One year ago, I made my first tentative post to this blog. It was really a test more than a post, as were the handful of posts for the next two weeks. We really didn’t get running until mid-March, 2006.
In that month of March 2006, “Grumpypilgrim” and I were happy to see that, on average, 29 people visited this site every day. Probably 20 of these daily visits were me. This month (February, 2007), there have been almost 2,000 visits to this site every day. I guarantee that most of them are not me. Over the life of this blog, we’ve now published 830 posts and we’ve received more than 3,000 comments.
I am honored that so many people would take the time to visit this site and to actually stay for awhile. The average visitor reads three pages, the most commonly read page being the home page, which consists of the ten most recent posts.
I am truly fortunate to be sharing this space with my co-authors. Some of them, such as Jason, have been my friends for a long time. Others are people I’ve met (in person or electronically) more recently. I carefully read everything each of them posts to this site.
Many people ask whether I can tell who is visiting the blog. The answer is no. My traffic software does not provide me with any meaningful identifying information. It does show me, though, that most visitors are from the U.S. Next in line are “unknown,” then Canada, UK, China, European Union, Japan, Netherlands, Germany and Australia.
The traffic stats are fun and exciting, though too-often distracting. What is even more satisfying are the emails I receive from people who tell me that they found this site to be informative, provocative and, sometimes, inspirational. Equally satisfying are the comments that help me to better understand a topic.
Sometimes, I’m clearly in error, and the comments we receive are good strong medicine. Many of these comments are from our co-authors. This “cross-pollination” is wonderfully helpful, as well as entertaining. The authors are delighted, though, to receive comments from the readers. Most people read without commenting, though. People like you . . . and you! We would love to hear from you . . . whenever you are ready.
I started this blog because I often couldn’t find cultural criticism publications that described issues in ways that made enough sense to me. For instance, many cultural criticism articles ignore well-established findings in the areas of cognitive science and evolution. Though many articles take on potentially deep topics, they fail to push the topics hard enough. They failed to ask obvious questions. I suspect that many publications are afraid to ask simple questions because it might be dangerous to do so. A simple question might distress some readers. It might cause a heated discussion somewhere. It might trigger an existential unraveling of the psyche.
I decided to use this site to raise simple questions frankly and to publicly work through those questions, citing linked information wherever relevant. I’ve tried to draw in skeptical/scientific thinking wherever possible. This approach stems from my twin prejudices: A) that the most interesting questions look simple, and B) when I stop asking simple questions, it’s time to bury me.
I’ve found that my approach to blogging has made me a more disciplined writer and thinker. I know that my way of understanding the world has sharpened in focus over the past year. I think that I am better able to ask those simple questions that provoke.
For more on the origin of this blog, check out an earlier post, “Why I blog.” [1]
I’m celebrating this one-year milestone with a promise that we are just getting started here at Dangerous Intersection. In coming posts, I’ll continue to raise simple questions and I’ll continue to push those questions hard in my posts. When considering competing version of morality, I will repeatedly remind myself that morality that lacks empathy isn’t worth a damn. I’ll actively listen to you (and to the co-authors) and I’ll strive to follow evidence only where it leads. I will try to be loyal to truth first, above any other form of loyalty. I hope you’ll find it worthwhile.
Print this post [2]
[3]