New Name! Also, More Hamilton Analysis/Personal Reflection

My blog's new title IS...

Guys, I found this gif  while reading the Genius.com Hamilton annotations on "Wait For It"

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Punching the Bursar

Curious how I decided on this? Well, I'll tell you...

First: there was the poll, for which the three I started out liking better all got zero votes. Polling was a good idea.

Hey, I said I'd be happy with like three votes. Five? Oh, ecstasy, thy name is 166% achievement.

I can now see the three bottom ones were appealing to me mainly because they were me trying too hard to be clever. Whereas the other two actually sound potentially like blog titles.

BUT WAIT if "Racing Thoughts" got more votes, why isn't it the title? Well, I never said the poll was binding, merely a way of acquiring feedback. So it was down to the top two, and I realized two things. One, the cynical marketing/branding side of my brain realized that "Side Effects May Include Racing Thoughts" sounds like a medical or ADD blog or something like that, as well as completely not Google unique, so anyone searching for my blog would first get a giant list of every page mentioning a medication with that side effect.

But this isn't a professional blog or anything for me, so the SEO part of it was way less important than having a title I could justify as far as what I wanted to write about and why. The source is of course, Hamilton, in which the title character describes how he tried to apply to Princeton "seeking an accelerated course of study", to graduate in two years and join the Revolution sooner, but when the administration denied him apparently the person delivering the message "looked at [him] like [he] was stupid" at which Hamilton "may have punched him, it's a blur."

So there's a lot wrapped up in that little exchange. There's defying authority. There's refusing to be condescended to. There's an insistence that his thoughts and ideas will be taken seriously, dammit (it resonates for me with the Federalist Papers exchange he has with Burr which I described here). And he's doing it because he wants to join in something that he thinks is important, to contribute whatever he can.

So personally, something I've had a lot of trouble with in the past is visualizing revolutionary change. I grew up in a pretty conservative society. Not necessarily the kind of rural, hardcore culture wars type stuff, but rather one that tended to be dismissive of the possibility or desirability of change. So, it wasn't that they overtly hated gay people, they just didn't see why it was necessary to make such a big deal over things like discounted "couples" tickets to the prom only being sold to heterosexual couples. And particularly, young people who didn't agree were seen as cute little aberrations going through a phase.

Oh, you're a liberal? Well, just wait until you start seeing how much the government takes out of your first paycheck and you'll change your tune quick... 

Oh, you're an atheist? Well you haven't yet really faced any real hardships of the type that show you when you have to turn to God, so you'll come around...

Or in other words, I'd tell people about my beliefs and they'd look at me like I was stupid. And I was NOT stupid. I never punched any of them, though. So now I shall. But, you know, with words. Word-punching is ok.

All this is not to claim I was some progressive visionary in my youth--far from it. My own journey, for instance, from childhood homophobia to fiercely supporting LGBT rights is a whooooole other story all its own. But though by high school I was an atheist Democrat in Texas, one of the most liberal people I knew, I had still internalized a lot of that dismissiveness towards my more radical tendencies, and that stifled them for a long time, I think. I wanted to change things, but always wanted to do it in "sensible" or "efficient" ways, without being too disruptive to the system, and to this day when I get even a little grandiose in my ambitions, I immediately have the instinct to pull back, to not commit so fully and risk looking like a fool.

So perhaps what I admire most is Hamilton's total lack of embarrassment at his own massive grandiosity. He announces that he WILL change the world. His writings WILL be read. He WILL NOT throw away his shot. Unlike Burr, who would try to stay out of trouble in order to keep his options open. I've been acting the Burr for far too long, and I honestly don't know if I'm a Burr who wishes he was a Hamilton or a Hamilton who was taught to be a Burr, but either way I've been striving back towards Hamilton-ness over the past couple years.

So the new mission statement for this newly re-titled blog is severalfold:

• Legitimately question the status quo towards progressive change or increased understanding
• Exhibit authentic self-expression no matter how embarrassing or imprudent in context.
• Connect with like-minded and un-like-minded people to discuss and learn together.
• Being open to the possibility of making mistakes and being wrong.

This will take a lot of forms. Some posts will be writing about pieces of media that I want to draw a message or theme out of, or that I had a particular reaction to (so, you know, the thing I actually studied in college). Some will be my takes on political or social issues, even if I'm not necessarily the best informed or positioned to speak on the topic. Some will be actual grandiose proposals of solutions and action that might be taken. Areas in which I already have thoughts brewing include: thorny geopolitical situations, contemporary worker's rights, real estate concepts, modern parenting, and a whole host of other things that from my resume I have no business discussing, but will be anyway because even if I'm DEAD WRONG I'd like to have the conversation about why I'm wrong so I can learn going forward.

So yeah, welcome to Punching The Bursar, by Joseph Labatt. Stay tuned and get ready, because a big upcoming post is likely to strain the "grandiose ideas" thing to just about its breaking point right out of the gate. 

Should be a good time.