I do not know how else to say it but I failed this August to accomplish an objective I have long thought about pursuing.{1} I refer here to the composition and publication of a challenge for those who every August involve themselves in the same "masturbatory ritual of anachronistically virtue signalling their ignorance about certain long ago war events as a way of trying to appear More Virtuous Than Thou."{2}
While the idea crystallized firmly in my mind over a two year period, the problem was the motivation to actually frame the material correctly to publish the challenge publicly. This steadily grew until I finally realized August was upon me again and despite my previous thoughts about doing so, I had nonetheless made no prior attempt to do the work to make it feasible to do. So as a small bit of time availed itself and in an effort to motivate myself, I published a public notation of my intention on the matter and begin setting the table for the challenge to be completed and published this August around or slightly after the middle of the month. My reason for the time crunch is a principle I have due to past experience{3} followed for more than a decade now; namely, to limit this subject matter discussion if it is to take place at all to the month of August in a given year.{4} While it is true that I have touched on subjects that indirectly touch on the atomic bomb subject on occasion{5}, I have adhered to the stricture of only discussing this subject directly in the month of August for over twelve years now.
And while I worked on the challenge, the factors of life including outside commitments and personal issues that required tending to made finishing it within the time frame intended improbable for reasons I noted a bit over a week ago. So the challenge thread being about 90% finished as of this writing will now be completed for publication before the start of next August. Considering that it will be summertime of a major election year{6} as well as the 75th anniversary of the matter to be discussed, perhaps in the end, it is prescient that things ended up as they did in this area.
So with that in mind, the challenge will now be issued in August of 2020 -most likely on the first of the month but certainly no later than August 6, 2020.
All things to the contrary notwithstanding.
All things to the contrary notwithstanding.
Notes:
{1} While past published material points to a long implicit thought pertaining to such things, the first time I recall explicitly coming up with the real germs of this idea was when I wrote about returning to a metaphorical ground zero on the subject in a lengthy expository musing on the matter within a few months of this website being reactivated:
Commemorating A Controversial Anniversary (circa August 17, 2017)
From that process came the idea for the public challenge.
{2} Excerpt from a Rerum Novarum Post (circa July 31, 2018)
{3} I would be more than happy to discuss the subject of atomic bombings at another time -say contemporary to the next anniversary which will be in August of this year. The reason for that is that I have already written a fair amount on this subject already and it has a way of getting under people's skin in a way few other subjects can. For that reason -and because I am tired of discussing the subject[...]- I would ask that if you want to talk about it with me to let me know around August or so when the subject of the anniversaries of those events come around again and the circumstances would be more appropriate. [Excerpt from Rerum Novarum (circa January 15, 2007)]
{4} Prior to 2008, it was not uncommon for this subject to bleed outside of August and become a kind of all consuming force brought about by outside forces and to which I at times unwittingly was drawn. I made a conscious decision in late 2006 to embargo this subject completely and in January of 2007, first opened the door for future discussions on this subject only during the month of August: a principle that with only two explicit exceptions to that rule I have followed ever since.
{5} To note one such example:
On "Consequentialism", "Proportionalism", and a Lesson in General Norms of Interpretation, Theological or Otherwise (circa October 6, 2008)
{6} And is often the case, it will be in the midst of the Dog Days of Summer and thus requiring a change of pace for the sake of one's sanity.
{1} While past published material points to a long implicit thought pertaining to such things, the first time I recall explicitly coming up with the real germs of this idea was when I wrote about returning to a metaphorical ground zero on the subject in a lengthy expository musing on the matter within a few months of this website being reactivated:
Commemorating A Controversial Anniversary (circa August 17, 2017)
From that process came the idea for the public challenge.
{2} Excerpt from a Rerum Novarum Post (circa July 31, 2018)
{3} I would be more than happy to discuss the subject of atomic bombings at another time -say contemporary to the next anniversary which will be in August of this year. The reason for that is that I have already written a fair amount on this subject already and it has a way of getting under people's skin in a way few other subjects can. For that reason -and because I am tired of discussing the subject[...]- I would ask that if you want to talk about it with me to let me know around August or so when the subject of the anniversaries of those events come around again and the circumstances would be more appropriate. [Excerpt from Rerum Novarum (circa January 15, 2007)]
{4} Prior to 2008, it was not uncommon for this subject to bleed outside of August and become a kind of all consuming force brought about by outside forces and to which I at times unwittingly was drawn. I made a conscious decision in late 2006 to embargo this subject completely and in January of 2007, first opened the door for future discussions on this subject only during the month of August: a principle that with only two explicit exceptions to that rule I have followed ever since.
{5} To note one such example:
On "Consequentialism", "Proportionalism", and a Lesson in General Norms of Interpretation, Theological or Otherwise (circa October 6, 2008)
{6} And is often the case, it will be in the midst of the Dog Days of Summer and thus requiring a change of pace for the sake of one's sanity.
