Tuesday April 23, 2024 
Podcasts – The Digital Gutenberg Revolution
I’ve spent a lot of time listening to Jordan Peterson podcasts lately where I’ve found answers to many of life’s great mysteries as well as a clearer understanding of what’s happening in our society today.
Before getting into the latest of these revelations, I better back up a bit and explain what a podcast is and what it means to communication. A podcast is an audio and/or video method of storytelling that makes it possible to reach far more people than the written story. It’s a Gutenberg Revolution on steroids.
Podcasts can be listened to while driving or doing housework or any number of things where you wouldn’t be able to read a book while doing them.
A couple months ago I wrote a letter here describing a book by Jordan Peterson entitled “12 Rules for Life”. I’ve read part of it but have found that listening to Dr. Peterson’s podcasts gives me a great deal more knowledge in a far shorter period of time.
The podcast I listened to last night was a YouTube video interview of Dr. Peterson and Dr. Bret Weinstein moderated by Joe Rogan. It was a fascinating discussion that addressed many aspects of politically correct speech. If you think that expanding your mind into the societal and biological aspects of politically correct speech is something that would interest you, you can find the interview by searching the Internet for “Joe Rogan Experience #1006”. It’s a 2 hour and 45 minute interview. It was very interesting from start to finish but one 15 minute segment in particular got deep into the psychological, biological, societal and political reasoning behind the income disparities between men and women. That segment begins at about the 30 minute mark. But be warned, it may burst all your political preconceptions.
I only had one point of contention with some matter-of-fact statements each of these men made regarding how they define the political right and its relationship to the political left. I’ll delve deeper into that down the road.
David Crawmer
North Greenbush
Waltzing With My Darling
I learned to waltz many years ago
In local fire halls, community centers and a gin mill, or two.
Adult relatives were kind enough
To teach this kid how to dance.
I had relatives who were foxtrot champs,
But I was drawn to the waltz.
My Grandpa and my mother could really waltz,
And I followed in their footsteps (literally).
But, it was when I met the love of my life…
The girl who would become my wife…
That I really felt the magic
Of the waltz…..
“Light on her feet!”
Was an inadequate description of her dancing….
She literally flowed with the music of a waltz,
And she carried me along with her…still does!
Though now old, we still love to waltz;
She still moves like a graceful princess.
And moving with her, I’m a prince….
I look forward to waltzing with her forever..!!
Lloyd Barnhart
West Sand Lake
Is There No Boundary to Limit the Left-Wing’s Extremism?
Where do your beliefs reside with regard to the political spectrum? Are you right, left or center? Do you tell people that you reside in the center? Have you been told you are on the right or left by people who don’t agree with you? How can they be the judge? What is the true center?
The other day I heard a highly respected statesman claim that white supremacists are members of the extreme right, aka the Alt Right. I would like to ask him why? Who or what positions them on the right? Why do they not occupy a position on the left? Where would black supremacists reside? What about Chinese supremacists, as they consider China to be the center of The Universe? Wouldn’t they all belong on the left being as they identify as a group? Isn’t individualism a centrist idea?
Why do we call it a political spectrum anyway? What could possibly be the center of a spectrum? If you were playing a political tug of war, a tape at the very middle of the rope would be the center and that tape would be aligned over a stake in the ground. As time progressed and the left team pulled the tape over to their side of the stake, what then marks the center? Would you consider it to be the ribbon …or the stake? If those on the left claimed the ribbon to be the center and that the stake was now actually on the right, would you just cede that territory to them? Would you simply accept being called a radical right-wing extremist by socialists who’ve labeled you that way just to make themselves appear less radical? The left is using this group identity scheme to demonize Conservatism.
The point I’m trying to make is that we need a constant benchmark to define the center. I believe that benchmark, the stake in the ground, is our Constitution. Those of us who want to conserve the Constitution as our benchmark, to keep our nation’s ideological center, haven’t been trying to move that benchmark. We’re not playing a tug of war. We’re not pulling anyone anywhere except back to the center.
David Crawmer
Wynantskill