Commentary on commentary

I visit a few blogs each day, some more than others, but not all that I would like to. One of the blogs I visit is fascinating for a number of reasons but primarily because of the other visitors who not only drop by to read but to participate. Currently, one post on that blog has generated over 110 comments. This is amazing!

The post discussed a blogger for a magazine's web site whose most recent post was removed by the magazine. The comments ran from issues of censorship, to discussions of the meaning of certain words, to the validity of the research involved, to differences in how certain concepts are viewed by different cultures. Lively discussions with wonderfully educated and articulate people all intertwined.

Some of the subjects discussed are:

censorship by self and by non-government entities
the role of government
the concept of beauty
the concept of attractiveness
the individual vs the state
statistical analysis
racism (or the perception of it)
the offending of others as a tool for garnering attention

The really fascinating thing about this particular blog is that the comments never seem to dissolve into argument and invective.

I am an uneducated man. I dabbled in a few semesters of junior college after I got out of the Navy. I graduated from a non-accredited high school (our classrooms had only two walls each... I need to write a post about that school and how I came to be in it). But I like to learn. I like to read and listen to the educated delving into almost any subject. I love to eavesdrop on these conversations. I often cannot resist getting involved in them because, even though I lack formal knowledge of the subjects, I often have strong opinions about them.

It is one way I learn. I offer an opinion, it gets challenged (or sometimes refuted) and I must then find supporting data. Many times I find that my opinion is poorly supported or is entirely without merit. Sometimes I find solid support for my position. In each case, I learn something.

The anonymous "they" say "there is no such thing as a stupid question." That's untrue, of course, there are many, many stupid questions that can be asked. I have asked countless numbers of them myself. A stupid question is one whose answer is obvious in its form. That is, if you can form the question you can answer it yourself. But all questions, even stupid ones, can provide opportunities to learn. That's why I don't mind asking them from time to time.

I have mentioned before that we bloggers pretty much live for comments. They tell us we are being read, that we are evoking thought, that we have touched you, the reader. When you see a blog that gets a lot of comments for its posts, you know the posts of the blogger will be entertaining or informative or, most likely, both.

I bow, humbly, before those bloggers.