So What Makes Wes Tick?

            Politically I'm a bit tricky to describe; I'm neither liberal nor conservative, Republican nor Democrat. But I'm not really a "moderate" either-- I do take strong stands on many issues. Sometimes those stands will be identified as conventionally "liberal," at other times as conventionally "conservative." Moreover, the stands are not only variable, but pretty complex-- even within a given issue I'll assume strong convictions, some of which are held by liberals and others by conservatives (as in the case of Iraq, for example). Above all, I'm deeply analytical about whatever stand I take, and I just don't believe that the shoehorned categories of "conservative" or "liberal," as we often conceive them, reflect the reality around us. Thus although you'll see a consistent strain of thought in what I write, it'll be tough to pigeonhole it into traditional categories. I'm an inveterate believer in the moral capacity of the human mind, in the adaptability of the human intellect, and in the inherent moral value of sentient, conscious beings, human and animal. You can see some of my contemplation at work, big-picture style, in my Vision essay. In general, I think that the best society vigorously encourages people to utilize their talents to the max and to act creatively-- while preserving the memory of its culture as well as the earlier creative achievements of human civilization and nature alike.

          Stated briefly: A successful society enables the creative juices of its people to flow and to nourish the soil of intellectual, artistic, commercial, and scientific and technological achievement, while simultaneously and consciously preserving "nature's creativity"-- i.e., the natural richness of the flora and fauna in that society's ecosystem. Thus, in my very humble opinion, the great challenge of society today is to reconcile the basic needs and strivings of its human population with the indispensable requirement to preserve and protect the wealth innate in its environment, and so in turn, the economic calculations of such a society place a high premium on clean living and ecological sustainability. This belief is a massive driver for me in what I consider to be humanity's most important project in the third millennium-- reopening the frontier into space. Moral and ethical dilemmas, historically, have been confronted successfully only when technical advances merge with arguments of justice to produce a viable solution-- the abolition of slavery in the wake of the industrial revolution being a prime example. There are several technical advances which, I believe, will be critical in avoiding catastrophic wars and serious damage to world civilization in the 21st century-- cheap desalination of water and improvement of renewable energy sources being among the most critical. But above all, we've got to become spacefaring. Otherwise, we're gonna be stuck in a zero-sum game in which everybody will lose.

HOME