What seems to be an all too often occurrence is the emphasis on presentation over substance. A point of fact or rhetorical musing can only be good if presented well. It seems to me a failing of our education and systems which encourage personal growth, develop empathy, and foster an inquisitive mind.
Take TED Talks for example: given the same speaker with the same education and the same break throughs and put him or her on a street corner, would people listen as intently and applaud on cue? I am reminded of a 60 Minutes special looking at the immense strides in neurological oncology at Duke University, where physicians and researchers have been using the Poliovirus to infect and kill glioblastoma, a brutal malignant cancer in the brain that knows no age, race, or gender restrictions. In the report (at 5:25), Scott Pelly states: "As it turns out, when you're one of the world's leading cancer doctors, you can wear what you like." Pelly is referring directly to the Deputy Director of the Poliovirus Clinical Trials Dr. A. Henry Friedman. For those not interested in watching, Dr. Friedman was dressed in a Duke sweatshirt, jeans, and runners. The perception of an accomplished doctor leading a bleeding edge medical trial dressed as a Sunday Ticket bum had to be squared with a quip by the report to assure people of Dr. Friedman's credentials. In other words, Dr. Friedman's presentation was not, in of itself, good enough to make his point.
Now, most people reading this will look at what I've just written and say, 'That's preposterous!' But consider my original reference to TED Talks: would you listen to a person like that if they were in a less organized venue and dressed casually? Simply put, the answer is no.
This bothers me. Not enough to change the whole world, but enough to sit down and put some words to it. Poorly structured on some no-name blogging site which is mostly frequented by bots and my parents. My presentation is poor and boring and does not even have much support outside of my linking it on my Twitter feed on occasion. (Okay, after every post, at least once.) Does that mean the points I make here are worthless or too weak to be considered? I'd like to think not. Not because of some small self-assured part of me, but because of the process by which I come to my conclusions.
The title for this particular post is something of an insight into the slow process of writing for me. There are large gaps in my post frequency. There are rants and there are posts where I read them over slowly to be sure to eliminate as many errors, logical inconsistencies, and unnecessary tangents as I can. I write because I want to write well. I won't write well without going through a long process of writing poorly. Editing. Reading better writers than myself. Writing more. Reading more. And so forth.
I write because I have ideas that I want to put down in some venue that someone might glean some information from. By no means am I an authority on some matters, but that does not mean all points made here are moot. The act of writing improves my future writing. Writing with purpose now will eventually lead to something resembling good writing in the future. I have the topics which I enjoy most: ethics, morality, anti-theism, contrarian approaches to some matters, and the occasional personal insight. I can grow from there, pruning out items that are no longer interesting or pressing to me.
It is a bit of a path to being enlightened. Talking to yourself gives no feedback. Posting something online doesn't really, either, with the immense amount of noise, but at least it has the potential. It refines ideas slowly by forcing me to read what my thoughts are. I can conclude whether or not the drive home rant was something of value or just me passing time. Being a good writer will take time. It will pay off, though: good writers are often better able to present their ideas more succinctly and with better flow. Their good points are obviously good, not requiring them to be verbose or their audience equipped with a thesaurus. I can be better at this and I strive to do so. Being a polemic on the way is also enjoyable.
This has been an unedited rant. @nrokchi
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