Fuzzy left

OK. It’s been a while, I’ve taken a few steps back, and I’m now returning to the program. I must give myself a realistic goal if I want to make something worthwile out of this experiment with blogging: so three paragraphs it will be, four if I really need it. I’ll take a chance at writing more often by delving less into detail, being less intent at answering criticism ex ante, and by limiting myself as much as possible to three paragraphs: background, argument (ok, this part could take two), and consequences. 1 - 2 - 3. At the cost, I’m sure, of some undesirable simplifications, the idea is to be direct and mostly to be concise. Some ambitious program, as far as I’m concerned, but so many others do it - I can’t be that much more incompetent, can I?

By the way, I have also renewed my blogroll and updated my little bio. In fact, it’s been a few months already that I had to quit my grad studies in philosophy - I was done with my course load, but there was no way my PhD thesis could have been finished in due time, especially under some peculiar circumstances that I will certainly not dwell over in here. I’m even done with my “sour grapes” type of rationalizing, and I may even give it another try whenever my life will give my a better chance at it. Back to my main point, now. The trouble with this blog is that there is just too much stuff to comment on for the few weekly minutes that I can manage to devote to this activity. Hence the need to radically alter my style in the direction of simplicity and, well, short-ness. For now, I will challenge myself to briefly state my position, in the next three posts, on the top issues of the season here: Canada in Afghanistan, private healthcare and reasonable accommodations - no, no, not cheap motels, the other, politically sensitive kind of accommodation. There’s a good start, right? And then there’ll be my dear liberal parties and leaders to comment on… yikes.

As to the blogroll, I added a few links, but I mainly tried to give it some loose enough - or fuzzy enough - structure, so as to classify somewhat objectively those blogs that I do read from time to time, but without falling into the usual ideological traps. Thus, I will be setting apart sites that focus on economic science per se (and I hope to do the same with philosophy at some point), but commentary on current affairs will now be divided between what appears to me as the left- and right-brain dominance of their authors rather than left and right wings of political thought. I do find it more enlightening, and actually less arbitrary, to distinguish people’s positions and attitudes by their being rooted in a significant measure of analytical distance, or else in a more emotionally engaged attitude. However, while being a left-brainer myself and certainly paying more attention, for better or for worse, to logical structures than to the merits of intentions, this neurological distinction implies no negative judgement on the intuitive, passionate, holistic type of thinking that satisfies right-brainers on all sides of the political spectrum. It’s just a different type of division of labour, I suppose. Anyway, my third paragraph is over now. Back real soon. Promise.