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12/15/2003 Entry: ""

Hi everyone, i'm Mike! I was introduced a little further down the page, accompanied by a description that reads 'he's made of the right stuff'. That's quite a compliment, considering i've never really contributed to one of these things before. You have my apologies if what I say turns out to be less than interesting.

I've been thinking for a while about what to write, this being my first entry. I first thought I should try to sound like I know my stuff, maybe do a bit of research and write an insightful essay. But then I thought, hey, why not just put fingers to keys and see what happens?

I've gone with the latter. Thing is, i'm kind of stuck now. I've written this much, and now I can't think of what I actually want to say. This happens a lot, doesn't it? Don't you find that often, the thing you really want to say never gets said; instead, you miss these opportunities to share with others what's on your mind, to both educate and to learn. I've just read Richard's post below about the materialism of our Christmas celebrations; i'm quite impressed. Personally, it's not a view that I hold, but I like the way in which he's gone ahead and said what's on his mind. I think we could all learn from such an attitude. Ok, at times it can be abusive and it can be harmful to say what we think, but we must put this into the right context. In my experience, the only instances when such an attitude has been harmful have been those where what is said is done so out of spite or anger. However, if we speak our mind when influenced by our true convictions (be they guided by our faith, our politics or our history), then the outcomes can be overwhelmingly positive. These things need to be said; opinions need to be challenged. With the world in such a state as it is, with global power-politics reaching a point of masked despotism, there is no better time for us to use our freedoms and say exactly what we want to say. So this gives the BNP the right to spread racist propaganda, it allows Kim Jong-il to parade himself as a saviour? Yes, but it also gives each and every one of us the ability and the power to stand up and counteract it; the problem is that we don't. We don't speak out when we should, and we don't stand up for our beliefs when we should.

This all sounds disappointingly pessimistic. I assure you, though, it's not. Things appear to be changing. If we look at our own situation, our country's political landscape is being torn apart by such expressions of belief. There's a lot of discontent. But I ask you, is this actually a bad thing? Will it lead to a divide, or will it turn full-circle and lead to a process of unification? Only through continuously questioning, and continuously expressing our views can we find an answer. It may be the beginning of something extremely positive, or it may lead to more division, more disruption and eventual chaos. Who knows? The thing is, because of such fears, we as a majority (a potentially influential majority at that), are continually withholding what we want to say. Desparingly, through fear of what may go wrong, we may miss entirely an opportunity to put things right. Can we justify that with our silence. I don't think so.

Posted by Bene Diction @ 12/15/2003 05:27 PM CST

How dare you get your comment in before mine, Wood?!

Posted by Richard @ 12/15/2003 04:14 PM CST

Nice one Mike -- welcome to the blog!

Posted by Richard @ 12/15/2003 04:14 PM CST

Hi, Mike, old fruit. Good to have you here. :)

Posted by Wood @ 12/15/2003 04:13 PM CST