I’m starting a project.  A blog project (a bloject?)  It’s sort of ambitious, and probably impossible, but I feel that I have to give it a shot.  It’s kind of difficult to explain the scope or even the goal of the project, since my conception of it changes continually, but I will do my best.  Hopefully things will become more clear over time.  I came up with the idea a few nights ago, and like most of my late night ideas, by the morning I could no longer recall all the essential details and my enthusiasm had waned considerably.  Nevertheless, I retained some vague impression of underlying beauty in this project, so I resolved to give it a shot.  

I said just now that the project was probably impossible, but I should probably clarify that.  Of course it’s possible to attempt it, but my guess is that I will never achieve my goal.  Part of this is because the goal is not well defined (always sure sign of impending failure) but more than that, I think there’s a good chance I will become bored very quickly and move on to something else.  However, assuming I do form a clear goal, and assuming I do follow through, I’m still fairly certain that goal will be unattainable, for the simple reason that what I’m trying has been tried before, and to my knowledge, no one has succeeded (this will all become more clear as I explain in greater detail).

So, if failure is all but certain, why try?  Well I said above that there is underlying beauty in this project, and the short answer is that I find that beauty so attractive (or seductive?) that I feel that to fail to try would be worse than to try and fail.  Furthermore, though I will likely not achieve any grand objectives, it is very possible that some good does come from this project, and I might just stumble upon a few brilliant insights.  So there you have it.  Some people play the lottery, I indulge in fantasies of discovering the secret of saving the world.

Ah, we come to it at last, the aim of this project (I use the word “aim” here instead of goal because I look at the aim as the overall direction of the project, whereas the as-yet-undefined goal would be something a little more specific and actionable.  More on this later).  Yes, you read right, I’m trying to save the world.  I’m one of those pretentious, naive, douchebag college graduates who thinks he can save the world.  Except, I don’t think that.  But I do have to try.  Before you roll your eyes and give up on me; hear me out.  No, I don’t think I’m going to save the world.  Obviously.  I’m not a lunatic.  Maybe the world doesn’t even need saving.  Maybe the world is fine.  Or maybe it’s not fine, but it shouldn’t be saved.  Fine.  I have to admit that, at the moment, I don’t have skills or the facts that would allow me to argue any of these points one way or the other.  

That’s where the project comes in.  And here we come at last to the goal.  Essentially, my goal is to build the intellectual foundation needed to form an argument for why and how the world should be saved.  I have no illusions that anyone else is likely to agree with my conclusions, (if I reach any) but it’s important that I have a solid basis for actions in my own life.  That is, I want to contribute to the world’s salvation rather than its destruction.  This probably sounds incredibly stupid, and I know you’re all thinking I have visions of becoming a vegetarian and advocating for fair trade coffee and all that neo hippie stuff (not a slam on hippies or neo-hippies), but I can assure you that’s not where I’m headed with this.  Or, at least, I don’t think so.  Even if eating plants instead of animals could save the world, it’s unreasonable to expect the whole world to give up eating animals.  It won’t happen.  I’m a pragmatist, so I’m acutely aware that me giving up meat is not going to help solve anything.  No, my aim here is more to get at the root of the problem.  What is it in human nature that creates the problems of the world (or results in us failing to address problems) and how might we begin to start steering the ship of human behavior in the right direction?  

So that’s the overview.  If you’re interested, continue reading.  If not, see ya later.  In my next post, I’ll attempt to explain my method a bit.  That’s where the fun starts.  Until next time…