Today is the first day of my 23rd year. I’m a college-age student in Toronto, and I’m starting this blog as a repository for commentary on world affairs. This is mostly in response to the urgings of friends who have asked that I try my hand at it, but also in order to prime myself for what might later become a career as a writer and opinion columnist. My attitudes towards the whole enterprise are mostly sceptical, but I’m undertaking it anyway because I’d like to be able to make a meaningful contribution to the ongoing discourse, and blogging seems like the most consistently workable way to do it.
I suspect that the most common theme of these writings will be opposition to the global jihad. I am among those who believe that the influence of Islamic law in free societies is baneful, and that there are certain elements of orthodox Islam that are incompatible with universal human rights and need to be forcefully resisted. The majority of the thoughts expressed here, on those matters and others, will be informed by a conception of the good that is rooted in the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. I tend to be a defender of Western civilization, to believe that its founding ideals are ultimately just and that its influence in world history has been mostly good. I want to see Western civilization preserved, and if possible I’d love to see its influence extended. I don’t take myself for one who whitewashes the sins of the West, or who refuses to acknowledge the great things that have originated in the Islamic world or the wider non-West, but I do believe the fundamental animating principles of Western civilization are just. By contrast, the animating principles of sharia law are illiberal and inhumane, and so I oppose it vociferously.
There may also be commentary on rap music, on movies, and on other things I care about, but I’m gonna try to keep that to a minimum. The fact of the matter is, I barely know whether anyone besides myself will read this thing. For the time being, it’s just an experiment to see whether I can manage a project like this effectively. But the ultimate goal will be to make this an outlet where I can consistently and unrestrainedly express intelligent perspectives on people and events in the wider world.
We’ll see how far I get! Fists up!
