Thursday, May 1, 2008

Genesis

Generally, this page will not come from the "I." That should not make anyone think for a second that I am not biased or that this page has any sort of empirical merit, beyond being true to citing sources where it is appropriate, and the citing of miscellany from various traditions, and various countries. Furthermore, I will attempt to update this site once or more weekly, but due to previous engagements (i.e. life), I can't guarantee that.

Why start a blog when I already have one (here)? This is an attempt to be scholarly with each and every post, and my personal blog is a mixture of venting, memoir, and quasi-scholastic writing, not to be mistaken for this site - which will be a conscious effort to enter the public arena and tear out the mouldered and desiccated drywall that has begun to fester. I shall then attempt to proceed with a certain degree of positivity, at times, with the hope of offering a contrapuntal melody.

Why am I an evolutionary psychologist? There are numerous reasons, but they distill down to my leaning toward evolution as a tentative and as yet unfinished way of explaining humanity's origins and hoping we can find a way to understand one another. You could lump this under the liberal doctrine of idealizing education. Though our evolutionary past and present is a litany of war, jealousy, greed, and general malfeasance, our evolutionary future is certainly unwritten. It takes hundreds of generations before a mutation can take place, and become a trait, but if we don't start doing something soon we'll either end up like Mad Max or a cretin in Idiocracy.

Why am I a humanist? To sum it up:
"Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity," from the American Humanist Association. How radical? Radical enough to be fed up with the Republocrat chokehold on American politics.

Last but not least, why cinema? I have a huge passion for movies, regardless of genre. The key for me is that they be intelligent; if not, they should prepare for a lashing.

What is up with the title? Mozi was a Chinese philosopher who established enough of a name to have people attribute amazing things to him in our day and age, such as Newton's first law of motion. He also invented the Camera Obscura, which is the predecessor to Camera and Film.

Please stop by and see if anything interests you here. There will be many forthcoming essays, and links about evolutionary psychology, humanism, cinema, and how they're all linked.

Thank you

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