tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24016981149520798422024-02-20T16:53:51.419-05:00the counter-revolutionthe blog about life, thought and other nonsense in our strange societyMehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02298999696654588390noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2401698114952079842.post-71106901645185003932008-08-28T11:06:00.001-04:002008-08-28T12:32:02.372-04:00Why is this here?Because there are so many blogs, a few of them by much more talented writers, you will come across this piece and wonder - "why am I reading it?" Maybe you've had nothing to do on your lunch break, and I put a disguised link to this site in a popular Wiki article. Or maybe Google malfunctioned and you actually FOUND this blog. But I hope that you are reading it for an unconventional perspective on the world.<br /><br />The title of this blog indicates its general direction. I refuse to believe in the principles we, the <span style="font-style: italic;">global</span> society believe in, make our slogans with and so forth. The difficulty in translating this notion to others is that, when I say "I do not believe in democracy" or "I do not believe in progressive taxation," I am liable to be labeled a neanderthal by some (on the first count) and a supporter, without my own consent, by others (on the second count). The key word is the verb "to believe."<br /><br />Nobody looks in his wallet, sees a buck and says, in a serious tone, "I <span style="font-style: italic;">believe</span> I have a dollar" in the same sense a certain Woodrow Wilson meant that he <span style="font-style: italic;">believed</span> in national self-determination. <span style="font-style: italic;">Believing</span> in anything other than a fact is pathological. I say pathological but I do not mean to say that it should be condemned. It should be <span style="font-style: italic;">examined</span>. It is noteworthy that believing in some "non-facts" carries social stigma - belief in little green men from Mars, for example - even though people who believe in those "non-facts" can produce no more or less sane reasons for their beliefs than those who <span style="font-style: italic;">believe</span> in God, democracy or Senator Obama. One serious <span style="font-style: italic;">belief</span> we still hold dear is that in God, but curiously we learned to regularly put it on trial thousands of years ago, unlike our <span style="font-style: italic;">beliefs</span> in egalitarianism, democracy and progress.<br /><br />I like putting those <span style="font-style: italic;">other beliefs</span> on trial. Not that I am above putting God on trial while I am at it, but it was most intelligent people's pastime for the last two thousand years!Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02298999696654588390noreply@blogger.com0