Thursday, April 24, 2008

Some changes in direction

A few posts back, I noted that one problem with this blog was the lack of a focus. It was little more than random stuff, and unless you were interested in me, you had little reason to read it. Even my wife was uninterested. I guess she's heard my thoughts on all this stuff. Not only that, since the blog really seemed to lack any purpose, postings were infrequent and irregular.

As you can see, I've changed things around a little, indicated the new direction of this blog. The basic idea is to discuss ways in which political philosophy can generate insights into our current political condition.

The premise to this blog is that political philosophy provides more coherent analysis of political issues than current ideological label of liberal and conservative or left and right.

In that regard, the sources of my political thought are Hobbes and Machiavelli. Isaiah Berlin has been an important contemporary influence, and I'm currently spending time working thorugh the ideas of Michael Oakeshott.

That is not to say that I have transcended ideology. Rather, my ideology has different sources than Limbaugh or Begala. Logical coherence combined with careful attention to political reality I think lead to uncommon conclusions on current politics. Properly executed, political philosophy can provide a way for people to seriously think about politics for themselves, escaping the litanies of pundits and talk show radio hosts. In my opinion, there is no one on radio or television today worth listening. They are as dumb about politics as Joe Morgan is about baseball.

Finally, though I doubt many readers will care about this, I have serious reservations with the way political theory is practiced today. Too much of it has no connection to politics, and is little more than moral philosophy on a large scale. Thus, there is a vacuum, one which has been filled by charlatans who do not care about this country.