the enemy as the 'other'

there are two kinds of characters in our story

Part whatever in a series...

a woman came up to me and said "I'd like to change your mind, with wrong ideas that appeal to you though I am not unkind"
They Might Be Giants

There is a quote about how your enemy is not the bad guy of the story is his or her own mind. We are a story telling creature. We love our lives as a narrative. We are each, in our minds, the hero or heroine of a special tale that takes us to be the center of the story. The center of the universe. And that exactly how the "villian" of our own story sees themselves. As the hero...

I have been involved in a discussion group about global warming the last few weeks. The people in it are pretty good about not demonizing people who think that climate change is just a load of shit. Not everyone is like that. It is easy to see those who disagree with as deluded, idiots, fools. But they are the Hero in their own story. And we are often the villian.

It is harder to see people like oil executives as not being the villian. That is why I keep thinking of the first line of the above song...

What is the villian in any story, except a potential hero that accepted an appealing, yet wrong, idea as truth? Doesn't even the hero sometimes accept mistaken beliefs that have an appeal at the time? So what is evil exactly? Is there any evil that cannot be explained this way?

But why should we accept such an explination. An explination that humanizes our "enemies" and leaves us all a mistake away from being "evil" ourselves.....

Those who battle monsters...

Blogging by phone

I actually have nothing to say, I just wondered if I could blog by iPhone. If this works, then the answer is yes.

That sounds like a "if you can read this" type of note.

"If you can read this I have been captured by two kids who claim to be mine. They are holding hostage and forcing me to pick them up from school!"

If you told me abouting blogging, and that one day I would post from a phone, way back 26 years ago when I first used a computer, what would I have thought......

blogging, i just don't do it

Look i know this is likely pretty obvious to the 3 people who might read it, what with the 3 month gap between posts and all, but i am struggling with this whole blogging idea.....

this is where the generation gap hits for me.

just writing that seems odd. i was the administrator to a computer network for about 6 years, i ran an irc network for several years. i have a laptop, 2 desktops, 2 iphones and 2 other ipods in the house. i have an AppleTV. i have built over 2 thousand computers myself, by hand, from the ground up. i remember using BBS. i used the first version of netscape. hell i paid for it! most people who would read a blog didn't even know there was a time browsers weren't free.....

but. i. just. don't. blog.

i have two blogs. but damn it it is a habit that i have just not been able to get into.

anyway, i bring all that up in order to post a single link.

this one.

that is the blog of my little brothers SO. and that post is about a car accident. my car accident.

....of which i sent pictures to her, so that she could blog it. cause i am just too damn lazy. i guess.

anyway, she does a nice job with it. and she saved me having to write it.

....so that i could instead write about how i don't ever write.

seriously, that is all you really need to know about me...