Bill Whittle is thinking again!!!
Essayist Bill Whittle is amazing. Check out his work at
EjectEjectEject
Anyway, today (04:47am PDT to be precise) he:
bq. I just had a vision.
bq. Nothing mystical, no sense of a tap on the shoulder by Divine Providence, and it is the antithesis of a personal sense of destiny. History has not been kind to such people. And these ideas are much, much bigger than I am.
bq. But something woke me up, literally as well as figuratively.
bq. No, this in fact is an idea -- a set of ideas -- so simple and humbling that I am again, as I have so often been in the course of this little cyber-experiment, filled with awe and humility and more than anything a sense of gratitude that I might be allowed to have a small, small voice in this critical time in history.
bq. I want to remember -- and more importantly, commit myself to the notion that at this exact moment, all of the ideas and threads and comments and history that circles in and out of my head, all of my many work experiences in science, aviation and entertainment have finally coalesced into a vision of why Eject! Eject! Eject! is here and what we are going to try to do.
Bill then talks about his Silent America series of essays which are also being published in book form.
Bill talks about the end of the War on Terror and what that will be like, the Presidential Election and he considers this a great time to start on a new collection of essays. He then talks about what he is now thinking about:
bq. So, like you, I am holding my breath until November 3rd. But win or lose, that day will mark a new beginning, and if you think the War and the Election have been stressfull and tumultuous, well, you ain't seen nothing yet.
bq. I worry about terrorism. I worry about
Transnational Progressivism. I worry about the utter moral decline of large parts of Europe. I worry about China. I worry about all these things.
bq. But the only thing I genuinely fear is the cyclical nature of civilization. I fear the consequences of abandoning personal responsibility. I fear the self-hatred and nihilism that grows among the pampered, the narcissistic and the uninformed. These are things to be feared greatly. They have brought down entire civilizations and led to dark ages that have cost this species very dearly. I think we stand at such a point today, and this election -- win or lose -- will not determine the outcome...although it might give us some indication of how sick or healthy we are at this pivotal moment in history.
bq. So prepare yourselves. There is a big fight ahead of us, regardless of who is crowing loud in a few weeks time. Other civilizations have fallen; this one may yet. But none have been armed as we are, and our wonder weapon is not the Carrier Battle Group, the Smart Bomb, or the M1 Abrams. This Civilization is armed with information, with real-time communication, with self-organizing expert systems. And for the first time in history, it has in its quiver the chance to hear from great minds otherwise buried in obscurity, to harness the power of billions of opinions and ideas and little, well-made boxes of competence and expertise; brilliant and commanding voices thrown away with the chaff in preceeding generations. This is a force multiplier to cheer even the most pessimistic.
bq. And civilization will rise or fall on the ability to use these weapons under the shield of our shared values of freedom, opportunity, and just plain courage.
bq.
Watch this space.
Bill - we are watching with all senses wiiiide open.
Posted by DaveH at October 14, 2004 11:07 PM