TL;DR
4/24/15

 

“Fuck this shit!  TL;DR.  Make a damn video or podcast so people who are busy can listen to it while going on with their lives.  Your ignorant persistence in writing long assed posts and books no one will ever read the way you want is a thing of the past!”

 

It truly is a shame people take these attitudes.  It doesn’t have to be this way.  Unfortunately it is the result of individuals who, while desiring to understand liberty and morality, make demands to be spoon fed by another hand.

 

It is not the mandates of the market place, as they claim, so much as it is their lackluster desire to learn as much as they swear they desire to.  Videos and podcasts, television and radio, are wonderful tools.  Sadly they far too often lack the critical thinking engagements that written words more easily offer.

 

Vocal messages are terrific.  I truly believe that.  But they are often wrought with distractions; such that are external like driving, interacting with others not focused on the message, or while sitting at a desk job unnecessarily divide the learner’s attention.  They don’t have the visual idea before the reader’s eyes to see and connect with.  It might be argued that this isn’t a problem for many.  And I would agree as we all learn differently.

 

Visual messages are wonderful too!  I also truly believe that.  But they too are wrought with distractions.  These are often entertaining factors riddled with special effects. Such things are distractions from the subject material at hand.  And again, I would agree that we all learn differently.

 

However, there is an intimacy with the reader and the words before his or her eyes, or finger tips, which isn’t there with video or audio.  There is no distracting voice.  There is no pressure to try and remember something to look up later.  There is no distraction by the dividing of your attention.

 

There is only you and the written word for you to focus on.  There is only your interpretation and imagination to ask questions, visualize, and ponder.  And therein lay the problem.  People do not want to make time for this.  They proclaim that they do not have time.  But what they are really saying is that they do not understand the necessity of how important they really are.  Essentially they are under valuing themselves by making their previous endeavors a scapegoat.  They are blaming their past for their ability to improve themselves for their own future. 

 

And that’s what reading does for the mind.  It improves the reader’s critical thinking skills by engaging the mind regardless of the material being read.  Yes, easier material flexes fewer cranial neurons but it still flexes them.  It keeps the mind active.  It keeps the mind thinking!  Eventually reading a book for entertainment will translate into such material being the equivalent of television in your head directed and transformed instantly at your command, or radio in your head to your liking.

 

Making time for this is a kind of intimacy is exclusively about the reader.  It is an act of self improvement.  It is an act of selfishness that is good for your soul and mind.

 

Most importantly, this intimacy doesn’t scream at you to give an answer when reading about liberty and tyranny.  It doesn’t make demands of you which berate you in front of other conscious minds aware of the flaws the written material is pointing out about the reader’s ideologies

 

It is just you and the written word in your only true sanctuary, your mind.

 

There you are free to use the written ideas of others to self examine without public ridicule.  You are free to contemplate and ponder without the duress of peer pressure to conform.  But most importantly, written word that must be actively pulled off of the page or screen into your mind is a conscious effort to learn, to self improve, to enlighten by choosing to focus exclusively on the ideas; not special effects used to draw you in, or a voice to spoon feed your mind information that adds an unnecessary middleman between you and the idea.

 

That is something, far too many people, statists and voluntaryists alike fail to recognize.  And it is why I prefer to write; so others may take refuge in their only true sanctuary.  If we do not first claim our own sanctuaries, shape them and dress them as we see fit, and find security within them…

…who will do that for you and only your benefit?

 

-JLD

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