Everybody should have the the right to choose what is published, and what is not published about their own ideas, and their own personal life. My brother, who is a landlord, was recently telling me about how he always googles the folks applying to live in the apartments he rents out. And quite often, such folks have posted something odd about themselves on their myspace account. And he disqualifies them.

Particularly, it's sobering for a deep thinking individual to start publishing under her or his own name. To delve into deep and critical thought about issues in the world around us, means you have to appraise things fairly; and in the usa... people are accustomed to not appraising things even handedly.

Folks here, have a habit of looking for what appears to be the consensus about an issue. They line up their beliefs with the paradigm, which seems to be commonly held.

Intellectuals are far worse. In the usa, these folks indulge in rancor, and bitter dialogue back and forth with eachother. They call it "debate" and they consider it a good sport.

A person who thinks logically and independently will often come to conclusions which are very different than the things his society subscribes to at the moment. If he's not being careful about how he presents his ideas, he will write in a philosophical style... and a casual reader will have a hard time wading through text. The writer makes strong assertions on the basis of novel premises, which are not familiar to the reader.

But whether a person is clear, or obfuscates his ideas behind eloquent turns of language... new ideas will often be scorned in the usa.

I have deep thinking friends... and I've watched the ridicule games play out around them.

So, it is with much hesitation that I stand on edge of this turret, and prepare to spread my wings, eyeing the horizon (by the way - this picture is a photo of my avatar in the virtual world of SecondLife - a video game in which people can fly).

However, there comes a time when one must make one's debut upon the world. I have published reams of essays under anonymous names in various internet forums over the past several years. I'm not sure if it's ethical to throw good ideas to the wind like that... but now I have a place where I can pen them, and publish them under my own name.