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Ed Seykota
Steven,
Thank you for responding to my post, with passion and with depth. Thanks, as well, to my other blogmates for chipping in.
The stain-glass window in the dining room of the Sigma Chi house at MIT has the inscription, “Strive mightily and eat and drink as friends." I view universities, prep schools and other gatherings of scholars (including this blog), as crucibles in which colleagues share views - and come to sinter their experiences and amalgamate their character with strength, integrity, wisdom and compassion.
Each gathering has its own rules for managing conflict, particularly regarding the boundaries between arguing the facts, applying wit and waging personal attack. This blog, too, has rules of engagement, sometimes inconsistent. This mirrors the current situation in the US.
For example, consider your post to me in which you proclaim a no-personal-attack rule and then immediately proceed to fire off a series of not-so-subtle innuendos.
Since you raise the issue of my absence from '64 and '63 I might as well supplement your research by adding '61 to the absentee list; my pass-through WHHS stay includes part of '62.
Sometimes I do wonder about '63 and '64. I gather by engaging this blog, I may suffer from lack of important upper-level classwork in the core topics of “Hiding Behind Innuendo,” “Making Up Rules and then Immediately Breaking Them,” “Passive-Aggressive Debating Techniques” and of course, the ever popular “Political Correctness.” Oh well, life has many trade-offs.
In any event, I invite you to emerge from the sorry shadows of innuendo, out into the bright, fierce sunshine in which you say what you really feel, without fear or reservation. Perhaps you can simulate the feeling by taking a deep breath and letting it let it out with a big ol' grin.
I do not oppose comments about the current state of our nation – I welcome them. I, too, have very deep concerns about our economy and our culture and share them back-and-forth with others. I also prefer dealing with basic issues rather than drifting over into the snide side.
This here name-calling issue applies to the recent election as well as to this blog. Consider the argument: we need a wall and less government and the press reports fake news and hate the opponent. Consider the opposing argument: hate the opponent – he has really bad hair. One has slightly more content – the other has better snide.
The obsession with personal attack has a steep price, such as missing the low-hanging logical fruit: “Protectionism leads to inflation, stagnation and war – and ladders and drones cost a lot less than walls anyway.” The minority party continues to descend into disarray as it obsesses about impeaching the bad guy and abnegates its role as the loyal opposition to policy.
Another sensitive issue without much coverage: how to deal with politicians such as McCain and Pelosi as they start to show signs of aging. People default to name calling and to posting endless-looping spoonerism clips.
And speaking of aging, I'd like to formally name this elephant in the forum, the vital theme we all have in common. Mortality receives little mention here despite frequent notices of classmates, one by one, passing on. We do still have some choices: go kicking and screaming into the night; quiet desperation, procrastinate in preparing wills; ignore it altogether; stay in the now and share with others.
For examples of the later, I applaud Dave Buchholz for sharing his brilliant photos, Phil Spiess, for sharing his ever-twisty wit and Henry Cohen for sharing some clear and refreshingly self-revelatory boundary growling.
So my invitation to you, and to the rest of the currently surviving members of this class: get into the now and share your current interests and let your thoughts and feelings out strong on matters of vital interest to you – without defaulting to the narrow arc of trading lame neener-neener's.
Meanwhile, please count on me to stand at my watch post, as the self-appointing intermittent class curmudgeon, in the mode of the incorrigibly loud, overbearing, imperious and hypocritical Colonel Jessup, ever ready to share my feelings, and excite some lively response, as best as I can.
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