October 28, 2005

A Fond Farewell

My guest stint over here will be winding down today, and Greg should be returning to his normal blogging shortly (though I'll still be lurking in the comments section). I wanted to once again thank Greg for the opportunity to post on his site and let Dan know that, as was expected, it was a pleasure sharing this space with him. I also wanted to thank the readers that stuck around despite the void left by Greg’s absence – especially those that challenged my ideas and caused me to reassess my beliefs and contentions.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I am a big fan of Belgravia Dispatch - but not necessarily because I agree with everything Greg writes. Obviously I don’t, but it is exactly because we disagree that this site has a special value to me. Far too often people tend to cluster in enclaves of groupthink, be it in political circles, artistic, cultural, ethnic, religious, etc. But without a robust contrast of perspectives, absent some semblance of dialectic, ideas and movements tend to lose balance and become self-reinforced extremes that fail to accurately describe reality or formulate solutions.

Unfortunately, opportunities for dialogue can be drowned out and lost amid so much rancor and shouting demagoguery. Luckily, there are sites such as this that can pose intelligent, coherent and thought provoking challenges to my thinking on certain issues. My frequent cross-blog conversations with Dan Darling have also been fruitful along these lines. Hopefully, in some small way, I was able to provide a reasonable contrasting voice for some of you. Regardless, and in pursuit of the dialectic, I once again recommend Liberals Against Terrorism as a left-of-center foil for those on the right, and as a valuable resource of information for everyone, regardless of political persuasion. For those interested, my solo digs are located here. I expect to bump into many of you in the near future. Until, we meet again.

thanks Eric, ive enjoyed it, and learned some things.

Posted by: liberalhawk at October 28, 2005 06:16 PM | Permalink to this comment

I will de-cloak just long enough to say thanks for your posts. Having you and Dan face off has been informative and enjoyable.

Posted by: byrd at October 28, 2005 09:06 PM | Permalink to this comment

Eric and Dan kept BD a site well worth visiting while Greg was away. Well done.

Posted by: JEB at October 30, 2005 03:44 AM | Permalink to this comment