• One way to divide political theories: historical and ahistorical. I fall firmly into the camp of “historical.” I tend to call those who favor the latter “Idealists,” and I mean it as an epithet. They consider abstract governments with no care for people as they really are. I think the best expression of this is in Polybius:
  

  “As for Plato’s celebrated Republic, which is highly praised by certain philosophers, I do not think it admissable that this should be brought into the argument about constitutions. For just as we do not allow artists or athletes who are not duly registered or have not been in training to take part in festivals or games, so we should not admit the Platonic constitution to this contest for the prize of merit, unless some example can be provided of it in action. Up to the present, at any rate, the idea of comparing it with the constitutions of Sparta, Rome or Carthage would be like bringing for some statue and then comparing it with living and breathing men. For even if the statue were absolutely perfect in respect of its workmanship, the comparison of a lifeless object with a living being would strike the spectators as quite inadequate and incongruous.” – Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire, Book VI

  I do not think this is quite fair to Plato because that was not his intention. Still, the sentiment holds. Libertarians are usually ahistorical political thinkers.

• Capitalism is a giant failure. It’s dictates are grow and consume. Imagine if the Earth were a giant bank. Capitalism has been withdrawing from that bank and destroying our planet. Now, we’re about to default on the loans our ancestors have been taking out. The changes we are making to this planet are scary because mass extinction events are a rule of life. Basically, capitalism has elevated money for the individual over the existence of the human race. That’s “fail” in my book.
• Unfettered capitalism, the libertarian’s wet dream, will simply result in the collusion of the rich at the expense of the poor. Of course, that’s the nature of things even when you don’t have modern capitalism.
• Speaking of collusion of the rich, look at some aspects of our government. Telecoms break the law, but get off free because these rich people buy off, or call in favors from, their rich buddies in Congress. At least we have some modicum of change insofar as taxes are being raised for the richest among us. Still, I have to come back to this ancient idea of “mixed” government, where you have elements of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. It seems as if the “democratic” element is sorely underrepresented.
• The concept of radicalism currently entices me. The times call for radical, bold action. Our governmental system needs radical changes because it has allowed practical tyranny for the last 8 years and Obama’s administration is not eager to give up most of that power. Furthermore, moderatism will not save us from a warming planet when the changes are tracking the most pessimistic models.
• I want to be a radical but I don’t want to be an “Idealist.” Blech. Almost as bad as being a “dogmatist.”

EDIT: This post is very silly, full of silly generalizations. I should perhaps take more time to think before I post.

EDIT: This post Is the global economy a Ponzi scheme expresses some of what I was thinking in a much more developed manner. (via Lloyd on AIM)

I’m not posting this on the TCM Blog yet because this is just public musing.

I wanted to do something with Top Web Comics, but I don’t think it’s necessary. I’m not going to get enough out of it compared to the effort that I put into it. I’m not going to get visits from that site unless I’m way up at the tippy-top. However, if I’m already at the top, then I’ve already got enough fans, and I’ll be happy with that. Perhaps later on, I could shoot for something, and maybe increase my base through that venue, but I just don’t think it’s useful now. I’m not going to put my effort into encouraging people to vote. However, I’m probably going to continue with the voting incentive because it’s good to have at least a tiny buffer.

I had this idea to put the latest post of the blog on my comic. I guess the idea was to get more people to read the TCM Blog. I’m not sure what purpose this will serve. In fact, it seems to me that the TCM Blog just isn’t that important overall when it comes to the comic.

What are my goals? Well, the main goal is to produce a great comic. Yes, this is first and foremost. Second, the goal is to make money. While this has always been a possibility for me, it’s never been a priority for me. But I’m about to graduate, and I don’t have a job yet, so I’m thinking about money. Another goal may be to increase the readership, but I don’t think that’s a great goal in and of itself.

So back to the money thing. I put ads, but they’re not making much money. This isn’t very surprising. I mean, the ads that are up there aren’t things that my readers are probably looking for.

Merchandising is the real thing I need to work on if I want to make money. All my other tiny projects are fun, but they aren’t going to help me make progress towards my goal. In fact, it seems like I work on all these projects in order to avoid working on this harder, unfamiliar project.

The other project that looks exciting is adding “tags” to the comic. I think this is worthwhile. Sometimes I enjoy hitting the random button to look at old comics. I want a different way to go through my archive. If there’s a way to browse by theme, I think people will use that.

I want to use the social networking to build some type of community, but I just don’t really know how to use facebook or myspace. One thing I will continue to do is spam my friends to get them to join my fan page on facebook.

Facebook is changing the way pages look, so that they’re more like profiles. This just confuses me more. I’m not sure what to think of the change. I have a feeling I may abuse it, e.g. changing my status every 5 seconds. We’ll see.