Goodbye.

F.R. ^ | 9/29/2007 | Jack Black

[Jack Black]

After 9 years, 9,217 postings and 158 original threads I have decided to leave Free Republic.

I haven't arrived at this decision lightly, FR has been a huge part of my life for a decade.

I've learned a tremendous amount from interacting with people here. A lot of my beliefs have been challenged, and I've had to rethink things I on many occassions. There are not too many places where you can learn from sincere people in an atmosphere of open discussion.

My reasons for leaving are twofold.

First, and most importantly, I think I'm graduating. I've probably gotten whatever I am going to get, in the way of education and, hopefully educating others, out of this place. But, after a while, it seems that a lot of the old discussions come around again.

Every day is precious, and in some fundamental way we are what we do. Being a total newshound, and knowing everything about the latest ins-and-out of the issues is gratifying. But, at this point in my life, I think I just need to let go of some level of obsession with it, and do other things.

And, in the second place, I feel that we've used whatever opportunity we had to influence things and our country is just not destined to go in the direction I would like.

The original charter for Free Republic talked about "restoring the Republic" (if I'm not mistaken) and the current one speaks of moving conservatism forward. Sadly, I don't see these things happening, and I don't see internet discussion as being a key, for me at least, to helping them happen.

At some point the 'education and discussion' phase of any political program needs to give way to the activism part. I have deep respect for the activists who have done so many great events, particularly the Gathering of Eagles. I have had the privilige of participating in a few FR organized outings and they are the highlight of my time here.

At this point I think I need to seek more harmony with the world around me, and that has to include coming to terms with the fact that I live in a very socialist state, run by many corrupt individuals. For me, given where I am in my life and the burdens I carry, it just isn't working to care about these things quite as much as I do.

Looking back, I would rate our greatest accomlishment as a group the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Perhaps it is the spector of his wife becoming President that has soured me on the future of our country, and on internet activism as a way to influence it.

Our greatest failure has been the inability of the Republican majority, which many of us worked for decades to achieve, to even attempt to implement any of our key issues. This is both sad, and pathetic. I cannot accept it, but in the end I have no choice.

I fear that if I stay engaged I will become cynical an bitter. These are not traits that I consider admirable, and taking a harsh and honest look at myself I think I'm already slipping down that path.

In large part leaving here is an attempt to re-orient myself around things I can control, around areas I can be successful in, and around things that will make me happy.

I've made a few on-line acquaintances who I hope to keep in touch with, hopefully you feel the same, and I'll be sending you Freep Mail with my contacts, if you don't have them already. I'd love to hear from you at any time.

I've been co-owner of the Civil War II ping list. This has been a great list where we have discussed the most disturbing trends, events that have caused some authors or posters to think our country may suffer again as we did in the 19th Century when visions of the future diverged so completely. I don't know what the future holds but it is my most sincere wish that as a nation we find some way out, some way to come together. Sadly, I'm sceptical about our ability to find that way. The list will now be maintained and run by Archy and Travis. Once could not ask for better owners than that.

I'd like to thank Jim and the staff for everything they have provided to me and thousands of others. I think they have done a lot for the country with this forum. My last act here will be to send Jim a few more checks. I'm probably way behind on what I owe, and will try to make good on my debts to the forum. I urge any of you who are not contributing enough to try to do a little better.

This is a very special place, and I will take solace every day knowing that it is here, filled with good people putting up the good fight. You will all be with me in my thoughts and prayers. I hope you will think kindly of me.

Thank to everyone for making FR what it is. May each of you follow your dreams and find success in your lives.

Goodbye.

-J.B.

[Revolting cat!]

I like a good opus, you know, insults flying, personal attacks, poster’s disappointments, blood on the screen, but this? You gotta be kidding! Get back on the track, jack!

[stephenjohnbanker]

BUMP!~

[TLI]

CWII list ping!

BTTT

[RinaseaofDs]

I disagree. It isn’t just a website. It’s a community. While being a conservative forum, there are innumerable subgroups of every conceivable interest. People group in real life to protest, or to counter protest, or to show up live to important events in order to report.

In many ways, you are witnessing the reincarnation of network news, only this time the news is being brought to you by all kinds of people all over the world.

I’ve seen these Opii, and I think they serve their purpose. They are cathartic, they are healthy, and they are a public declaration by some of the most passionate, intelligent people in the conservative movement, that perhaps all of the work isn’t worth it with the current crop of idiots that have R’s behind their names.

On the other hand, the world is a complex place, and we only know a fraction of what our elected leaders do, and so a certain benefit of the doubt is in order.

I’ve digressed, but the point remains that FR is more than just a website, and that the Opus is more than just goodbye.

[Noumenon]

There are those on this forum who prefer whistling past the graveyard of history rather than acknowledging the direction and potential fate of this American republic.

Recal this quote from Leonard Peikoff's The Ominous Parallels

A German intellectual made the following statement after the Nazis fell from power.

”In the early days of Hitler’s regime, he recalled, anyone troubled by the Nazi practices and concerned about Germany’s future was shrugged off as an alarmist. And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this, and you can’t prove it. These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you know for sure when you don’t know the end, and how do you know, or even surmise the end? On the one hand, your enemies, the law, the regime, the Party, intimidate you. On the other your colleagues pooh-pooh you as pessimistic or even neurotic.”

The judgement of history has been very harsh upon those who've hid their heads in the sand. Upon those who failed to resist. Upon those who surendered their minds, their souls, their spiritual soverignty and their very being to the power-lusters.

We now face two sets of enemies - Islam and the communist/socialist enemy within. No one seems to have the will or the courage to call them by their proper names. There's your canary in the mineshaft.

[Noumenon]

The American people may oppose the nation’s present course, but by themselves the people cannot change it. They may oppose the taxes and the bureaucrats, but these are merely consequences, which cannot be significantly cut back so long as their source is untouched. (Emphasis mine. Noumenon) The people may curse “big government” in general – but to no avail if the pressure groups among them, following the logic of a mixed economy, continue to be fruitful and to multiply.  The people may “swing to the right,” but it is futile, if the leaders of the right are swinging to their own (religious) brand of statism. 

 

The country may throw the rascals out, but it means nothing if the next administration is made of neo-rascals from the other party. To change a nation’s basic course requires more than a mood of popular discontent. It requires the definition of new direction for the country to take. Above all, it requires a theoretical justification for this direction, one which would convince people that the course being urged is practical and moral. 

 

Moral considerations alone might not be sufficient to move men, if they believe the course being urged is impractical; practical considerations alone will not move men, if they believe the course is immoral. The union of the two, however, is irresistible. 

 

By its nature, changing the course of a nation is a task that can be achieved only by men who deal with the field of ideas. In the long run the people of a country have no alternative: they end up following the lead of the intellectuals. The intellectuals cannot escape ideas, either. They may become anti-ideological skeptics, who offer the country for guidance only subjective feelings and short-range pragmatism (describes the current political landscape all too well. Noumenon); but it is the ideas – ultimately, the basic ideas – they still accept, explicitly or otherwise, which determine the content of their feelings and of their pragmatism. 

 

In the long run, intellectuals, too, have no alternative: they end up following the lead of the philosophers. If there is no new philosophy to guide and rally the better men among them, the intellectuals will follow one that is old and bankrupt. If there are no living ideas, they will follow dying ones and take the country with them…

 

In the absence of any principled opposition, the Kantian ideas by default will continue to rule, and to move us further down the road on which, for so many years, we have been traveling.

 

From “Convulsion and Paralysis”

Leonard Peikoff – The Ominous Parallels - 1993

[Lurker]

No one seems to have the will or the courage to call them by their proper names.

Not quite no one my friend.

L

[fr_freak]

(Snip)we have a lot more posters these days who cannot:

......2) post a reply without adding some sort of insult

Excellent example, right there in your very post!

Or maybe you don't see that you just did what you accused others of doing on this one either.

That's funny. I knew when I posted it that you would call me out for insulting you somehow. I'll admit that I feel the temptation to insult people now and then, especially when I think a person is deliberately refusing to acknowledge a particular point just so he/she can keep arguing. As it is, my comment was this:

"As I said before, I refuse to believe that you are not capable of seeing the difference. You might very well prove me wrong, though."

That is not an insult. It may seem like a bit of a condescending statement, but the "insults" I was referring to are actual insults, such as "You're too stupid to have children", or "You are an illiterate moron", both of which are examples of insults that I have received as first responses to posts in which I have made no insulting or condescending remarks. If you think my statement above was an insult, just wait until you get some real insults.

My personal policy on FR is that I don't insult anybody until they insult me, and then it's "game on". Another pet peeve I have which may result in sarcastic or condescending statements is when people make things personal, rather than simply debating the topic. For example, if I post an opinion and I get a response from someone who has decided that my opinion is based purely on thoughts and feelings that the responder has assigned to me, I tend believe that the poster is not attempting to engage in any serious debate, but is instead merely on some kind of ego trip. An example of that kind of response would be "You only think that because you are insecure in your manhood" or some such nonsense.

As it is, my statement above was made because we've gone back and forth on the question of whether posting a critical response to an opus is the same as starting an opus thread, and you appear to remain firm in your opinin that it is. So, my statement means exactly what it says - that you might prove me wrong in my belief that you do recognize a difference between the two acts, because you appear to be defending the idea that they are the same.

[Travis McGee]

There are a few around here!

[Squantos]

Quiet a few........ :o)

[Eaker]

Spot on post!

[MileHi]

Just so...

[Eaker]

Yep.

[Not A Snowbird]

Goodie, an opportunity to post this!

[stylecouncilor]

Why do they always have to announce they are leaving?

[windcliff]

I have no idea unless they want a parting gift.

[archy]

Why do they always have to announce they are leaving?

Two good reasons come to mind: One, so concerned FRiends won't incorrectly think that ill health or ill fortune has interrupted their presence here. The principle is that of asking to be excused at the dinner table, dispensed with in less formal circumstances [a sandwich at the kitchen table] but maintained for more formal occasions. I hope you're familiar with such formalities, and appreciate their presence here as elsewhere.

The second reason: that we miught note the missed presence of one of our own, and hope for an eventual return:

And he spake this parable unto them, saying,

"What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?"

And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

--Luke 15: 3-7 (King James Version)

[in the Arena]

Godspeed JB...It's been an Honor...

Jim

[in the Arena]

+1

[wizr]

I won’t say goodbye either, just thanks for everything you’ve done here.

Take a break. Everyone needs one once in a while.

You are needed to fight the good fight, whether we are victorious or not. We just keep on.

Amen, brother.

Mike