Why I Write A Blog

I remember one time, one early evening, I happened to be looking at my deck when a big longhorn beetle landed and rolled on its back. I set it right, but it immediately unset itself. Lying there, walking to nowhere, it was as if whatever tiny soul it had was reliving the thing that made it feel most free. An hour later, its legs were now moving in slow motion. Death was close. I went away for a while, and when I came back, the first ants had appeared. Scavenger bitches! It wasn’t dead yet!¹ Half an hour later (or so), I checked again and there was a swarm of ants trying to move the corpse. When I went to bed they were still working. The next morning there was nothing there.

A writer should have a question that has stalked him like Death his whole life.

Mine is something about decay. It’s something about the brutality of time. I can't define it exactly. I’m fascinated by ruination. It’s beautiful, but something to fight as well.

We are living in a time of great decay. I know it’s easy for every man past forty to think this. The objective evidence is there nonetheless.

It’s not all doom and gloom. The cycle of Being means great decay is already producing something new and vibrant. We can see signs all around us. I like to focus on those too.

I have a strong opinion on the best way forward. Not that other ways aren’t worth trying too. It’s just that we face an adversary of overwhelming power. There are a lot of people getting richer as the system gets sicker. It's not in their interest to change. They've been taught to see change as an existential risk. They don't know that eventually the system will bring them down with it. I'll write more about who 'they' are in other posts. The point here is that one needs to be careful not to scatter one's attention on things of meagre help.

It’s also a fatal mistake to focus too much on one’s adversary. We need positive energy. “If you want to change the world, throw a better party.”² The title of this blog, Silent Running, alludes to a type of parallel rebellion, running under the radar. Always criticizing the adversary ends up like trying to reinvent the wheel. One defines oneself by how one is different from the adversary. Every new era is a hybrid. I don’t think the system will go down like the Hindenburg. I mean, the new system always draws in more aspects of the old system than the revolutionaries expect. The Roman Empire died, but nine hundred million people today speak a version of the Romans' language.

That's the broadest overview of why I write.