I began blogging about 16 years ago, when blogging was
somewhat fashionable. At that time, many blogs were like public diaries in
which people discussed daily events in their lives. I have the impression that blogs
of that kind have become less common, presumably because of competition from
social media such as Facebook.
I can’t recall ever having used this blog to discuss
daily events in my life and have rarely used it to discuss hot political issues.
At the outset, I decided that I didn’t want the blog to be about me. And I
thought it would be wise to focus on longer term issues, rather than to be unduly
distracted by the day-to-day antics of politicians.
One of the distinctive characteristics of the blog is
that the title of each article is a question. That seemed to me to be a good
way to stay on topic in exploring relationships between freedom and
flourishing. (I have previously discussed the question format here.)
My reasons for blogging are still much the same as
they were when I began. In a post in 2011, entitled "What
is my purpose in blogging?”, I wrote:
“When people
have asked me this question in the past my answer has been that I am interested
in issues related to liberty and happiness. I read a lot of material related to
those issues; I write about the things I read because that helps to focus my
mind; and I publish what I write on my blog because my views might be of
interest to some other people.”
My blog has evolved in various ways that have helped
sustain my enthusiasm for blogging.
Evolution of the blog
When I began blogging, my main objective was to
understand the links between freedom and life satisfaction that were evident in
survey data. Surveys show that people who say they have a lot of freedom also
tend to say they have high life satisfaction.
My objectives have become more focused as I have come
to understand more about the importance of self-direction to the flourishing of
individual humans. These days I am particularly interested in exploring the
implications of the idea that progress should be viewed as growth of
opportunities for individuals to flourish.
From the outset, most of my blog posts have been prompted
by articles and books I have read. I sometimes review a whole book, but more
often select some ideas in it that I want to explore. A fairly recent example
of this approach is my
review of The
Individualists, by Matt
Zwolinski and John Tomasi. My review focuses on the question: Where is the soul
of libertarianism? (I use that essay as
an example because I think it deserves more attention than it has received thus
far.)
In my early years of blogging, I conducted a
substantial amount of quantitative research using survey data on life
satisfaction and personal freedom, along with more objective measures of economic
and personal freedom. I still retain some interest in quantitative analysis, and
am proud of a series of posts last year (summarized
here) on the question: Can cultural values explain authoritarianism?
When I began blogging, I posted about once a week. These
days I tend to post about once every couple of weeks. When I began blogging, I
tried to keep posts as short as possible. More recently, my posts have tended
to be longer, but I frequently use sub-headings and conclusions to help readers
follow the line of argument.
Benefits of blogging
The benefits I obtain from blogging don’t include
wealth or fame. If either wealth or fame was my motivation for blogging, I
would have given up many years ago.
The main benefit I obtain from blogging is the satisfaction
of learning about a topic by writing about it. There is also some satisfaction
in knowing that what I am writing is attracting some attention.
I don’t know how many people actually read the essays
on my blog, but there have been 1,197,600 views in total since I started the
blog. There were 24,768 views last month.
My most popular post is entitled: What
are the characteristics of a good society? That post has had 56,600 views.
One of the important benefits I have obtained from
blogging is to establish contact with like-minded people in other parts of the
world who share my interest in liberty and ancient philosophy.
Blogging has also helped me to develop my views
sufficiently to be able to write a couple of books. I wrote and published Free
to Flourish on Kindle in 2012. Freedom,
Progress and Human Flourishing was published, by Hamilton Books, in
2021. I consider that writing the latter book has been one of the most significant
achievements of my life.
Conclusion
To sum up, I am still blogging because blogging gives
me a lot of satisfaction. Blogging has helped me to deepen my understanding of the
importance of self-direction to human flourishing. Blogging has enabled me to
establish contact with like-minded people who share some of my interests. Blogging
also helped me to write Freedom, Progress, and Human Flourishing, which
I view as one of my most significant achievements.
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