For the past two years I have not been blogging. A number of reasons existed for my lack of blogging. But, I am returning to this format to throw out my thoughts on weightier matters.
I will freely admit that the biggest reason I quit blogging for a long period of time was the use of Facebook to engage with my family, friends, former students, and interested bystanders (wait, are they bystanders if they just read some random stuff that you post on social media?). What I decided was that Facebook was not the place that I wanted to post my thoughts on the weightier matters that I had been blogging about prior to fall 2016. While Facebook proves quite adequate for me to bemoan grading papers versus watching leaves fall from trees (I blogged about this once), I determined over the last two years that Facebook as a place to engage in thoughtful interaction over issues of importance to myself was of limited value. The interaction turns into argumentation without the limitations of interpersonal interaction. In other words, without personal interaction we humans tend toward great negativity and fail to even try to understand those with whom we disagree. For my two cents, human interaction is about understanding, even when we do disagree. So, while I intend to stay in touch with family, friends, and others on Facebook, I will now return to blogging to deal with my thoughts on issues and events of interest to me as a student of political violence.
