In general, I love blogging on NoodleFood. That’s hardly surprising, since I’ve been at it for over three years now. Yet sometimes I find the need to write up replies to wrong criticisms of my blog posts rather tiresome. Of course, I always take a moment to consider the proper response to any criticism in my own head. If it troubles me more than usual, I will usually discuss the issue with Paul, sometimes even at great length. I may change my mind, I may not. Yet if the criticism is fundamentally wrong or deeply confused, the process of writing up a response is usually boring and tedious. Sometimes it is necessary, but often I just avoid the task altogether. Of course, that should not be misinterpreted as a failure to give it due consideration.
For example, Paul and I had a very interesting and lengthy discussion on a hike last week about the criteria that ought to be used to determine whether it is right and proper to support a given political organization or not. That discussion was prompted by a comment in response to this post about supporting the Institute for Justice even though it describes itself as libertarian. I’m actually fairly eager to write that up, as I’d like to get some feedback from those more clear on these issues than me. (However, I probably won’t post it until after OCON, since many of those people are actually here at present.) In general, the problem with such replies is that I’ve already done the interesting part — the conceptual heavy lifting — in private discussion. The mere writing isn’t so compelling to me.
In the case of this criticism from libertarian Julian Sanchez of Paul’s Fable of the Cardiac Surgeon and the Organization of Health Practitioners, I probably wouldn’t have bothered responding at all. Not only are Julian’s criticisms wholly misplaced, not to mention superficial, but it was Paul’s post anyway, not mine.
However, in this case, I only found out about Julian’s criticisms because — happiness of all happiness — Don Watkins already wrote up an excellent reply! The work was already done for me! What a rare delight!
P.S. Have I mentioned how pleased I am to have Don back in the blogosphere? Probably, but sometimes I don’t mind repeating myself.
