An opening salvo

I thought a while before joining the untold millions in blogostan. The appeal of possessing my own nano-pulpit and participating in an informational meritocracy won me over. I call the site "Minor Heresies" because my opinions often seem to be at an obtuse angle from both the official truth and conventional wisdom. I apply the prefix "Minor" because I don't wish to place myself in the exalted sphere of past heretics such as Galileo.

My essays here may be topical, but I hope to get beyond the chatter of the daily news and address some larger, less temporal issues as well. I am interested in taking practical lessons from history rather than imposing some Procrustean ideology on the future.

I believe that the solutions to the problems of the world are less about directly changing people and more about changing the political, legal, and social structures in which we live. Read Aristophanes' play "The Birds", written 2,400 years ago, for an insight on the immutability of human character. We are truly weak timber, this author included, for building a civilization worth the name. Our solutions need to acknowledge the deficiencies of the working material.

I also believe that two good people can disagree. This opinion doesn't seem to have much currency in the ad hominem world of public debate. I'll swing into personal criticism when someone acts on their opinion to injure another.

By bell, book, and candle, let it begin.

A Minor Heretic