It’s Easier than Makinganeffort….

Something happened yesterday that motivated me to tap out this post. I wanted to do it right away, but yesterday was not a day to do that.

I wait no more.

My post yesterday (A Small Tradition), which is a re-post I put up every year, received a share from a blogger I will leave unnamed. His position on topics is not the motivation for this post. While I disagree with some, but not all, of his points, he seems to be an apt writer.

What has motivated this post is something I find particularly annoying.

My post was lumped into almost 100 posts which the Author is using to imply legitimacy to his point of view. (I read his post, which led me to throw this flag on the play, but not just at him.)

This approach of linking to anything and everything is what makes me angry… It’s an absurd, college freshman tactic, to appear educated and well read. (Some of us have been called onto the carpet for such behavior by a very specific Nun who was teaching a very specific English History 100 class.) That being said, I doubt this blogger has read more than one or two of the posts he linked to.

But he’s not trying to educate himself, he’s trying to shut down dissent. He doesn’t want to actually read the information he has linked to (read ‘cite’), he wants it to APPEAR he has read the 100+ posts and materials he has linked to.

I have a particular distaste for those who cite materials they haven’t read for two reasons… First, Someone has actually taken the time, and paid enough respect to the Author, to read that material. Second, on almost every circumstance the Elitist A-Hole citing said material fails to understand the Author’s point and thus makes the citation in a way that seems to bolster their point when in fact the Author, if alive, would probably have issued a cease and desist out of sheer anger.  (For the record, I have received a number of “certifications” provided by Individuals who quote Authors from Clausewitz to Jesus but had clearly not read the line before or the line after the citations they used to make their often insipidly incorrect points.  In other words, this foolishness extends beyond drunk monkeys posting their excrement because you’re all too far away to forcefully throw it in your direction.)

The practice is common, from the fools at Handgun Inc. writing completely bogus articles with no back-up what-so-ever, getting them published by their hack friends, and then “citing” those articles as fact 3-4 months later… to Ass Hats like this guy who does not want to genuinely think about what he is saying but wants you to think he thinks about what he’s saying.  He wants you to digest what his tapped pap with no critical thought.

Just Lap Up and then Shut Up.

In order for this Individual to appear informed and elevate himself above challenge, and suspicion, he links to everything that comes up on his preferred search engine employing nothing more than a few key strokes. This is supposed to pass for effort, research and understanding. It’s supposed to convey Depth and Intelligence.

It’s Hogwash.

But we are to blame.

We allow this to happen…
because we allow the tactic to work.

We allow this tactic to work…
because we also do not read anything, ever.

Believing these Charlatans…
Is Easier than Reading, Thinking and Understanding.

It’s Easier than makinganeffort.

Well, some of us do read.

Some of us do Listen Carefully.

Some of us promote Discourse and Challenge.

We should all strive to be those people.

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The Unbearable Meaness of Meaning

I’ve found when I ask for definitions to be applied to words, and meaning applied to assertions, that I’m “mean”.  At least that is the accusation.  And, I think I’m okay with it.

Apparently none of us, or at least not the majority, want to be held accountable for anything… ever.  It seems we wish to live in a world where everything means whatever we want it to, when we want it to.  I guess life is easier when it revolves around us and how we feel about it, not necessarily what it is.

Fine.  I’ve been known to indulge in a little “checking out” from time to time.  I have also spun bad situations into goods one even though I know they were still bad, but this is an epidemic.

This self-centered approach to everything permeates our society and we are seeing the results.  We demonstrate our unwillingness to deal with reality by exhibiting this type of behaviour.  We also protect ourselves from judgement by being purposefully vague.

We simply do not want to think about what we think.  (Intellectual laziness is… well… lazy.  And easy.)

Instead we want to have others praise us for the “achievement” of having an opinion.

We expect others to be so impressed by this accomplishment that we demand they overlook any deficit of substance which might elevate the opinion to being worthy of consideration.

Without fail the speaker will attempt to stop a search for meaning with one of the following:

“Who are you to judge?” (Response: Who would you prefer?)  “That’s just my opinion.” (Response: Yes… it is just an opinion.)  “We’ll have to agree to disagree.” (Response: I think we should agree to agree to disagree, then agree then not. To Infinity… na, na, na.  This one is so childish is hurts.  You can recognize your difference in opinion, but agreeing to it is a completely different position.  “I think Ax murdering your family is bad.” – “Well I think we should just agree to disagree.” Hmmm…)

All I have ever asked is that each of us, as individuals, Make an Effort to understand why we think what we think.  This effort should be ongoing throughout our life.

This blog has never been about agreement, conversion or solving the worlds problems… it has been about meaning.  What are we, our leaders and those we elevate to positions of authority actually saying… if anything.

So… I’m mean. I’m very, very mean.  If that’s the definition, then I will be proudly mean in all things.

To me, an opinion should resemble a Fine Bourbon.  It is the difference between meaning and meanness.

A Fine Bourbon does not appear before us because we wish it so. It is born of education, consideration, reason, rational, trial and error, all repeatedly applied to the fine materials nature provides.  Without context it is harsh and burns the novice mouth, very mean indeed.  Appreciation comes with experience and knowledge.  With meaning, leading to understanding, it becomes a demonstration of conceptual brilliance.  (And, it makes everyone around you more tolerable.)