The First

I sent out an email recently which addressed my issues with the "separate but equal" approach to the LGBT community in the United States. It will be the first post on this blog which is "about something". And that is the goal of this blog.

Most of the problems we experience in our everyday lives can be boiled down to a problem of language. What we label thoughts, feelings, objects, and people colors the way in which we experience or interact with them. Every person spends his or her time attempting to escape or avoid aversive situations, feelings, or people. If they do not do so full-time, then at least part-time. The purpose of this blog is to examine the thought processes that we employ when we analyze our world.

Often, we fail to see the world from other viewpoints. You may select whichever cliché fits for you: blinders, blindfolds, etc. We wear them. There is a tendency on the part of all of us to blame the person who suffers from the myopia for his or her condition. We speak of the person wearing blinders made of his own creation or blinding herself to the problem. We do what we learn.

In my field, I am a behaviorist. To students of philosophy, I am a physicalist. I do not believe the brain is a separate entity from the body. I hold no concept of soul. There are no "good people" or "bad people"; there are good behaviors and bad behaviors. Even determining which behaviors are good or bad is subjective relative to context and culture. Most important, I hold no concept of "free will".

That is not to say that I believe that humans are automatons. We respond and react to reinforcers (stimuli that increase the occurrence of behaviors) and punishers (stimuli that decrease the occurrence of behavior) in our everyday lives. There is no such thing as a closed system and that includes our brains, which are systems unto themselves. It is a kind of Gestalt that allows us to be more than just a robot reacting to stimuli in a preprogrammed kind of way. But that is a post for another day.

I told you all of that to tell you this. Many people are not taught to think critically about what they hear, read, or think. Since I cannot change the educational system in the United States or any other nation, I must do what I can. That means critically analyzing events and ideas in order to assist others in learning to do so or, at the very least, giving them another thought about the issue.

For now, I am giving myself the goal to write once a week about something. It may not be something in the news. I have a lot of ideas bouncing around my mind grapes. I will attempt to be interesting. I will be funny where I can. Mostly, I will attempt to add to the dialogue and not detract from it.