Sunday, November 1, 2009
Maybe even a bit more honest.
I suppose what the Internet does, it gives us all the opportunity to have a blog. And to be published, in a sense. And also to choose to be anonymous with our opinions. We can use pseudonyms. Such as the ever popular 'anonymous.' I suspect that people that remain anonymous do so, in part, because they have more courage to say what they say if they remain unidentified. Easier to make false accusations. To tell lies. If one uses his real name, one is taking responsibility for what one says. I, for instance, declare my biases. In that sense, I allow myself to be openly challenged. One is allowed to examine my bias. Because I have a specific identity. I'm not anonymous. I'm Jim Broede. Real. Sure, maybe we never fully know each other. But at least I give people an opportunity to know me. Chances are we all hide behind something of a mask or a facade. But I allow for more give and take than an anonymous being, it seems to me. You can look me up. You can talk to people acquainted with me. You can look at the public record. It helps that I am not anonymous. Makes me a bit more naked than someone hiding behind a false name. Yes, maybe even a bit more honest. I'd like to think so. --Jim Broede
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Being honest makes one more vulnerable. That's always a risk of honesty. --Jim
I suspect we're all dishonest to some degree. With ourselves. --Jim
One of my favorite characters/heroes of all time was Diogenes. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about him:
Diogenes of Sinope was exiled from his native city and moved to Athens, where he is said to have become a disciple of Antisthenes, the former pupil of Socrates. Diogenes, a beggar who made his home in the streets of Athens, made a virtue of extreme poverty. He is said to have lived in a large tub, rather than a house, and to have walked through the streets carrying a lamp in the daytime, claiming to be looking for an honest man. He eventually settled in Corinth where he continued to pursue the Cynic ideal of self-sufficiency: a life which was natural and not dependent upon the luxuries of civilization. Believing that virtue was better revealed in action and not theory, his life was a relentless campaign to debunk the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt society.
--Jim
I am accessible. I am real. I can be found. Yet there are people who doubt my existence. In that respect, it makes me feel a little like god. Little wonder that we have agnostics. People who can't be sure of anything. I am sure that I am real. That I am Jim Broede. --Jim
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