Quote of the Week...from Zbigniew Brzezinski

Anniversaries are like birthdays: occasions to celebrate and think ahead, usually among friends with whom one shares not only the past but the future.                        ---Zbigniew Brzezinski

Why am I publishing a quote about anniversaries?  Because this blog of mine is 14 years old today.  During that span I have written 4,654 articles about a wide variety of topics...while living my life one day at a time.  Every now and then I go back and read earlier articles, expecting to find material I now strongly disagree with or find embarrassing, either for my opinions or writing style.  But although I often find grammatical and word usage errors to correct, beyond that I leave it as it is, instead marveling at how much I do still agree with my past writings...the greatest divergence usually happens when I've praised a public figure, usually a politician, only to later feel betrayed by their subsequent behavior or words.  As a reader you are invited to read any of these articles, going back to April 2007, and send comments to me on them: I have comment moderation primarily to avoid spam comments, and will then publish them unless you desire to keep them private...also, I believe you need to be on the blog's web version (not the phone app) to place comments.  And you're welcome to comment anonymously if you prefer.  Thank you for taking some time out of your life to read it and I hope it will be interesting for you in the future.  By the way, Brzezinski was Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981 and passed away in 2017...his daughter Mika is married to Joe Scarborough and co-hosts their morning MSNBC show...

Comments and Cognitive Reverie

One of the problems, which incidentally is simultaneously a blessing, when I dutifully post in Facebook each of this blog's articles (which are published through Google's Blogger site), is that readers tend to not only know me personally but also know, should they choose to place a comment, that their opinions will be open for all to read and that they will be instantly identified with them.  Sometimes, as mathematician John Nash, while speculating on a win-win mathematical model scenario, once remarked to a friend in the movie A Beautiful Mind, "You have no respect for cognitive reverie", I like to just sit back and look at things from different perspectives.  I want this blog to be more oriented toward open speculation and "cognitive reverie" as well, but I'm afraid that, with a couple of noteworthy exceptions, folks just aren't comfortable with opening up with their thoughts and reactions.  There is a solution to this, though: anyone reading this blog, whether through Facebook or directly on the web, can submit their own comments to me.  I have it set up on my blog to directly take comments (bypassing Facebook) without them immediately appearing. Before I publish any, I need to first review them...my initial primary reason for this was to avoid publishing the numerous spam comments that were beginning to proliferate.  Now, though, pre-screening is useful in that anyone can submit to me his or her comment and then ask me NOT to publish it...I'll comply with any such request.  Also, anonymous comments can be submitted as well...if they don't sound like spam and aren't demeaning or profane, then likewise they'll be published at the end of the article (within the blog).  In any event, I always endeavor to respond to any reasonable comment, regardless whether I agree or disagree with the expressed view, in a respectful and appreciative manner...

Cognitive reverie to me is an activity in which one isn't tied down to any kind of dogma or ideology, instead just taking a particular subject and breaking it down...sometimes coming to conclusions that don't fit the mainstream of socially-promulgated thought.  Therefore it grieves me somewhat when I go down this road and then get a reaction from someone who is an ideologue, forming their opinions on just about everything based on what somebody else wrote or said that fits their "party line"...to me, that is the opposite of what I would call cognitive reverie.  Such people can easily disprove this about themselves by simply revealing to me at least one issue (the more the better) in which they agree with the "other side's" views.  Another way is to make their opinions more personal and to explain how they interact with their own life and experiences...or explain the thinking process that led them to their conclusions. To me, a natural product of thinking for yourself is to sometimes arrive at different conclusions to things that a particular ideology or doctrine espouses.  Thinking for yourself through the vehicle of open speculation and cognitive reverie also makes you more interesting to others instead of sounding like an obvious one-dimensional, unimaginative copycat hack...

How to Make Comments on This Blog

When I used to put links on Facebook to this blog, it was easy to comment via that social media site on any articles readers might have found interesting.  But since I've "gone rogue" from Facebook, there isn't that intermediary stage any longer.  Still, you can make your reactions known by scrolling down to each article's end.  You will see a place marked either "NO COMMENTS" or with the number of comments made so far.  Click on it and a window will appear giving you a chance to write something.  When I receive comments this way, I check them before publishing them at the end of the article...so you can even register your opinion and ask that it not be published: no problem.  Also, you can comment anonymously if you like.  Naturally, nothing profane will be accepted and I'm especially on the lookout against spam comments promoting products and businesses.  But I'm still interested in hearing from my readers...