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This is a post some of the authors here may not particularly like, but hopefully someone will get the point.
Let me get right to the point: I want to read about what you are thinking more than what you could be thinking about. I feel many of the writers here are making some effort to write fancy and cool editorial-like articles, which I can appreciate the elegance of. But then, I cannot convince myself that someone goes to bed thinking about the ever challenging issue of changing culture via the culture of change or likewise my other buddy is truly obsessed with topics such as science as religion. Such posts seem just so made-up to me.
In principle it is none of my business to tell others what to write about, but they might care about what I—and perhaps a few more—most want to read.
I can't make sense out of debate for the sake of debate when more tangible and perceptible issues of our own lives are left unspoken of.
Give me the chance to read about your concerns.
There are several weblogs, where people write about what comes to their mind, and maybe passes as quick as comes!
I think this weblog is named Free Thoughts on Iran, and supposedly, is being written by some graduate students; so it should be a little different from what other Iranian weblogs may do.
But overall, I think you may have a point about writting about our concerns, which I think most of us do, rather than trying to write nice articles.
It is funny because I was thinking exactly the same thing couple of days ago! I agree that we have to discuss more important stuff than just a casual chit chat, but some of these articles seem to me to be way beyond our current life and concerns, they are very theoretical. I guess it is a psychological thing that if you want to make an impression you try to be as philosophical and vague as possible. Having said this, I should also thank all the people who prepare the articles. They put a lot of time and I'm amazed at the level of their english (compared to mine :-)) even though some times I feel big words are used just to make the article nice and not necessarily comprehensible.
Dude, nice photo.
Interesting point Iman. I think it is a very good idea to write more about what we care about, challenges we face, and experiences that distinguish us from others. In fact, these are were we have a value added in our writings, for outside readers, otherwise, all our philosophical and political discussions are covered more rigorously elsewhere.
However, I want not to undermine many aspects of this weblog, which the more theoretical articles contribute to. First, I second Borghan's point :) Scond, I challenge your assumption about level of interest and involvement of some of the authors here in the theoritical discussions; I think these are important and engaging questions, at least for some of us. Third, I think it is not only the output of the article that matters, but the discussion and interaction that follows any article, as well as the process each author goes through for articulating her thoughts into a coherent article, are very important and valuable outcomes of more theoritical posts.
Having said all this, I again emphasize that your point is interesting and valid to a good extent, so I invite you to write more about what you personally care about and experience. Indeed, some of the posts so far have been aligned with this approach (on halal meat, and on Separation).
Well, I guess one has to acknowledge the fact that different people, with different backgrounds, different abilities, and at different stages of their lives, tend to have --not surprisingly-- different concerns, even if they're all Iranian. Nobody can claim that the author of so-and-so article just has meant to impress us by his English. How am *I* supposed to know?!
I wish Iman had pointed out, even minimally, to what "should" be our concerns or what he wants to read about and therefore what the writers should be writing about instead. Alas, he doesn't even give a hint. This is, in my humble opinion, telling of a mild form of intolerance, aimed at *controlling* what people should talk and think about. You are free to read or not read an article, as you have been free to post your article (nice photo, indeed!) and of course I am free to criticize it. *Free* Thoughts, get it? :-)
As it has been my habit in my postings so far, I would like to bring up an *almost* irrelevant issue here, which is triggered by articles such as Changing the Culture. I have not been able to write on this in an articulate manner, but allow me to give it a shot anyway, as incomprehensible as the result may appear to you.
See, there are two approaches to all issues in our life. Some people are more than ready to accept the world as it is and play by the rules to get what they want (Mr. Curious's comment for Hossein's most recent article comes to mind), and there are others who want to change the rules of the game, either for their own selfish benefit, or as the cliche goes, to truly make the world (or at least their country) a better place. When I hear things like "Iranian are such and such" or "Things are like this in Iran", I know the person uttering these words most likely belong to the former category. It doesn't occur to such a person that things can be changed, and, more often than not, they should be changed.
Since you mentioned Babak's latest article in particular, I would like to say that the author (among many other authors here) seem to me to belong to the latter category. (Of course, every one of us has both of those attitudes to some extent. If we stubbornly refuse to play by the rules of the game altogether, then we won't be given a chance to change them later either.) Any way, you can rest assured, Iman, that there are people among us who think day and night about such issues.
I suspect many have similar work/ study/ sex fantasy/ thoughts much of the time. And also frequent ideas on how to change the world and make it better -- or how it should be better.
I remember a night with my wife, after the kids were in bed. We watched an Emergency episode on TV, talked about it, talked about other things. Cleaned up, went to bed. Kissed, hugged, made love - a very nice benefit of marriage. Relaxed. Felt good together, being together.
Then I began to think about Kick AAS (All Agriculture Subsidies), and how free trade in agriculture is so needed by the starving poor of the world. And opposed by the EU, USA, and Japan.
There had been a request for ideas on what the less developed countries could do, or threaten. Somebody suggested debt repayment. I suggested non-enforcement of intellectual property rights.
etc. ...
My point here is that so many of us have so many thoughts. You can see my blog (tomgrey.bloggedup.com) for some of my less personal thoughts. Personal journals are also interesting, but different.
I like both -- too much more than work!
In an effort to diminish the multiple and persistent
dangers and abuses which have characterized the affairs
of man in his every Age, and to assist in the requisite
search for human identity, it is essential to perceive
and specify that distinction which naturally and most
uniquely defines the human being. Because definitions
rule in the minds, behaviors, and institutions of men,
we can be confident that delineating and communicating
that quality will assist the process of resolution and
the courageous ascension to which man is called. As
Americans of the 21st Century, we are obliged and privi-
leged to join our forebears and participate in this
continuing proclamation.
"WHAT IS MAN...?" God asks - and answers:
EARTH'S CHOICEMAKER
by JAMES FLETCHER BAXTER (c) 2003
Many problems in human experience are the result of false
and inaccurate definitions of humankind premised in man-
made religions and humanistic philosophies.
Human knowledge is a fraction of the whole universe. The
balance is a vast void of human ignorance. Human reason
cannot fully function in such a void, thus, the intellect
can rise no higher than the criteria by which it perceives
and measures values.
Humanism makes man his own standard of measure. However,
as with all measuring systems, a standard must be greater
than the value measured. Based on preponderant ignorance
and an egocentric carnal nature, humanism demotes reason
to the simpleton task of excuse-making in behalf of the
rule of appetites, desires, feelings, emotions, and glands.
Because man, hobbled in an ego-centric predicament, cannot
invent criteria greater than himself, the humanist lacks
a predictive capability. Without instinct or transcendent
criteria, humanism cannot evaluate options with foresight
and vision for progression and survival. Lacking foresight,
man is blind to potential consequence and is unwittingly
committed to mediocrity, averages, and regression - and
worse. Humanism is an unworthy worship.
The void of human ignorance can easily be filled with a
functional faith while not-so-patiently awaiting the foot-
dragging growth of human knowledge and behavior. Faith,
initiated by the Creator and revealed and validated in His
Word, the Bible, brings a transcendent standard to man the
choice-maker. Other philosophies and religions are man-
made, humanism, and thereby lack what only the Bible has:
1.Transcendent Criteria and
2.Fulfilled Prophetic Validation.
The vision of faith in God and His Word is survival equip-
ment for today and the future.
Man is earth's Choicemaker. Psalm 25:12 He is by nature
and nature's God a creature of Choice - and of Criteria.
Psalm 119:30,173 His unique and definitive characteristic
is, and of Right ought to be, the natural foundation of
his environments, institutions, and respectful relations
to his fellow-man. Thus, he is oriented to a Freedom
whose roots are in the Order of the universe.
At the sub-atomic level of the physical universe quantum
physics indicates a multifarious gap or division in the
causal chain; particles to which position cannot be
assigned at all times, systems that pass from one energy
state to another without manifestation in intermediate
states, entities without mass, fields whose substance is
as insubstantial as "a probability."
Only statistical conglomerates pay tribute to
deterministic forces. Singularities do not and are
therefore random, unpredictable, mutant, and in this
sense, uncaused. The finest contribution inanimate
reality is capable of making toward choice, without its
own selective agencies, is this continuing manifestation
of opportunity as the pre-condition to choice it defers
to the natural action of living forms.
Biological science affirms that each level of life,
single-cell to man himself, possesses attributes of
sensitivity, discrimination, and selectivity, and in
the exclusive and unique nature of each diversified
life form.
The survival and progression of life forms has all too
often been totally dependent upon the ever-present
mutative potential and undeterminative appearance of one
unique individual organism within the whole spectrum of
a given species. Only the uniquely equipped individual
organism is, like The Golden Wedge of Ophir, capable of
traversing the causal gap to survival and progression.
Mere reproductive determinacy would have rendered life
forms incapable of such potential. Only a moving
universe of opportunity plus choice enables the present
reality.
Each individual human being possesses a unique, highly
developed, and sensitive perception of diversity. Thus
aware, man is endowed with a natural capability for enact-
ing internal mental and external physical selectivity.
Quantitative and qualitative choice-making thus lends
itself as the superior basis of an active intelligence.
Man is earth's Choicemaker. His title describes his
definitive and typifying characteristic. Recall that his
other features are but vehicles of experience intent on
the development of perceptive awareness and the
following acts of decision. Note that the products of
man cannot define him for they are the fruit of the
discerning choice-making process and include the
cognition of self, the utility of experience, the
development of value-measuring systems and language,
and the acculturation of civilization.
The arts and the sciences of man, as with his habits,
customs, and traditions, are the creative harvest of
his perceptive and selective powers. Creativity is a
choice-making process. His articles, constructs, and
commodities, however marvelous to behold, deserve
neither awe nor idolatry, for man, not his contrivance,
is earth's own highest expression of the creative process.
Man is earth's Choicemaker. The sublime and significant
act of choosing is, itself, the Archimedean fulcrum upon
which man levers and redirects the forces of cause and
effect to an elected level of quality and diversity.
Further, it orients him toward a natural environmental
opportunity, freedom, and bestows earth's title, The
Choicemaker, on his singular and plural brow.
Deterministic systems, ideological symbols of abdication
by man from his natural role as earth's Choicemaker,
inevitably degenerate into collectivism; the negation of
singularity, they become a conglomerate plural-based
system of measuring human value. Blunting an awareness
of diversity, blurring alternatives, and limiting the
selective creative process, they are self-relegated to
a passive and circular regression.
Tampering with man's selective nature endangers his
survival for it would render him impotent and obsolete
by denying the tools of diversity, individuality,
perception, criteria, selectivity, and progress.
Coercive attempts produce revulsion, for such acts are
contrary to an indeterminate nature and nature's
indeterminate off-spring, man the Choicemaker.
Until the oppressors discover that wisdom only just
begins with a respectful acknowledgment of The Creator,
The Creation, and The Choicemaker, they will be ever
learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth.
The rejection of Creator-initiated standards relegates
the mind of man to its own primitive, empirical, and
delimited devices. It is thus that the human intellect
cannot ascend and function at any level higher than the
criteria by which it perceives and measures values.
Additionally, such rejection of transcendent criteria
self-denies man the vision and foresight essential to
decision-making for survival and progression. He is left,
instead, with the redundant wreckage of expensive hind-
sight, including human institutions characterized by
averages, mediocrity, and regression.
Humanism, mired in the circular and mundane egocentric
predicament, is ill-equipped to produce transcendent
criteria. Evidenced by those who do not perceive
superiority and thus find themselves beset by the shifting
winds of the carnal-ego; i.e., moods, feelings, desires,
appetites, etc., the mind becomes subordinate: a mere
device for excuse-making and rationalizing self-justifica-
tion.
The carnal-ego rejects criteria and self-discipline for such
instruments are tools of the mind and the attitude. The
appetites of the flesh have no need of standards for at the
point of contention standards are perceived as alien, re-
strictive, and inhibiting. Yet, the very survival of our
physical nature itself depends upon a maintained sover-
eignty of the mind and of the spirit.
It remained, therefore, to the initiative of a personal
and living Creator to traverse the human horizon and
fill the vast void of human ignorance with an intelli-
gent and definitive faith. Man is thus afforded the
prime tool of the intellect - a Transcendent Standard
by which he may measure values in experience, anticipate
results, and make enlightened and visionary choices.
Only the unique and superior God-man Person can deserved-
ly displace the ego-person from his predicament and free
the individual to measure values and choose in a more
excellent way. That sublime Person was indicated in the
words of the prophet Amos, "...said the Lord, Behold,
I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel."
Y'shua Mashiyach Jesus said, "If I be lifted up I will
draw all men unto myself."
As long as some choose to abdicate their personal reality
and submit to the delusions of humanism, determinism, and
collectivism, just so long will they be subject and re-
acting only, to be tossed by every impulse emanating from
others. Those who abdicate such reality may, in perfect
justice, find themselves weighed in the balances of their
own choosing.
That human institution which is structured on the
principle, "...all men are endowed by their Creator with
...Liberty...," is a system with its roots in the natural
Order of the universe. The opponents of such a system are
necessarily engaged in a losing contest with nature and
nature's God. Biblical principles are still today the
foundation under Western Civilization and the American
way of life. To the advent of a new season we commend the
present generation and the "multitudes in the valley of
decision."
Let us proclaim it. Behold!
The Season of Generation-Choicemaker Joel 3:14 KJV
CONTEMPORARY COMMENTS
"I should think that if there is one thing that man has
learned about himself it is that he is a creature of
choice." Richard M. Weaver
"Man is a being capable of subduing his emotions and
impulses; he can rationalize his behavior. He arranges
his wishes into a scale, he chooses; in short, he acts.
What distinguishes man from beasts is precisely that he
adjusts his behavior deliberately." Ludwig von Mises
"To make any sense of the idea of morality, it must be
presumed that the human being is responsible for his
actions and responsibility cannot be understood apart
from the presumption of freedom of choice."
John Chamberlain
"The advocate of liberty believes that it is complementary
of the orderly laws of cause and effect, of probability
and of chance, of which man is not completely informed.
It is complementary of them because it rests in part upon
the faith that each individual is endowed by his Creator
with the power of individual choice."
Wendell J. Brown
"Our Founding Fathers believed that we live in an ordered
universe. They believed themselves to be a part of the
universal order of things. Stated another way, they
believed in God. They believed that every man must find
his own place in a world where a place has been made for
him. They sought independence for their nation but, more
importantly, they sought freedom for individuals to think
and act for themselves. They established a republic
dedicated to one purpose above all others - the preserva-
tion of individual liberty..." Ralph W. Husted
"We have the gift of an inner liberty so far-reaching
that we can choose either to accept or reject the God
who gave it to us, and it would seem to follow that the
Author of a liberty so radical wills that we should be
equally free in our relationships with other men.
Spiritual liberty logically demands conditions of outer
and social freedom for its completion." Edmund A. Opitz
"Above all I see an ability to choose the better from the
worse that has made possible life's progress."
Charles Lindbergh
"Freedom is the Right to Choose, the Right to create for
oneself the alternatives of Choice. Without the possibil-
ity of Choice, and the exercise of Choice, a man is not
a man but a member, an instrument, a thing."
Thomas Jefferson
THE QUESTION AND THE ANSWER
Q: "What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son
of man that You visit him?" Psalm 8:4
A: "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against
you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing
and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and
your descendants may live." Deuteronomy 30:19
Q: "Lord, what is man, that You take knowledge of him?
Or the son of man, that you are mindful of him?" Psalm
144:3
A: "And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose
for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the
gods which your fathers served that were on the other
side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose
land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15
Q: "What is man, that he could be pure? And he who is
born of a woman, that he could be righteous?" Job 15:14
A: "Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall He
teach in the way he chooses." Psalm 25:12
Q: "What is man, that You should magnify him, that You
should set Your heart on him?" Job 7:17
A: "Do not envy the oppressor and choose none of his
ways." Proverbs 3:31
Q: "What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son
of man that You take care of him?" Hebrews 2:6
A: "I have chosen the way of truth; your judgments I have
laid before me." Psalm 119:30 "Let Your hand become my
help, for I have chosen Your precepts." Psalm 119:173
References:
Genesis 3:3,6 Deuteronomy 11:26-28; 30:19 Job 5:23
Isaiah 7:14-15; 13:12; 61:1 Amos 7:8 Joel 3:14
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 Psalm 119:1-176
DEDICATION
Sir Isaac Newton
The greatest scientist in human history
a Bible-Believing Christian
an authority on the Bible's Book of Daniel
committed to individual value
and individual liberty
Daniel 9:25-26 Habakkuk 2:2-3 KJV selah
"What is man...?" Earth's Choicemaker JOEL 3:14 KJV
http://www.geocities.com/James-Baxter/
Choice.maker@verizon.net
+ + +
["Well, I read it;" you might say, "now let's close it!"]'Facts are stupid things."
~Ronald Reagan