skip to content or skip to search form

« The academic conversation (not just for academics)

Debating Iron Council »

New year’s resolution

11 January 2005 by Steven — Filed under General

I can’t believe I’m making a new year’s resolution. Well, I’m not really, though, except in that I resolved to do this coincidentally at the beginning of the year.

This year, I am going to avoid snarky ripostes, gibes, and other such verbal attacks. They are seem counter to the spirit of public conversation I have claimed to enjoy most about blogging. I think most targets of past zingers deserved them (insofar as anybody deserves to be zinged), and I came up with some pretty good ones, and it was usually fun at the time. But I read a nasty bit of bile on a blog yesterday, and it annoyed me—until I remembered I’d spilled a little of my own bile on that same blogger a while ago. Oops.

I’m not asking “Why can’t we all get along?” or vowing never again to get into an argument or ‘agreeing to disagree’ with people I disagree with. I hope only to stop myself doing things that annoy me when other people do them and to engage in reasonable conversation—including argument.

(This might look like the sort of self-pitying sadness that bloggers with impaired self-esteem post so they can bask in sycophantic commenters telling them how wonderful they are and not at all as bad as they think. It isn’t, so you don’t need to comment to tell me how reasonable and kind I am. Because you were going to… right? Right?)

Edit: I also resolve to post much more often. Probably.

This entry was posted on 11 January 2005 at 10:35 pm and is filed under General. You can follow responses with the Atom comments feed. Responses and trackback pings are currently closed.

Comments

  1. Ian Brill says:

    Your resolution is a lot like the one I made for myself (although I’ll admit I have had trouble keeping it). I want to spend more time on works I like instead of getting snarky about the mainstream stuff I don’t like. The latter only goes so far. Not that I feel I shouldn’t go over things I don’t like, it’s just I want to go over them in as much of a civil manner as I do the things I like.

    Of course this probably means I’m going to lose a lot of hits. Ah well, it could be worse.

    — 11 January 2005 at 11:39 pm (Permalink)

  2. jdonelson_nyc says:

    This is awfully sycophantic of me… but you are already one of the least negative comic bloggers. Don’t beat yourself up! Your blog is always a source of insightful and constructive commentary. Just keep on keepn’ on and you will have nothing to worry about.

    — 12 January 2005 at 3:07 pm (Permalink)