Here we are, a new blog has been created. Hard to say how long it will live, how its future will look like, how many readers it will attract and how popular it will become. I have noticed though, that many blogs feature one main author and sometimes some guest writers.
This one aims at being different.
As a matter of fact, we will be two to contribute, hopefully on a regular basis, to this blog. Two authors that could grow to three, four, even more, depending on you. But let me first explain the goals of this weblog. As I was going further through my education, I progressively switched from my main subject (mechanical engineering) to more social ones. Everything started when time came for me to look for a Master’s Thesis. As the energy sector interested me, I started to read about the different corporations that could offer relevant opportunities. This lead me slowly to understand the deep impact this industry has on the environment, and as time went I became more and more aware of a certain feeling of unease with the pure quest of personal and selfish benefit and development. I realized that our system, based on overconsumption of anything, with a special mention to fossil fuels, had something wrong in its roots. And as time went, more and more warning signs showed up in newspapers and on the web of ecological disasters, species extinction, environmental degradation.
One year later, a lot of things have changed in my life. My understanding of our system has evolved. I was in it, had been raised in it, educated by it, didn’t even questioned it. But now I deeply reckon that something is going wrong with it. I had been on the edge to become part of it, to start a career in the fossil fuels sector, taking my own share of responsibility in the destruction of our biosphere. But I got a glimpse of what would expect us if we were to continue it this way; of the social and ecological disaster that would happen if nothing could be changed. So I decided to plan my life according to my ethics and moral, not on the sole purpose of earning money.
At the same time I was perfectly aware of a fundamental problem which actually concerns all of us: we are individuals. We see through our own eyes, think according to our culture and education, have our own psychological and cultural background. We are all different. That’s what makes the world beautiful, a myriad of different beings. But this unity does not allow each of us to think effectively, since our understanding of reality is limited to our own history. Thus, no matter how much I could read, how deep I could think, I would never be able to confront my view, the one of a European, to others’. I would speak of subjects that I consider relevant, whereas they might seem totally meaningless to others. Indeed, an American, Asian, African is bound to have a completely different conception of how the world should look like, how we should adress our problems, and more important, what these problems are.
That is why I asked a friend of mine to join me in this project. Being Indian, he would have other issues to lift, other concerns, and other suggestions on how to solve them. We realized that we had different points of view, although complementary. With each one’s knowledge, we could cover a wider range of issues, and grab a better understanding of our world. We would share our opinions, our sources, our discoveries, and indeed realize that together, we would be wiser than each of us taken individually.
So this blog is not aiming at being one’s point of view. This blog has a larger, idealistic aim to become a platform of exchange of ideas between readers. We want this blog to evolve, we want you to take part in it. Your contribution to it will be a crucial reason for its existence, because you can join us in our confrontation of ideas on one theme. And the more your culture will be different than ours, the more we, as a community of writers and readers, will be enriched. We believe that mix is richness, that diversity leads to evolution, that sharing ideas implies cohesion and better understanding between human beings.
Provided that your concerns are linked to ours, and that you could feed this blog on a regular basis with relevant, scientifically sound and documented articles, then you can become a member of our team.
This blog is one in a million, but could be one of a million. Make it happen.
Come on! I hope I can contribute to this project.