This morning, lying in bed pondering the universe, I realised something about myself and how I function which I wish to record, mostly for myself, to see if I still agree with myself a month hence or a year hence. I hope you are interested too, but if not never mind, you won’t be wasting much time.

I am a clever fellow, in my own particular way, but my particular way of being clever does not extend to being able to handle complicated situations.  (What people describe as “real life” often defeats me.) My way of being clever is to spot connections and causes and consequences, one at a time, here and there, concerning this and that, and explaining each one separately.

I can understand some complicated situations.  An example is the Libertarian Alliance publishing programme, which I persisted with for years before very many people could see much point in it.  Many who now observe it probably still can’t.  There are at least half a dozen things you have to get to see the point of all that pamphleteering, as well as noting one huge slice of luck: the internet!  That kind of complexity, the kind that is closest to my heart and which I can think about and polish over a period of years, I can do.

But what I cannot do is sort out complexities straight away, when I am first confronted with them.  My thinking proceeds one simple step at a time, with steps so simple that anyone else can understand them, as soon as I have.

This explains why blogging suits me so very well.  Lots of little things, laid end to end, is just my style.

(Not that everything I blog, and especially not just now, concerns persuading people of anything.  Often it just says, especially here: here’s a nice photo, or: here’s an interesting or funny thing, or some such.)

My only moderate degree of cleverness also explains why I have such confidence in my ability to persuade some people at least of the truth of some at least of the truths that I happen to encounter and to recognise as truths.  After all, if I can understand them, anybody can.

People who can confront a complicated situation and immediately make sense of it need to do something in order to demonstrate that they have understood things.  They need, for instance, to translate their grip on the situation into a complicated piece of machinery or into a subtly crafted business enterprise.  Merely explaining it wouldn’t be enough, because hardly anyone would get it.  It has to be demonstrated.  (I had to do all those LA pamphlets before anyone could see the point of them, and as I say, many still don’t.) But most of my understandings need only be stated by me for their value to be obvious to many onlookers.

I am quite clever, but not clever enough to render myself ineffective as a persuasive writer.

The main problem is likely to be that others will have spotted the truths that I spot before I do, because they are so obvious.