected the "Right to Privacy" and I said that that was an error - it only protects against illegal searches and seizures. Further, I informed him that privacy is a nebulous concept that never once appears anywhere in the constitution and is implicitly based on a reading of several of the amendments in the Bill of Rights, including the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 9th, etc. I informed him that there exists vigourous debate in legal and academic circles on the subject of privacy rights, and that he should be more careful with his blanket statements.
His response was to ban me from the group, erase my comments so that he could publically have the last word on the matter, and send me taunting private messages (and then block me so I could not respond), calling me a " extreme literalist and neo-conservative nut case" to believe that the US constitution does not contain implicit privacy rights (which is not a view I actually even hold, I was simply pointing out that there was room for reasonable people to disagree on the subject).
The exchange unsettled me for a few hours, but I came to realize that extreme certainty in political discourse is never prudent, nor wise. To quote a Socratic phrase from memory: "True wisdom is knowing you know nothing." So much of politics has become a zero-sum game of winners and losers, and of parties and ideology. If one is to admit being incorrect, that is a symbol of weakness. Political leaders refuse to admit their mistakes, politicans follow the party line to the nose and talking heads saturate our airwaves. The blogosphere is too often rife with haughty arrogance, demeaning rhetoric and demagogic punditry. Compromise is at the heart of political life in any functioning republic or democracy, and with the death of mutual understanding and the ability to reach reasonable compromise comes the death of the democratic process.
This blog is an experiement. I will, of course, take a stand, often a strong one, and I will vigourously defend my ideas. However my opinions are malleable and my ideology is not fixed in stone. My positions will change over time, evolve and even reverse and contradict each other. Feel free to point out my contradictions, but understand this blog is also a personal learning experience, not simply a soapbox for my opinions.
I will run this blog as a fairly conventional short-form commentary blog, with links, comments, videos, opinions, etc. Longer form essays will be housed on a separate blog and will be cross-linked here as well. I invite you to contact me, email me, send me feedback or burn me in effigy, if you feel so inclined.
His response was to ban me from the group, erase my comments so that he could publically have the last word on the matter, and send me taunting private messages (and then block me so I could not respond), calling me a " extreme literalist and neo-conservative nut case" to believe that the US constitution does not contain implicit privacy rights (which is not a view I actually even hold, I was simply pointing out that there was room for reasonable people to disagree on the subject).
The exchange unsettled me for a few hours, but I came to realize that extreme certainty in political discourse is never prudent, nor wise. To quote a Socratic phrase from memory: "True wisdom is knowing you know nothing." So much of politics has become a zero-sum game of winners and losers, and of parties and ideology. If one is to admit being incorrect, that is a symbol of weakness. Political leaders refuse to admit their mistakes, politicans follow the party line to the nose and talking heads saturate our airwaves. The blogosphere is too often rife with haughty arrogance, demeaning rhetoric and demagogic punditry. Compromise is at the heart of political life in any functioning republic or democracy, and with the death of mutual understanding and the ability to reach reasonable compromise comes the death of the democratic process.
This blog is an experiement. I will, of course, take a stand, often a strong one, and I will vigourously defend my ideas. However my opinions are malleable and my ideology is not fixed in stone. My positions will change over time, evolve and even reverse and contradict each other. Feel free to point out my contradictions, but understand this blog is also a personal learning experience, not simply a soapbox for my opinions.
I will run this blog as a fairly conventional short-form commentary blog, with links, comments, videos, opinions, etc. Longer form essays will be housed on a separate blog and will be cross-linked here as well. I invite you to contact me, email me, send me feedback or burn me in effigy, if you feel so inclined.
