About…

About the blog 

Democratic Discourse

First of all, let me start off by saying that I support the notion of democratic free speech, almost to the point of being an absolute. I’m not by any stroke of the imagination a proponent of political correctness (in its broadest form.) Conversely, I’m not one of those “political correctness” whingers. Sure, “racist”, “sexist” and “homophobe” are terms that have been used to shut down debate, but one should also consider just how much the term “political correctness” has been used to shut-down debate as well.

It would not surprise me at all if the catch cry of “political correctness” was the most pervasive form of political correctness in Australia today. Anecdotally, it has been in my experience.

Furthermore, by democratic free speech, I hold true the notion that a democracy requires sound information to operate and that people should not be bullied out of expressing a view point. I don’t believe however that other people are obliged to listen.

Therefore, this blog operates under the premise that malicious rhetoric and disinformation, as well has electronic harassment are means of oppressing democratic free speech, not acts of democratic speech themselves. Democratic free speech, as opposed to careless free speech, is honest, fair and supported by (or deferred to from) reason.

Humor

I have a rather perverse sense of humor. There is no getting around this.

The face in the top right hand corner of this blog is that of a bust of Plato. I have a great deal of respect for the ancient Greeks and while I would like to say that my inclusion of Plato’s visage is inspired by the likes of Stephen Jay Gould’s ‘Life’s Grandeur‘, it was actually inspired by conservative philosopher David Stove’s (I think rather vacuous) polemic ‘The Plato Cult and Other Philosophical Follies‘.

Amongst fallacious appeals to consequences (claiming Popper neutralised “success words”) and invalid ad-hominems (Popper is “jazz”), Stove spewed out an ill-considered rant against Popper (whom I find influential) and his Plato Cult. Stove’s later (fallacious) work forms the basis of some of the sillier conservative culture war philosophy in Australia, including an error ridden hack job at epistemology and the science of history written by Keith Windschuttle.

So it is with a little bit of cheek and a private joke that I display Plato on my blog. I’m not ashamed of where I stand nor threatened by such sophistry as poor old Plato is subjected to.

You may notice a “Pompous ?” category on the sidebar of my blog. Consider it to also cover “Pedant ?”, “Bully ?” and “Hubris ?”. I’ve been accused of all of these and all under the most silly of circumstances; I’ve pointed out errors in reasoning and asked for some serious claims to be substantiated. According to one Malott, that makes me a pedantic bully.

To be honest, I reckon I’ve remained within the bounds of civility through it all, but it’s getting hard with the laughter building up inside me. I used to be amazed when sophists I’ve debated pulled out the obviously fallacious ad-hominems; after shooting his arguments down, I had one in the offline world try to tell me (and all in hearing distance) that I hadn’t even graduated from high school in ‘93 (when everyone in earshot including myself knew I had.) Admittedly he was as drunk as a skunk (even swinging his bottle at me), but even then…

Why do they try so hard to convince you of some ad-hominem when firstly they need to lie to substantiate and secondly, you know that it’s bull? At first I was confused about this, but now I realise that they do it for two reasons; one - they are abusive gooses and two - they aren’t bright enough to realise that I’m not on the ropes. Kind of obvious really, but I must admit I have had the flaw of over-estimating people in the past.

So basically, when I post under the “Pompous ?” category, there is at least some part of me that is laughing at someone making a fool of themselves with the delusion that it’s at my expense. The thing is though, these clowns often mistake it for defensiveness and amp things up! So here I am trying to keep my laughter private while trapped in a positive feedback loop of comedy!

Well not anymore. I’m coming out and admitting my humor is twisted. Somehow I don’t think this admission is going to stop the feedback loop of kaking myself. I’ll just have to laugh publicly from now on.

Inclusivity

For those who haven’t realised yet, I’m a student teacher. Now it’s not just the afore mentioned Malott who has tried to infer that I bully students from his interactions with me. This is of course crap.

Even if I was a bully, which I’m not (having a bit of fun pulling apart the rhetoric of net-thugs isn’t bullying), it doesn’t follow that I would treat students like this. Why? Quite simply I am a part of the teaching profession. Now as a professional, you have to give me a pretty good reason to fork out my labour for free. As this is not my class room, nor are you paying me, no such arrangement exists.

It’s not that I don’t want people to go away from my blog not learning something, it’s just that it’s not a high-school classroom. I’m going to expect you to act like a mature adult, and by mature, I mean mature as in the Kantian sense of enlightenment;

“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! “Have courage to use your own understanding!”– that is the motto of enlightenment.”

(Immanuel Kant)

Incidentally, David Stove had a bunch of vacuous insults for Kant as well.

If excluding people by not listening to a heap of immature, vapid rhetoric that stifles free, honest and reasoned debate makes me an elitist, then call me an elitist. I won’t apologise. The Fascists in Germany prior to WWII made the same complaints about the “elitists” as well and I wouldn’t equate their breed of anti-elitism with democracy.

What it all means

If you are like me and have participated in on-line debate for any extended period of time, some of the stupidity that goes on can be quite tiresome. From simple unending barrages of empty rhetoric, to having on-line persons try spy upon aspects of your private life (it’s happened to me), one may find themselves wanting an oasis of sensibility.

That’s what my blog is about; Informed, reasoned and free debate; free from the impostures of unreason. With a sprinkle of tongue-in-cheek of course. I wouldn’t want to bore you to death.

Now some, usually the malicious, but not necessarily may erroniously equate this with group think. Crap. Group think is all about hiding people from contrary opinion; varying conclusions drawn from premises. I don’t filter people based on their conclusions.

I filter people out for abusive behaviour and for malicious stifling of debate with copious invalid arguments. I don’t care what their conclusions are (in as far as exclusion is concerned.)

Abuse someone via my blog, expect to be excluded. Spam the comments with red herrings and disinformation, expect to be excluded. Make extraordinary claims, expect to called on for extraordinary evidence (thanks Carl Sagan).

But most of all; looking for a civil (albeit somewhat cheeky) and safe place to engage your brain in debate? Expect to be welcomed!

About the author

Consider this a work in progress… I’m not sure what exactly I want to do with this page; consider it equivalent to a blogger profile or something.

Name: Bruce Everett
Age: Thirtysomething
Occupation: Full-Time Carer
Studies: Currently studying part-time and about 13/16ths of the way through a BSc/BEd (Secondary) double degree, previously studied half-way through a BEd (Junior Primary, Primary).

• Science Major: Environmental Studies (1 subject to go and not nearly as “humanities” as it sounds)
• Science Minor: Computer Science (complete)
• Science Electives: Computer and Internet Technology, Biology, Coastal Environments, Earth and Space (enrolled)
• Education Major: Science and Mathematics Education (complete)
• Education Minor: SOSE (complete)
• I’ve also got a minor in children’s literature from prior studies.

Interests

Philosophy: Epistemology, philosophy of science and philosphy of education, enlightenment philosophy, utilitarian ethics and issues of church and state.

Scientific interest: Astronomy, ecology, biology

Political: Progressive social-liberal member of the ALP.

Blah, blah, blah, I’ll finish this another time…