Another reason for the lack
Another reason for the lack of posting lately is that I've been doing a helluva lot of writing to Bryan Baskin. A handful of multiple-page e-mails back and forth, on all sorts of issues, mostly the war and the extent to which war might help to bring about a more capitalist Iraq. Bryan's going to post the exchange on his site, which is 100% fine by me. It's one of the best debates I've had in a long time, primarily due to the facts that 1) Bryan is one of the most intelligent guys I've ever known; 2) when we disagree, we both make a genuine effort to understand the other side; and 3) we started from some of the same premises about human nature and the ideal nature of the State in regards to individual liberty. It's refreshing.
Speaking of debates, I had an interesting one with Ross (no blog available), which began as a political discussion about the legitimate functions of government and ended up being about whether or not we exist. I've done a few of these debates before; the basic conclusion most of these guys seem to draw is that since we can't ever be sure of the truth -- after all, we might be living in The Matrix -- we can't ever make any judgments on right and wrong. Living in a dorm with Plan II people, I've heard this line of reasoning more than a few times. What made this discussion fun for me this time, though, was that I was finally able to articulate, definitively why their conclusion is, well, wrong. More on that some other time, though. Fingers gotta program now.
Posted by Matt at February 25, 2003 4:33 PM
