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Mar. 28, 2006 I guess it's not too surprising that the two individuals who have freely given up Useless Knowledge in the past couple of weeks were poster children for bad writing and intractable thought. Dawn's skin was so thin that she couldn't abide a gentle suggestion to keep her praise-God moments to herself. Ken apparently had had enough of people slamming his third-grade writing skills. My reaction upon reading both of their farewell sob stories, I'm sorry to say, was roughly the same: Grow Up. If you are an amateur chess player, you don't play in tournaments for grandmasters. If you want to try playing softball for the first time, it's probably a good idea to sign up for a D-Rec league, not semi- pro. And, if you your mind is so intractable that you cannot possibly consider another point of view valid, or your writing skills are so feeble that a 9-year-old would blush, or you cannot handle the occasional moronic insult from a childish mind, then you have no business contributing to an open forum like U-K. Ken Hughes was prolific, and Dawn Carr was sincere, but the sad truth is that U-K is a better site without them. There are others, like Skip Toomaloo, whose departure would further enhance U-K's reputation. Skip, for instance, has sworn off all columns from atheists and other unbelievers. (Someone once told me that Skip Toomaloo is Michael John McCrae's alias. If that is true, then what I am about to say goes for MJM, too.) In short, he refuses to read any column by anyone who disagrees with him. Such narcissism astounds me. Skip, if all you want to do is gaze lovingly at your own works without so much as a peep of protest from anyone, why not print them off in 72-point font, wallpaper your bedroom with them, close all the doors and windows, and bask in the solitary glory of your own intellectual wit? We certainly don't need them here at U-K. Not many of us want to be part of your exercise in intellectual masturbation. As far as Ken Hughes goes, his reason for leaving was nothing but childish petulance. His writing was amateurish and deserved about 90% of the vitriol that was leveled at it. Ken, if you want to be taken seriously as a writer, then take your writing seriously. Take an evening English course. Run your columns through a grammar checker. Something. Stop holding up your feeble grammar skills like a torch for the oppressed. Your mangling of the English language is not something to be celebrated. I recently wrote a column that elicited a response from someone who called me an "atheist SOB". This idiot actually said in his reply that he hoped my wife and children were killed in the near future so that I would have to reach out to God. Now, what should I do with such a personal attack? If I were Ken or Dawn, I guess I'd run away and hide. My response, though, was something altogether different. I laughed. It was just so absurd that I couldn't help it. When you put your writing out there in public, you open yourself up to attacks, both deserved and undeserved. If you can't take the attacks, then you have no business writing. In addition to U-K, I have also written for the Denver Post. One of my Denver Post columns elicited - I swear to God - a 6-page handwritten reply in writing so small that it was barely legible. The gist was that I was going to Hell, and there were about 150 Bible quotes to prove it. I was laughing heartily when I threw it in the trash. I read all of them, though; otherwise, how would I ever find the one gem, the balanced response that actually makes a valid point that I've never before considered? Isn't that why I write in the first place? First, to challenge others; and second, and perhaps even more importantly, to be challenged by others? I am not so arrogant to think that I have all the answers. I relish a good debate, even if that debate sometimes devolves into personal, ad hominem attacks. Even in the most childish and hateful response, there may be a shred of something worth considering. If you insulate yourself from them, as Skip and Dawn and Ken now have, what's left to ponder? As long as U-K fosters the free exchange of ideas among participants who crave such an exchange, it will remain relevant. If, however, it falls exclusively into the hands of those who would squelch lively discussion for fear of treading heavily upon the thin-skinned or weak- minded - or worse, into the hands of those like Skip who believe they have a monopoly on the truth and that all competing viewpoints are worthless - then it truly will become "useless". I hope that day never comes. ------------ About the author: David Gleeson lives in Colorado with his wife and two children. He is an aerospace engineer and skeptic of all things supernatural. You can find a website of his opinion pieces at http://homepage.mac.com/coskeptic/blog/index.html. Email: coskeptic@mac.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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