Kitten,
You are such a dear, dear, marvelous miracle in my life, but have no fear, sweetie.
Hardly anybody on SoloHQ thinks that I am the cause of the split between Linz and Joe. The only one apparently who does is that little intellectual cockroach who sporadically pops up to yap about the evils of this person or that, including even Chris Sciabarra. His standard is that the person has to be in the limelight somehow so he can try to steal some of the light for himself. Pure second-hander.
Some people bonked him because I stepped hard on their toes when they tried to insult you or me. They prefer those who turn the other cheek and I don't - especially not about you (despite a controversial article or two). Some people just don't like me. So boo-hoo, anyway. I'm losing sleep over it...
I will not analyze the split between Joe and Linz here. It ain't me - the causes are other and, I suspect, deeper than they seem on the surface. I have communicated with both off line and, despite our differences, neither has asked me to refrain from contributing to the new sites. On the contrary, both have stated that there is ready room for my contributions.
(Joe does not like my style of literature, so don't expect to see any of my articles over there. But then again, he does not like the literature of anyone who writes the way I do and has told me so, thus I don't expect to see too many articles by several others, either - one other than myself was even mentioned. We disagree strongly on how Objectivism ties in with this genre, but I do not want to discuss this here. He is certainly entitled to his opinions and, as owner, is completely justified in choosing the guidelines for the content he wishes to print.)
For the record, I admire both of them (including Jeff). They are productive achievers - and productive achievers will always get my respect and admiration regardless of how they view my own accomplishments.
I want to make public what I have communicated in private to them, so here is as good a place as any.
I have not competed for any position on Solo, but I have contributed a high amount of posts. The reason for this is that I read much Rand (and Branden) before I went to Brazil. I stayed there 32 years without anybody to talk to about her. The ideas just kept fermenting in me. On coming back here, I came across this site where I met many intelligent people talking the same language - and it was like an oasis in the desert. Thirty-two years is a long time. I guess I went overboard, but I won't apologize. I thoroughly enjoyed it while it lasted. It wasn't anything malicious. It was simply a starved appetite showing up at a feast. (Don't forget that I am a reformed alcoholic and drug addict! //;-) Linz, Joe and Jeff are the ones I have to thank for being able to satisfy that appetite so completely - and for being able to meet you, Kitten, thus realize the dream of a lifetime - and for being able to meet and befriend so many heavies in the Objectivist world and even wonderful not-so-heavies who I suspect are now lifetime friends. All of this has vastly enriched my life. So I thank all three of them deeply from the bottom of my heart. My future contributions to their sites most likely will not be very voluminous since, as you well know, I have some other major literary projects now and many wonderful offline friends to attend to.
As to what most people really think of me, Kitten, they have been very clear about that in many forms. So let your dissent be against an intellectual cockroach and the select few who do not like me (or us - or even achievements like SoloHQ).
Michael
(Edited by Michael Stuart Kelly on 11/30, 1:41pm)
|
