Over the past few years, I have devoted short chunks of time to reflect on what is my personal ideology. I suppose age is a natural motivator for this sort of process, but there have been other fuels burning that fire. Most notable among them is being accused of ideological relativism; of offering explanations to phenomena rather than solutions to problems; of flagging any subject on which I don’t have a strong position as being too unfocused to be worthy of an position; of using tolerance as an excuse for avoiding a clear standing on subjects in which I am actually not confident, or more to the point, knowledgeable.

You probably visit this site due to an interest in gaming, programming and “modern” entertainment. I hope you enjoy the few contributions that I can make in the form of source code, commentary and links to interesting articles. I won’t bore you with details of my personal reflection on religion, politics, morality and the coveted meaning of life. But this article by Dan Simmons (of “Hyperion” fame) was one of the best essays I’ve read in a long time. It addresses most of the issues going on in my head about the practical conflicts raised by immigration and tolerant multiculturalism.

If anything, it reaffirmed my relatively recent conviction that preserving the western model of human rights is more important than preserving religious, cultural and national identities and qualities. How you achieve that, and who uses that as an excuse for fulfilling less humanitarian agendas, are completely different topics.