The start of a new calendar year as well as a
new academic term provides an opportunity to return to writing for The Mexican Intellectual. The obvious question to emerge, however, is
why I was missing in action in the first place.
There are a few inter-related reasons that I wish to share with you now.
Mental fatigue: One aim of this blog has been to comment on the issues of the day in a timely and relevant fashion. Among some of the news dominating public attention during the last quarter of 2014: 1/ events and protests borne from racial tensions between civil authorities and the communities they are sworn to protect resulting in the loss of life and ongoing tensions, 2/ airline disasters resulting in the massive loss of life, with at least one still unresolved and another with international geopolitical implications, 3/ the spread of a deadly disease with international geopolitical implications resulting in the massive loss of life and paranoid reactions to those committed to stemming the spread of disease and loss of life, 4/Charges and counter-charges of sexual abuse involving college students, university administrators, and a legendary celebrity. At times, it was too much for me to take in, let alone to think of anything novel to say about any of it without thinking that I was adding to the cacophony of voices rather than providing any clarity.
Insecurity: Part of this stems from my observation of mental fatigue, namely that I could not or would not have anything new to say about the state of the world or the human condition that would be worth saying without it adding to the numerous voices already speaking. Further, I thought that no one would read what I wrote anyway. This spring will mark three years since my colleague and I launched The Mexican Intellectual, and while I touted the number of page views on the first anniversary, I admit that I have become discouraged with the numbers since then, which has prompted me to question the point of the entire endeavor.
Fear of writing: This is borne of my insecurity. To put it plainly, I discourage myself from writing; convinced that what I write will not be very good or that no one would read what I have written even if it has any merit to it. My fear of writing obviously is an irrational one, and I recognize it as such. Nevertheless, it exists.
So what am I to do?
Several years ago, I was a contributor to a short-lived alumni blog for my alma mater (which unfortunately is no longer available.) I devoted one entry to confronting the challenges of writing a weekly blog. At the time, I found inspiration in George Orwell’s essay, “Why I Write,” in which he outlined “four great motives for writing.” These are,
Mental fatigue: One aim of this blog has been to comment on the issues of the day in a timely and relevant fashion. Among some of the news dominating public attention during the last quarter of 2014: 1/ events and protests borne from racial tensions between civil authorities and the communities they are sworn to protect resulting in the loss of life and ongoing tensions, 2/ airline disasters resulting in the massive loss of life, with at least one still unresolved and another with international geopolitical implications, 3/ the spread of a deadly disease with international geopolitical implications resulting in the massive loss of life and paranoid reactions to those committed to stemming the spread of disease and loss of life, 4/Charges and counter-charges of sexual abuse involving college students, university administrators, and a legendary celebrity. At times, it was too much for me to take in, let alone to think of anything novel to say about any of it without thinking that I was adding to the cacophony of voices rather than providing any clarity.
Insecurity: Part of this stems from my observation of mental fatigue, namely that I could not or would not have anything new to say about the state of the world or the human condition that would be worth saying without it adding to the numerous voices already speaking. Further, I thought that no one would read what I wrote anyway. This spring will mark three years since my colleague and I launched The Mexican Intellectual, and while I touted the number of page views on the first anniversary, I admit that I have become discouraged with the numbers since then, which has prompted me to question the point of the entire endeavor.
Fear of writing: This is borne of my insecurity. To put it plainly, I discourage myself from writing; convinced that what I write will not be very good or that no one would read what I have written even if it has any merit to it. My fear of writing obviously is an irrational one, and I recognize it as such. Nevertheless, it exists.
So what am I to do?
Several years ago, I was a contributor to a short-lived alumni blog for my alma mater (which unfortunately is no longer available.) I devoted one entry to confronting the challenges of writing a weekly blog. At the time, I found inspiration in George Orwell’s essay, “Why I Write,” in which he outlined “four great motives for writing.” These are,
(1) Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death…
(2) Esthetic enthusiasm. Perception of beauty in the external world, or … in the words and their right arrangement….
(3) Historical impulse. Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.
(4) Political purpose… Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.
These four, Orwell states, “exist in different degrees in every writer, and in
any one writer the proportions will vary from time to time, according to the
atmosphere in which he is living.”
These are worthwhile motivations for writing and, to some extent, were the bases for starting The Mexican Intellectual in the first place. While I struggle to accept the fact that not everything I write will be brilliantly perfect or perfectly brilliant, I hope at the very least that some of the things I have written already or have yet to write provide readers the opportunity to contemplate and discuss ideas from a different perspective.
These are worthwhile motivations for writing and, to some extent, were the bases for starting The Mexican Intellectual in the first place. While I struggle to accept the fact that not everything I write will be brilliantly perfect or perfectly brilliant, I hope at the very least that some of the things I have written already or have yet to write provide readers the opportunity to contemplate and discuss ideas from a different perspective.
