This is Max Borders, Signing Off

Due to the controversy surrounding one of my posts on JG, I have decided to discontinue blogging early in my career. While I don’t fancy the life of a blogger condemned to anonymity, I will consider over the next couple of months whether blogging under a pseudonym is a realistic option for me. (My guess is I would eventually end up like Joe Klein after Primary Colors, minus the fanfare and employment options.)

Otherwise, I don’t think it would be possible to blog about things I feel passionately about and avoid being taken out of context. I don’t think I can resist the temptation occasionally to be flippant in the face of equal and opposite provocation. And if I found that I could discover a kind of Zen-like control over my words that would be agreeable to everyone, everywhere, I would probably have only five or six readers in the universe.

And, hell, that wouldn't be any fun.

I’ve learned the hard way that the blogosphere is filled with the sort of people who are willing to leverage the power of mass communication for the most insidious forms of gratification. For example, when one is not able to engage effectively in rational debate, he will use all of the power within his means to sabotage his opponent since he cannot hope to vanquish him in the arena of ideas. Let this be a warning to bloggers. If someone can find a way to silence you, they will.

Let no one ever be able to say it was my legacy to play dirty. I’ve played rough. I’ve played hard. I’ve called spades spades. But I will never sink to the level of behavior that has lead me to type this post.

In his book Kindly Inquisitors - a must read treatise on open inquiry - Jonathan Rauch quotes the unforgettable H.L. Mencken: "The liberation of the human mind has been best furthered by gay fellows who heaved dead cats into sanctuaries and then went roistering down the highways of the world, proving to all men that doubt, after all, was safe that the god in the sanctuary was a fraud. One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms.

To the faithful readers of Jujitsui-Generis, the horse-laugh will not die.

Three damn good bloggers remain and hopefully they will continue to find the blogging addiction in their bones. I feel certain they will. In any case, I wish you all good reading and good blogging. This is Max Borders, signing off.

Comments

[Micha Ghertner]

:(

You will be missed.

[Brian W. Doss]

Seconded.Though I'd say that you should "nevermind the bollocks", specifically from anti-war.com, I don't have a semi-ideological job either, so I can't know the specific circumstances. However, Eugene Volokh is a professor at a major university who's also blogged on some controversial topics (including coming out in favor of torture, though in a highly qualified and hand-wringing way) and despite the vitriol poured upon him by, well, everybody to his left and not a few libertarians (including Jim Henley, who has an axe with Eugene's name on it that he perpetually grinds in the background).

I understand, though, that it can be very dispiriting to have all the vitriol that comes with engaging in forthright argument be from your erstwhile ideological brethren. But here's hoping you change your mind anyway.

[Brian W. Doss]

Oops, I see I didn't finish my thought in the 2nd para. Er, that was- "even though Eugene Volokh blogs on controversial topics and is attached to a PR-conscious university AND has gotten a lot of flak for his positions, he's still OK."

Although Eugene's probably got tenure. Perhaps a better analogy is of the professional op-ed types. If they get controversy, it tends to equal $$$ because it means they can sell more columns, write a book, etc. I say, on that ground, fight the power and give a big raspberry. And never mind the bollocks. (never hurts to not mind them. ^_^)

[Jon Henke]

Bah! Quitter!

Well, perhaps we'll see the emergence of a heretofore unknown blogger. Perhaps he might even go by the name of "Max Powers", or something similar. :)

Best of luck, Max. Don't let the bastards get you down. Again.

[Tom]

Gresham's law seems to apply to blogging, dammit. Well, pick a good name and hurry back. We libertarian hawks need thoughtful, incisive, prose-masters like you to help us fight the good intellectual fight against the unholy alliance of anarcho-capitalists and anti-capitalist "liberals".

[lancelotfinn]

This is very disappointing. But I respect your decision.

[Bob]

Screw 'em. Though I can't know how hard it is, I've never had to deal with as much criticism as your article has generated. But there are plenty of people out there that appreciate you saying things that are unpopular, and are against the orthodoxy, even if we don't agree with everything.

Good luck.

[Matt McIntosh]

Aw hell Max... I think this is the wrong decision, but it's your life. Yours is a voice that shouldn't go to waste. Are you still going to write TCS articles at least?

[Cato the Younger]

Yeah, well them's the breaks, dude. As Jason Turner, your fellow blogger, put it in the post right below yours:

"No company owes a job, and no employee is forced to stay. Every individual trades a service for a good."

What he said....

Bwahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

[Cato the Elder]

That's the way the oil boils....

[Banzai!]

And to think that it happened on Pearl Harbor Day....

[Jacob]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

You shouldn't give in to tactics like that Max. And if your employer has a problem with it, well then I'll lose all respect for IHS.

And for what it's worth, I'm a libertarian, but I would boil someone alive if it meant stopping someone from blowing up the world with a nuclear missile (though trying to find causality between the two would be quite difficult).

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