Why Are You Here?

Because of this blog's checkered past, I don't anticipate a lot of traffic. So for a while it's going to be my own personal echo-box. Still, I enjoy shameless introspection as much as the next guy, and who knows but we'll get some good discussion going here. Ultimately, this site will become the antithesis of what it used to be.

The previous owners of this corner of cyberspace were BYU students who hated it here in Happy Valley, Utah. They were vocal about their hatred for the school, the church, the sub-culture, and all its various policies. However, at the same time, they said they got too many "tax breaks" by being a member to ever give it up.

I have a different theory. It can be put down as fact that they all believed the benefits of being here outweighed the costs. It's a simple matter of economics: if it really sucked as bad as they said it did, they would leave. Now, knowing this, we're left with the question of why they're so vocal about their dislike. I think the real issue is non-conformity.

Utah Valley is homogeneous, so in an effort to be their own kind of beautiful, people seek ways of differentiating themselves. Sometimes people do this in a positive way, i.e., becoming a better person, developing a certain talent, etc. Others differentiate themselves in a negative way, viz. getting a nose-ring, dyeing their hair, shoplifting, or in the case of my predecessors, finding fault in BYU and the church and airing their disagreements in a public internet forum.

The question remains. Why? Why do people differentiate themselves negative ways when there are so many positive things they could do to be different? Why be "robot" or "Jason S." when you could be "the kid who volunteers at the local foodbank" or "the kid who teaches a Cajun-cooking class at UVSC"? Is it by accident? Is it human nature?

Speak, for thy servant heareth.

Explanatory Note

I have come to restore honor and dignity to this House. You see, the previous administration used this website as a forum to whine, gritch, or otherwise complain about the things they saw wrong with the Church of Jesus Christ or the Mormon sub-culture. By the way they wrote, it was obvious they were philosophy students.

I don't know what got into me, but I didn't like to see their outlandish claims go unchallenged. So I checked in often, trying to offer balance to the discussion. This came to a head in a post about the Church of Jesus Christ exerts mind-control over its members and especially missionaries.

Through the course of a discussion that approached 50 comments, I feel like I did a pretty good job shredding their arguments. When they attacked me immaturely ("You are so full of s*** S.O." and "You're so f***-ing retarded") I prefaced my logically sound arguments with equally immature insults ("So's your face" and "So's your Mom").

I wish it was still around so you could all see for yourselves. But one day I checked in to see if they had anything intelligent to write in response to my arguments, and instead got the "Not Found" blogger page. The owners had deleted the blog. Now, I knew I was a good debater, I didn't think I was good enough to make them give up their whole operation.

Even so, I'm glad it did. I've always wanted to start a blog, and so now I guess this is the perfect opportunity.

Robot/Jason S./B-boy Mike/Zatarra: If you're still out there, give me a holla'...