A Thinking Reed

A blogger’s right to change his mind

Written by

Lee M.

in

One of the things I’ve noticed in writing this blog is that I have a tendency to worry about seeming inconsistent or failing to present a coherent perspective on the topics I write about. This is ironic because one of my reasons for starting the blog was as a way of thinking aloud about things that I didn’t necessarily have fixed views on (that and sparing my long-suffering wife of my tedious rants on the issues of the day).

My sense, though, is that once you become aware that you’re writing for an audience (however tiny!), there is a pressure (maybe self-imposed) to present a voice that is self-assured and confident in its arguments and conclusions, rather than tenative and exploratory.

So, in the interest of getting back to the original mission of this blog, what are some issues (political, religious, philosophical, etc.) that I’ve changed my mind and/or am uncertain about? Here are a few just off the top of my head:

  • I don’t have a settled view on Atonement theory. I do think that the classic Anselmian satisfaction theory gets short shrift from many of its critics who seem frequently to attack straw man versions of it, but I wouldn’t confidently say I think it’s right.
  • I’m much less certain than I used to be that human beings have libertarian free will (in the metaphysical sense) and that it necessarily matters if we do.
  • At one time I was a strict political libertarian. I’m not anymore, but I still think they get important things right. And I still find myself unable to embrace liberalism or conservatism in any straightforward way.
  • I think pacifism is incorrect, but I’m not sure that it is.
  • I’ve gone from being mildly in favor of the death penalty to being opposed.
  • I don’t know what the proper legal response to dealing with abortion is, even though I’m fairly confident that there’s no non-arbitrary moral line to be drawn between a fetus and a newborn infant.

What about you? What big ticket issues have you changed your mind about or are an incorrigible squish on? Or, is there something on the above list where you’d like to show me the error of my ways?

P.S. For what it’s worth I’ve also changed my mind on things like the existence of God and the truth of Christianity, but that predates my blogging days and those are settled convictions that wouldn’t be easily overturned. The issues above are ones I’m decidedly squishy on.

Comments

4 responses to “A blogger’s right to change his mind”

  1. jack perry

    I’m an incorrigible squish on the Iraq war. I didn’t favor it; indeed, I thought the best option was simply to withdraw from Kuwait and Saudia Arabia with the attitude, “If the world doesn’t want us to deal with Saddam our way, let the world deal with him its way.” Then let the entertainment begin as those who are hysterically anti-American reversed their positions on the stationing of American troops in the area. If not sooner, then later when Saddam started invading his neighbors again (or at least started threatening Israel).

    But, I’m pretty sure things wouldn’t have worked out very well that way, either. Maybe invading was the right course of action after all, despite what I see as its unjustified nature. I desperately want the democratization of Iraq to succeed, and I’m not even going to demand that it be a Western-style democracy. Just something where people have a real choice, and don’t have to be afraid that their neighbors will shoot them.

    So how does Iraq now compare to El Salvador twenty years ago, anyway?

    Reply
  2. Eric Lee

    Hey, fun post.

    What big ticket issues have you changed your mind about or are an incorrigible squish on? …the below will be a bit random…

    Well, I started blogging back in early 2001, around the time I became vegan (my first post contained a mention of GrapeNuts and soy milk :P). I stayed with the whole ‘don’t eat meat’ thing, but I would consider myself just a vegetarian now, for reasons mostly of hospitality.

    I guess I would consider myself slightly ‘conservative’ in April 2001 (I voted for Bush in 2000), but then after that, and especially in light of the Iraq war, I increasingly saw how ‘non-conservative’ I guess I really was, especially in conjunction with my church affiliation (locally, not nationally because most everyday Nazarenes wouldn’t really be consider anti-war). I was pretty hardcore into Michael Moore and Al Franken material, but these days, as is pretty obvious from all our recent discussions, I don’t side with any self-defeating dualism such as the American ‘left-right’ thing or whatever because I really do think that the Church is the alternative polis that we are to participate in — that ‘city on the hill’ and all that good schtuff.

    What else…I was reading a lot of Anne Rice and H.P. Lovecraft then, not so much these days, although I still thing its great literature.

    The first few months of blogging still remind me that I want to get into 3D animation in some capacity someday, if at all possible, although maybe I’m going for a PhD in theology now, who knows.

    Still looks like I go to Depeche Mode concerts, hah.

    It’s interesting to see some of the seeds planted for my current state of being, like meeting Sister Helen Prejean.

    I used to watch a ton of movies, and it’s also interesting to look back at my growing fascination with David Lynch, who I still highly respect — I just don’t have as much time to watch as many movies as I would like to. (I’m also over-booked at the moment with things.)

    Incorrigible squish: I dunno. There obviously issues I’m increasingly ambivalent to budge over, like liberalism, but at the same time, all of the conversations I’ve had here, on my blog, and over at the Thinktank have been extremely educational, and I know so much more about all ‘sides’ of the issue than if I had just read the stuff on my own. These forums are a good sounding board, as you said, for working through this stuff.

    I’m quite sure I don’t need to budge on life being a sacred thing, but I’m willing to talk about how we then live together as Christians, in whatever capacity that may be.

    Okay, that’s enough navel-gazing for me. Apologies for the length ‘o this.

    peace,

    e.

    Reply
  3. Gaius

    I find I have moved away from traditional Christian views of the rights and wrongs of sex and toward sociolib views.

    Considering my persistent conviction of the importance of the family, I’m not likely to drift too much further, however.

    I have moved away from Christian moral tradition on some of the life issues like suicide, assisted suicide, euthanasia, and even abortion.

    On killing issues like war and self-defense I have not altered my views much. I was alway a bit away from the tradition in the direction, I suppose, of more permissive views. I continue to favor the death penalty.

    I have moved a bit away from the harsh views I held of Islam and Muslim terrorism, and of the proper way to deal with terrorists and their supporters, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. But not really very far.

    I have moved further left on economic issues and on questions related to democracy and the constitutional structure of government.

    I move closer to the view that, given the way America uses her armed forces, volunteering for military service nowadays is morally irresponsible, or obtuse, or even wicked.

    As my moral views have shifted so has my view of the relative merits of conservative Christian vs liberal Christian influence on the churches and on what they teach.

    I give more weight now than in the past to the economic issues in politics, and less to the social issues.

    You could see it all in the succession of names. My blog began as The Conservative Observer. It became A Green Conservative. Then it became A Conservative Green.

    My pseudonym went from Marcus Tullius Cicero to Gaius Sempronius Gracchus.

    My party affiliation went from Republican to Democrat to Green.

    Reply
  4. kim

    Although no one would ever believe me, I think I’ve grown more socially conservative, especially on issues like abortion and gay marriage (both of which I am quite squishy on). I am also a squish on whether we should continue to occupy Iraq. I suppose I don’t approach many issues (certainly not the aforementioned) from a questioning or exploratory approach on my blog, but I do think there is merit to writing about things where one doesn’t always have all the answers.

    Reply

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