And, on a Positive Note, ...

No matter how creative you are about it, it can sometimes be well-nigh impossible to post to your blog when your day job is in science! Today is very busy. I've a load of scientific reading and writing to do tonight, so today's post will point to some good stuff I ran into over lunch.

While I most enjoy writing opinion pieces and polemics, and regard this type of writing as my strong point, my readers cannot live on vinegar alone. (Nor can I, for that matter!) I have noticed on my visits to other Objectivist blogs that many of them include posts about art or about other things they enjoy, or they advertise the finer things through blogads. Of these, I imagine that the first two things will be more occasional here, but perhaps easier to do once I become able to post images. I plan to host blogads at some point as well.

For a change of pace, I'll direct my readers to a couple of posts from other blogs that focus on the positive. The first post is from another blogger who, though not an Objectivist, appreciates the many merits of capitalism.

A Positive Defense of Capitalism

I've been pleasantly surprised by the recent torrent of activity over at The Transhuman Comedy, the science fiction-oriented blog of my friend Raymund. Today, he posted this fun and informative piece about how capitalism (via communications technology) rescued him and another friend from what might have otherwise been a very boring childhood. From the post:

Curtis and I both grew up lower-middle-class in smalltown Missouri in the 1980s. Despite this handicap, by the time we'd graduated high school one or both of us:

* Read science fiction and fantasy classics by Heinlein, Clarke, Bradbury, Asimov, Herbert, and Tolkein
* Read "real" literature by Hemingway, Steinbeck, Hawthorne, Joyce, Plath, Camus, Hesse, and Mann
* Watched films by Kubrick; old Twilight Zone episodes; BBC comedies on the local PBS station; and French-language television from Quebec
* Listened to couldn't-hear-it-on-the-radio music ranging from Beethoven symphonies to '60s Rolling Stones, They Might Be Giants, Iron Maiden, and Andreas Vollenweider

This list is not exhaustive; Curtis could probably add to it.

And to think we did all this with the communications technologies of the day! We shouldn't be surprised; although the technology of the '80s seems quaint today, it was remarkably advanced.

The fight for freedom and capitalism cannot be won by arguments alone: people must also realize or remember that the things they value and enjoy are made possible by freedom.

The Real Heroes of the Orange Revolution

I thoroughly my subscription to TIADaily, and in no small measure due to the fact that lots of good news that goes underreported in our major media is highlighted there. On the companion (sampler) blog today appeared the story I was hoping would show up: the story of how members of the SBU, the Ukrainian equivalent to the KGB, actively worked against the recent attempt to throw the election to Viktor Yanukovich. From the entry:

The New York Times, for all of its leftist leanings and the awful stuff secreted onto its editorial pages, can still produce some real blockbusters in its international coverage, which has long been the greatest value the paper offers. Today's piece is one of the best pieces of reporting I've seen in a long time. It presents a previously untold story that has all the high drama of a great spy thriller—yet it is all taken from real life.

Its central message is that pro-Kremlin Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and his political clique failed in their attempt to rig the Ukrainian election because they lost control over "the last guarantor of power: the men with the guns." But they did not merely lose control; a significant number of the "men with guns" were actively working against the vote-riggers—and they threatened active, violent, armed resistance against the imposition of dictatorship. They issued warnings that "if [Interior] ministry troops came to Kiev, the army and security services would defend civilians," and that a crackdown would lead to bloodshed and civil war because the "demonstrators would resist." It was the threat of force in resistance to tyranny that broke the attempt to entrench a Kremlin-backed dictatorship in Ukraine.

The piece shows, in a positive way how the use of force can be a good thing: when it is used to defend individual rights. Be sure to read the story at the link while it's hot. The Grey Lady likes to take things off the free internet after a certain amount of time.

-- CAV