I started writing a blog a little over a year ago. I would see something on the news that would turn my crank and I would respond by commenting on Facebook (because I just HAD to vent somewhere). But that process was unsatisfactory. Facebook comments are short and shallow, and I needed a platform to really get into the depths of some subjects. I decided to share those think-pieces with my friends because I thought that I might persuade some people to accept a point of view, or I might spark a bit of interesting debate, or I might amuse people. What I didn’t expect was that the writing process would change me.

I was brought up as a Conservative and a Catholic. As a youngster, that was how I most identified myself. My father was a staunch conservative. He had an abiding hatred for MacKenzie-King that dated back to the war years, and I think he’d never have been able to vote Liberal because of that. But additionally, he was a true small “c” conservative. Whenever the government proposed some increase in the social safety net, or invested deeply in infrastructure projects he would bitch and moan about how we were “spending our children’s future”. And I absorbed that thinking and it became part of my personal philosophy as well.

I read a couple of books, suggested for me by other people, that reinforced my conservatism. The first was Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. Wikipedia says that Rand “called her philosophy Objectivism”, describing its essence as “the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute“. I got some of that out of Atlas Shrugged. The concept that productive achievement is our noblest activity came across loud and clear. On top of that, though, I came away with the message that poor people demanding more and more from the rich are putting their own welfare at risk because they are threatening to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. And that reinforced my conservative beliefs.

The second book that helped cement my conservative core was Free to Choose, by Milton Friedman. It’s been a long time since I read the book, but as I recall, the principle argument was that government shouldn’t fund institutions. They should fund people who qualify in certain programs, and then let the people pick the institutions. The intention was that intense competition to attract a consumer who was empowered to choose from multiple sources of a service would result in greater efficiencies. It advocated getting the government out of the job of providing services to the greatest extent possible. That all made sense to me. I was firmly of the belief that governments aren’t efficient providers of service, and the notion that institutes should compete, thus making the consumer ruler of the roost seemed logical enough.

So, what has changed since I started blogging? 

If you look back at my first articles, on taxation, I propounded a few maxims:

• Don’t hit corporations too hard because they need to be able to compete on a world stage to give us jobs and a lively economy.
• Be careful about how hard you’re taxing the rich because it’s morally wrong to impose the tyranny of the majority on the minority and essentially steal from them what they’ve earned.
• It’s fine to expand the social safety net, but make sure that lower income groups are involved in paying for them so that they don’t just vote for anyone who promises a hand-out.

 In April of 2022, I wrote an article about how we expand our social safety net, and in that article, I spent a little time talking about the Nordic model of government. I noted that the Nordic states had both fairly comprehensive social safety nets and good marks for the quality of their democracy. About all I took from that information at the time though, was the thought that we shouldn’t equate a social safety net with socialism, which was probably an unconscious response to my generation’s fear of the communist red menace. I needed to be assured that doing one wasn’t sliding into the other.

Then in May I came out with an article praising Quebec for its courage in embracing secularism (albeit with a dangerous tilt towards racism/anti-Islam/jingoism). That represented both a repudiation of my strong Catholic upbringing and a relaxation of my frustration with our Quebec neighbours who always have to insist that they are special. 

Right after that, I wrote an article about increasing taxation for the ultra-rich, which was the first time I wound up overtly challenging my small “c” conservative upbringing. In that article I elaborated on a growing distrust of billionaires and their poor cousins, the multi-multi- millionaires. (When I was a child, a millionaire was a person of unimaginable wealth and power. Now, if you have less than a hundred million, you have to hang your head in shame because you’re rich, but not “ultra-rich”.)

Shortly after the “tax the billionaires” article, I wrote an article urging the decriminalization of drugs. I have to tell you that as a teen or twenties guy, I was very afraid of drugs. One reason for that was that I saw so many famous people dying of drug overdoses. Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix – it seemed like an epidemic. I mean, even Johnny Cash was in drug trouble. It would never have been possible for me, as a younger person, to write an article advocating the decriminalization and regulation of drugs.

My latest article was on the book Dark Money, by Jane Mayer. In a couple of places in the book she commented that the billionaires, the so-called Freedom Partners, insisted on their educational programs be grounded in the philosophy of Ayn Rand. And sure enough, when I checked, there is an Ayn Rand Institute (ARI). Mediabiasfact check.com says “Overall, we rate The Ayn Rand Institute Right-Center biased based on economic-political philosophy supporting free-market capitalism. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to the use of poor sources who reject the consensus of science.” Google searches for the funding of the ARI show that they are heavily supported by the Charles Koch Foundation and the Koch brothers money laundering machine, the Donors Trust.

At one point in the Jane Mayer book she identified that the “Tea Party” fragment of the republican party was pushing public funding for private schools in their policy mix. That reminded me of the Milton Friedman book that I’d read so many years ago, and so I did some research. I found that there is a Free to Choose network, an information source founded by Milton Friedman and heavily supported by the Bradley and Koch families. 

Those revelations about Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman really hit me hard. I was forced to consider that maybe I wasn’t a reasonably well-informed small c conservative. Maybe I was just a gullible hick from PEI who has been drinking the right wing kool-aid for far too long.

So, my opinion on drugs has changed. I’ve rationalized, to my own satisfaction at least, a rejection of any and all religions. I’m on-board for significantly expanding the social safety net, and I am willing to tax the Hell out of everyone who makes more than me. And my distaste for the monarchy has turned into active rejection of the monarchy. When I look at myself in the mirror, I realize that I’m not the same guy I was when I wrote my earliest blog articles.

And what has brought about that change? Well, I really think that it has all been brought about because I decided to write a blog. The first thing is that I decided early on that I would not spout my opinion without attempting to support that opinion with facts and data. That has forced me to do the research and learn things that challenged my casual assumptions.

The second thing that happens when you write a blog is that you are forcing yourself to think, and to become reflective. If you begin to ask yourself “why do I think that? Is that really a valid position?” you sometimes find yourself writing something that you hadn’t really planned on when you started working on the article.

I think a third thing is a bit counter-intuitive. If I’ve become more open to challenging my own positions, I’ve also become a little more resistant to other things that challenge my positions. There’s a good reason for that. The blogging process has opened my eyes to how much bad information is out there and how important it is to check out your sources. If you show me an article on any subject, forgive me if I fail to be impressed. I’m not likely to hop on board until I’ve checked out your sources.

So here it is, Christmas Eve, and I’m sitting in my La-Z-Boy watching the wind blowing snow down the street. I’m grateful to those of you who have commented on my articles. If being a blogger has brought about a year of personal change for me, then you have contributed, in a meaningful way, to that journey. I hope you all keep safe and enjoy Christmas Day in whatever way you can this blustery weekend. 

As for the New Year, I plan to keep writing. Have a Happy New Year, and please plan to join me on my blogging journey of discovery.