PAIN SAYS:

Now Bob may be back on earth.

Bob, if you think a point was missed, it was because you made no point.

If you think a comment is obvious, it is because the post was obvious.

You will never have a successor, because you want a clone. And since you have said everything you can say, there would be nothing for the clone to say.

Now if you found someone who could say what you have not, you would hate him because he would be showing you up; you would spend your time tearing him down. That’s the problem with intellectuals.

Now go back to rambling incoherently about disembodied spirits with no arms exploring nowhere through the black holes you believe are on the internet.

When you find something to say again, maybe somebody will contact Truck Roy to call attention to an inactive blog where you have already said everything.

For now, we need to work on getting the archives of your old posts in a better format than here or Dave’s site. Dave has altered your categorization. This changes the meaning of what you wrote. To make the writings more readable, they must be put into sub-categories. The whole corpus also needs to be cut up into indexed pdfs using Adobe Acrobat.

Your work nicely compliments and fills in gaps left by Clyde Wilson. But since he is emotionally stable and riddled with no jealousies of colleagues, he will be remembered as the leading genius of our time, and you as the crazy guy that no one paid attention to.

We can fix that with the organization I propose here. This will take the work of several SELFLESS volunteers.

If you don’t cooperate, as you usually don’t, then after you are gone the task will be left to others like me who like your work and have the skill and the resources to see that it is done right. Dave has already shown that it can be published on websites electronically. And if we have the revolution we are overdue for, people like me will make sure that your work becomes a classic for history to come.

Frankly, I hope you can escape your bubble world long enough to understand what it is I am talking about. If not, at least know that I am here prophesying a legacy for you.

Dammit, Pain, I wish you would stop beating around the bush and say what you mean!

People threaten to put my works in order. It is not done, though Dave did a very good job of trying. He is a good introduction to my stuff, the best so far. What I offer is not a legacy in the Clyde Wilson sense, but a WAY OF THINKING. You could organize Clyde Wilson’s legacy because Clyde has an organized mind. Mine is not organized.

Seriously, though, I wrote a piece called “Point Missed!” It was an attack on commenters. I stuck it out there and Pain knocked it off. He read what I wrote and said what he thought.

Which is what I’m after here.

Oddly enough, what he wrote hits exactly at what I am after. Clyde Wilson (Pain’s choice here is admirable) is a pro who has an intellectual legacy to leave behind. God bless the man, he is a Southerner with fine instincts, an intimidating depth of knowledge, and the ability to express them. I can mention Lafitte on Galveston Island and he can tell me in detail how that relates to the people who REALLY made America.

Dave hit very close to my role when he said, “It is a damnable thing to want clarity for those who care about knowing something.” But it is damnable only when it comes from religious fanatics of our established religion. When Pain says, “Whitaker, what in the hell do you WANT?” that is a wholly different matter.

I don’t think I have to explain what the difference between Pain giving me hell and anything a PC priest says.

You are right. What I say sounds like I want clones.

It is hard for me to understand how my thoughts come out on the reader’s end. Which is why I carefully read criticisms like Pain’s. Also why I NEED criticisms like his.

Unlike Clyde, I honestly do not know what I am after.

It is easy for me to see what I am NOT after.

Clones? Yes, in a sense. Clones who will, as Pain did, say “What in the hell are you after?” Clones who will be as nasty as I am in making it clear what I am REALLY talking about. Clones who will ALWAYS step back and take a look at what is really being discussed here.

Clones like Pain who do not hesitate to put me in my place. That is what Bob would do when he is at his best.

In the twelfth century, when Western thought produced the Calculus, it never occurred to them that this was a LEGACY. They were just thinking out loud. Far more effort was expended during the Renaissance trying to show how this thinking was a continuation of Classical math, which it wasn’t.

I think out loud on this blog. Some of this is produced by my mind, some of it by my mood. No one can compare this to an organized mind like Clyde’s.

My only “legacy” is an absolute loyalty to the truth.

Not Truth.

The truth.

The truth mixed with slips and stupidity. With no authority except your personal respect for me, I have drafted you to call me down on slips and stupidity.

Pain knows damned well he is not upsetting me. He is advising me. Can you imagine how all this looks to someone who is used to Mommy Professors and Gurus and Marx and Modern
Opinion and Tradition.

And Bob.

What we are doing is so simple it cannot be explained.