Not An Obsession

One of the reasons I finally decided to start my own blog, perhaps the decisive reason, furnishes the impetus and underlying subject matter for this particular item -- to have a more free hand at criticizing certain things that others say.

I'm not an essayist, I'm a critic. Certainly, I can write an essay. But, with my particular style -- which includes that I am undisciplined and have little inclination to change that -- my essays work better as criticisms than as off-the-cuff or out-of-the-blue essays.

My readers (all one of you) will surely have noticed that, as is common of blogs, this blog includes a list of links to other blogs and sites. One should not assume that I approve of or agree with everything written by those bloggers. Nor should one assume that I particularly like the individuals (though, in general, I do). For instance, one of those persons is an ass (if you knew the backstory and thought to use a stronger term, I'd not fight you on it), one is a jerk ... and one I have just decided is a fool.

One should understand that when I call another a fool, I am *not* calling him stupid; I am making a moral assertion, specifically, that the person is willfully choosing to reason improperly about something or other. Some readers will charge that I am inventing my own meaning for the word. Such persons are in error; for that has always been the primary meaning of the word and that is how it is primarily used even today. For that matter, when people call others 'stupid' or idiot' they are almost always using those words improperly; they are almost always using those words to mean what 'fool' means.


So, back to criticizing what others say: it can be as awkward to criticize what another has said in his own virtual home as in his actual home. This is because no one likes receiving criticism, especially pointed criticism which hits the mark; and many cannot abide it. Many persons react as though one's criticism were no different in kind from this masterpiece of misrepresentation. Such persons, when they don't simpy fly into an irrational rage, will frequently demand that one never again communicate with them. What is one to do but honor the demand?

Nevertheless, one may decide to continue reading that person, and one may upon occasion wish to comment. With one's own blog, one can.


So, what is the meaning of the title of this item? It is simply that I foresee myself commenting, at least occasionally, upon things said by the person I have just decided is a fool. As my faithful readers (all one of you) know, I am not at all a "nice" man -- I don't cloak the things I say in passive-aggressive "politeness" -- and it is always my intention to make pointed criticisms, and never simply to stroke another's ego.

So, in case I do actually post pointed criticisms of what this man may say, and should he ever deign to notice and at some point begin to whinge that I have an obsession about him, I'm stating right now that that is not the case. He has demanded that I never again post on his blog; I must honor that. But he does, from time to time, say things that I will want to dissect (motivating myself to do so is another matter).