I had a long drive over the weekend. I spent it listening to Jordan Peterson.

I caught an excellent episode with Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation. It’s a sprawling 97 minute discussion of everything conservatism is, everything it should be, where it falls short, how to make up the difference…

Here’s the episode:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4JGhfcJHbgAOMBdZdstycL?si=6c62146324974a4c

…and, toward the beginning, a concept I’ve been struggling to put my finger on.

The topic was the American university’s new obsession with “safety”, especially intellectual safety. A higher education is, as Peterson notes, supposed to upset one’s adolescent stupidity, and thereby teach you how to think critically about all your, and everyone’s, preconceptions.

Roberts pointed out that in the traditional University system – especially in Europe – the goals are:

• To have an intense, probing debate without a whole lot of regard for what the various parties feel about the issue…
• …while observing some standards in the argument – the basics of human respect, not to mention logic and social decorum.

Now, call me a dreamer, but that’s what I’ve always shot for on this blog, and in the comments.

We’ll come back to that.

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I’ve had plenty of feedback about the disabled comment section. I do appreciate it. I miss having it turned on as well.

It’ll be back.

But in this past week, I’ve done a bunch of thinking.

As I pointed out last week, I’ve always treated “managing” the comments with a certain amount of idealism. Pragmatic idealism – I also barely have enough free time to read the comments, much less play manager – but idealism nonetheless.

I figured “we’re all adults”. I asked a bunch of adults, respectfully, to mind their manners and treat each other with the same basic respect.

It didn’t seem like that big an ask at the time. And for about 20 years, I was mostly right.

And, let’s be honest – this blog is more a personal exercise in self-discipline and thought-development than “citizen journalism”, to say nothing of a money-making venue. I’ve been amazed to have an audience for a couple of decades, now – and, yes, blessed. Much of what I genuinely like about my life, particularly my social life, springs from the connections this blog started for me.

I figured the input should match the output.

But there’s been more than enough output for me to make it worth making things work.

More tomorrow.