Fearless Philosophy Blogpost of the Month (September 2005)
September naturally brought out a lot of introspection among bloggers who are concerned about the state of America four years after the cowardly attacks of 9/11. The three posts I selected this month deals with these issues in one way or another. On to the results…
Third Place goes to David Earney of dave’s not here with his post: Losing My Libertarian Heart. David is more than a little disenchanted with the Libertarian Party’s all-or-nothing approach as an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans.
David writes:
These are the very issues that frustrate me as well with regard to the Libertarian Party. I do not think anyone really likes war per se, but I do think our freedoms are worth fighting for whether the fight is foreign or domestic.
David continues:
Second Place goes to Dan Melson of Searchlight Crusade with his post: Petroleum and Energy. Earlier this month I wrote a post on the same topic but I must say, Dan did a much better job of explaining the ins and outs of the energy industry and its impact on all of us. Dan’s post goes well beyond the high prices at the pump; our dependence on viable energy sources impacts our economy, our health, our lifestyles, and ultimately our freedom. This post is something of a cautionary tale of what will happen to America and the world economy if we continue down the current path. Some of his apocalyptic conclusions may seem to go a little too far down the slippery slope, however; each of these conclusions should be considered carefully. The effort put into this post really comes through in his attention to detail and apparent independent study the author put into it.
And the winner is…
The Fearless Philosophy Blogpost of the Month of September goes to Bill Whittle of Eject! Eject! Eject! with his post titled: Tribes. This post received a stunning 650 comments before its author had to turn the comments off. I ran across several other blogs which lifted excerpts from this post or otherwise encouraged readers to give it a look. Once I got through the first couple of paragraphs, I understood why.
Tribes is part rant, part politics, and general observations of humanity. Whittle categorizes people as either pink or grey. Pink individuals are lead more by their emotions while grey individuals are lead by logic. My only major criticism of this post is this either/or fallacy the author commits here. I find it a little too simplistic to separate individuals into 2 categories whether its pink/grey, black/ white, or conservative/liberal. Most people have a combination of pink and grey qualities. This criticism aside, Whittle does an excellent job of describing the human condition using examples from the news and how it is reported, past and present political figures, and historical events which have revealed human nature and exposing the tribes of which he speaks of .
Tribes is the kind of post that I wish I could have written. There were times I had to restrain myself from standing up and applauding this very daring and very honest post. I must caution; there is some coarse language and may not be suitable for younger readers.
Congratulations to this month’s winners!
Third Place goes to David Earney of dave’s not here with his post: Losing My Libertarian Heart. David is more than a little disenchanted with the Libertarian Party’s all-or-nothing approach as an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans.
David writes:
Though I haven't posted much about it here in the past year, I've been waging an internal struggle with my own feelings about my politics. I've been losing heart about the Libertarian Party the longer I remain in Iraq. I haven't paid Party dues in two years. I haven't agreed with much of what they have had to say on their website (or in Party meetings) since the start of the War on Terror. While my Party is vehemently anti-war, I am vehemently hawkish about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
These are the very issues that frustrate me as well with regard to the Libertarian Party. I do not think anyone really likes war per se, but I do think our freedoms are worth fighting for whether the fight is foreign or domestic.
David continues:
Lately my readings in the pages of the Cato Institute have brought me to think that there is a more pragmatic approach to libertarianism, so I began looking around to see if there were former LP members like myself out there - LP’ers who had lost faith in the Party because of the all or nothing approach that the Party has taken.David, I think you have come to the right place and will find yourself quite comfortable within the Life, Liberty, and Property community. We are a diverse group but we agree on most of the fundamentals which founded this great country. Welcome home!
Second Place goes to Dan Melson of Searchlight Crusade with his post: Petroleum and Energy. Earlier this month I wrote a post on the same topic but I must say, Dan did a much better job of explaining the ins and outs of the energy industry and its impact on all of us. Dan’s post goes well beyond the high prices at the pump; our dependence on viable energy sources impacts our economy, our health, our lifestyles, and ultimately our freedom. This post is something of a cautionary tale of what will happen to America and the world economy if we continue down the current path. Some of his apocalyptic conclusions may seem to go a little too far down the slippery slope, however; each of these conclusions should be considered carefully. The effort put into this post really comes through in his attention to detail and apparent independent study the author put into it.
And the winner is…
The Fearless Philosophy Blogpost of the Month of September goes to Bill Whittle of Eject! Eject! Eject! with his post titled: Tribes. This post received a stunning 650 comments before its author had to turn the comments off. I ran across several other blogs which lifted excerpts from this post or otherwise encouraged readers to give it a look. Once I got through the first couple of paragraphs, I understood why.
Tribes is part rant, part politics, and general observations of humanity. Whittle categorizes people as either pink or grey. Pink individuals are lead more by their emotions while grey individuals are lead by logic. My only major criticism of this post is this either/or fallacy the author commits here. I find it a little too simplistic to separate individuals into 2 categories whether its pink/grey, black/ white, or conservative/liberal. Most people have a combination of pink and grey qualities. This criticism aside, Whittle does an excellent job of describing the human condition using examples from the news and how it is reported, past and present political figures, and historical events which have revealed human nature and exposing the tribes of which he speaks of .
Tribes is the kind of post that I wish I could have written. There were times I had to restrain myself from standing up and applauding this very daring and very honest post. I must caution; there is some coarse language and may not be suitable for younger readers.
Congratulations to this month’s winners!
posted by Stephen Littau at 1:09 PM
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