Transparency and Vision

You cannot easily see the truth if you aren’t willing to be the truth.

Whoever you are, I am no better than you. At most, I am simply somewhere out ahead of you. More likely, this blog simply offers some hope it’s worth the trouble to keep poking at the barriers in your own world. The ability to string words together in a way some find engaging is simply the act of holding up the torch for you to see where I’ve gone. Don’t ever make the mistake of thinking such a talent puts me on some level you can’t reach.

Over the past few years I’ve been put through the wringer on some things. At points I nearly committed suicide, and that should be sufficient proof I’m not that special. What is special, and what I want to draw your attention to is the call to clarity itself. It’s like a sword you cannot use until you have turned it on yourself, and it’s the only weapon which actually makes any difference. It’s a death defying act to grab the handle, and I’m still here somehow. The past few years I have been chasing the ghosts of forgotten sins, and some of them are fearsome threats to sanity.

This is not a question of achieving, but believing — believing it’s worth the price. So fully do I believe it I’m willing to expose myself unilaterally. I expose myself to one and all. Ask me anything. While civilization demands we keep some things to ourselves, it’s not about hiding truth, but leaving others unburdened with things unworthy of their attention. There are dumb questions, unworthy questions, but truth itself includes pointing out what matters and what doesn’t. So if some government agency really needs to see know what I do with my computer, they need only ask and I’ll provide a full accounting. I don’t run Linux to hide things, but to maintain a responsible control over things which matter to me in my burning search for clarity. Linux itself is not truth, not by any measure, but is simply a tool I use. In demanding the truth about the world in which I live, this is the right question for me to ask. Don’t emulate my choices unless they work for you; emulate the search itself.

That’s just one tool among many as I chase the lies out of my world. Right now, the Internet looms large on my horizon. I find moments of clarity from others. OBL? Don’t believe everything you hear. Especially don’t believe our government, which has proven beyond all doubt a willingness to lie about anything and everything. But I’m willing to be transparent to them because the way to fight lies is not to produce your own. Having nailed all that to the Cross, I’m not going to defeat the Darkness by hiding things. We don’t become sane by trading one madness for another.

There is enough madness simply living in this broken world. I can’t promise I’ve found the absolute sanity, as if it’s something so universal you need to buy my personal vision. Don’t follow me unless your feet can’t take any other path. I’m not building a cult and I don’t want your money, just a little of your attention until you no longer need what I offer. The most important thing you can do for me is claw at your own eyes, pulling away the mask, until you can trust the truth about yourself, until you can test your own vision against the light of honesty. I assert there is no objective truth we must all share on this plane of existence. Truth is not an achievement, a place you can go, but a path, a commitment. It’s the search which becomes so obviously necessary when you realize you can’t swallow any more lies.