What Is Worthy of Question?
Who is asking the question? Is the question presented in good faith? And what’s an appropriate medium for the question and answer?
In my recent response to the question “Do you believe in God?”, I included a brief answer. Here it is:
I don’t need to believe in God. To me, “God” is synonymous with Reality.
The rest of this 1,300-word essay focused on a problem with the question — vagueness — and on the search for fruitful ways to respond to vague questions. If this search interests you, you can read the full essay.
At the end of the essay, I included a list of additional questions raised by the same interlocutor. They had to do with:
The meaning of atonement and forgiveness
The character type that feels entitled to at least a simulation of forgiveness without even a simulation of atonement
Responses to betrayal
Martial arts as a metaphor for life and work
The meaning of family
The meaning of Jewishness
The problem with Orthodox Judaism
Regardless of precisely how these questions are formulated, my response begins the same way it began in response to the question about belief in God: Who is asking? And is the question presented in good faith? And what’s an appropriate medium for the question and answer?
In the absence of a skillfully presented question, I increasingly relate to the sentiment expressed in Nothing to Say, a post by Substack’s Head of Writer Relations. She writes:
To have nothing to say is liberating. For one, you immediately notice that everyone around you has yet to reach that conclusion. Our systems of connection are on the whole projectile and have conditioned us to forget that we have the option to keep quiet. Like Lotus Eaters, we have succumbed to numbing feeds populated mostly by ego and we mindlessly consume the fruits of our narcissism.
Less than a year ago, I still felt the need to compensate for this realization by saying something about nothing. See Nothing: The Origin of Everything. It’s amazing how quickly our attitudes can change.
These days, most of my published work isn’t motivated by the desire to say something, but rather by the desire to figure something out. For example, on MISM, I started a reading of about twenty sources related to the question: How to resist the enclosure of the human psyche?
Beyond the daily work of this resistance, when I wonder What Is Worthy of Question?, Martin Heiddeger’s answer usually suffices:
What is worthy of question is that poetry itself no longer serves as a decisive form of truth.
I now have a new way to connect with anyone who would like me to answer a question on one of my blogs. In addition to emailing me at daasnow@proton.me, you can schedule a complimentary video chat.
In the meantime, subscribe to M2D to continue the exploration of what’s worthy of question.
My Blog Portfolio
Just a quick update on my blog portfolio and the four organizing questions. As I explained in New Year, New Media, more than I want people to subscribe to my publications and support my work, I want them to:
Understand media
Maintain equilibrium at the intersection of matter and metaphor
Regard each other as human beings
Continually cultivate their responses to fractal falsehood
Find sustainable ways to earn a living in a kleptocratic economy
For the past two years, I’ve been exploring the first four of these horizons of possibility through my four public blogs: respectively, MISM, M2D, DaaS and BS”D. Last month, I added my professional blog, nicknamed LJ-Pro, to explore the fifth horizon.
I do not use paywalls on any of my blogs. The best way to support my work is to refer prospective clients, employers and recruiters to LJ-Pro.