More Objectivist Bloggers

Hey Joshua,

It is good to see you have a blog (at last!) and are doing well. I find many of your writings interesting, particularly those about Buddhism and mindfulness.

I was deeply interested in Objectivism when I was younger (and would have called myself an Objectivist without question), and remain interested in many parts of it. I am also interested in exploring other philosophies, topics, and disciplines, such as Zen, mindfulness, Jungian thought, Campbellian mythology, and so on. Objectivism is one part of my past, and something I would choose not to be wholly defined by, particularly since a frustrating and frequent experience for me is that if I get labelled “Objectivist” people I have many things in common with tend to discount what I say and I find myself limited to a very small audience with whom I feel I have little in common. The older I get, the more I find labels of what people “are” more distracting from what they actually believe, think, or do. One possible solution might be for someone like me to try to patiently explain to outsiders what “neo-Objectivism” is, but I unfortunately don’t have the time or the patience (and especially the rhetorical skills and the taste for heated debate) for doing that, especially since I myself am not really sure what “neo-Objectivism” is, or might be, or if I would have a part in it. Objectivism is a particularly divisive issue and I am dismayed when I have to spend a lot of time explaining what I am *not*. Maybe a possible solution might be to have a category in your links such as “Friends of Objectivism” or “Fellow Travelers” or something similar?

Considering all this, would you remove me from your list of “Objectivist Bloggers,” unless you and I can come up with some kind of compromise like the ones mentioned above? I appreciate your gesture, but I feel deeply ambivalent about the “objectivist community” and there are other communities I am more truly a part of on the internet.

This probably should have been a private email to you, but since I’ve run into this kind of thing before on the Internet, I wanted to finally say something (I hope) non-incendiary about it in public, particularly since thanks to the magic of UseNet there are posts out there with my name on them which do not necessarily represent my present beliefs and outlook.

I hope you continue to do well in your personal and professional life, and I look forward to reading more writings on your blog — particularly about Zen, which I have been very interested in for some time now.

I’m sorry — I really do find your gesture of inclusion nice, but unfortunately, it just makes me too uncomfortable.

Thanks,

Moira

Hey Joshua,

I just posted a long response to your entry above about “Objectivist Bloggers,” but unfortunately I’m not sure whether or not I see it — it’s a sort of now-it’s-there, now-it’s-not phenomenon. Do you know if it is actually there?

Thanks,

Moira

(P.S. I love your pictures of your cats. I don’t know if other people are interested in seeing more pictures of them, but I definitely would be!)

Moira,

…It’s great to hear from you. Not a problem — I can appreciate your situation and of course am happy to honor your wishes.

I suspect there are others on this list who might very well feel as you do, but I’m going to wait for their input before removing them.

Since one of my purposes is to help foster a sense of community, I want to err on the side of inclusivity wherever possible.

Joshua

Hey Joshua,

Apparently it might have been a browser problem….I was looking at your site in Mozilla before, but in IE 6 I can see the comments fine. Go figure.

Thanks so much for agreeing — and I think “erring on the side of inclusiveness” is a good idea, as you’ll probably get more input from people that way! Maybe even some interesting discussions.

So how about more pictures of Adobe and — oh dear, I forgot the other little guy’s name? (Oh yes, pictures of the humans are good, too!)

Best,

Moira

Interesting, Great literature and big content to find another blog
Good luck guys