Tuesday May 2, 2023; 8:26 AM EDT
- I'm thinking aloud here about the significance of a person's daily brief writing on a site like this one. There are undeniable continuities and explorations, and these serves good and sufficient purposes. I know, for example, that I started thinking about a phrase years ago, not having to know. At the time, it was a way of naming one luxury afforded many Americans: the idea that a good number of us don't have to look up close at poverty here and abroad, and the same goes for the wars our country funds and participates in around the world. To be an American of a certain social class means not having to know.#
- Not having to know stayed on my mind, and over time other versions of the idea extended and solidified through these occasional blog posts about it. When it comes to the poverty of others, for example, to be an American of a certain social class means living in a social space where not having to know has interior and exterior elements. As seen by others, not having to know often means, for other observers, many of us not seeming to know (not quite sure!), or further and slipperier, not being seen to know (not provable, not quite, anyway), and for the convenience of Americans of that certain social class, not having to hang around people who will call them out for knowing. After all, the knowing eventually is no longer in doubt, and it's easier to sleep at night if there are no protestors outside reminding us that they know we know.#
- That's an example of a line of thought that has evolved through years of daily writing in a private-into-public space like this one. And, as I said, doing that work has been rewarding and sufficient in itself.#
- But it's also kind of haphazard. If the not having to know progression of thinking has value for me, it might be of use to others, especially if I could develop it further. A longer piece that illustrates and tests the idea, the considers some of the implications, might be worthwhile. It could be published as a free-standing web page, as a small e-book, as a magazine article, or as a chapter in a short book. It could reach a wider audience that would see what they want to make of it.#
- I'm pondering the workflow options. Daily writings continue, for sure. Drawing items out for placement in a free-standing opml file for revision and expansion. Searching for related material in the archive. I'd like the new file to include links back to the various source postings so I could go back later to check the context or to consider the original wording. I suppose this is a cut-and-paste, highlight-and-link operation for a low-tech person like me. Or maybe the Radio3 bookmarklet or something like it could be single-purposed for that step. Still musing here.#