Apology of Vlad, the Terrible

Thank you for all the good BD wishes. The global Agora is an interesting place, it is where so many conversations, people, and destinies intersect. From May of 2013 the tribe of FB friends on my page went from 100 to over 3,000 (over 1,000 in the follow category). Over 54,000 views of my blog, which was started just several months ago.

It is hard to keep up with so many things, in fact, one person can usually do only one or few things reasonably well ... if one is lucky. All this here also took a big amount of work and time with other things put aside or put on the shelf. My sole and only justification for all the effort is and has been a sense of certain moral imperative of a very non-Kantian nature for it is and has never been any wish of mine others or even everyone do the same. There is a voice it speaks to us, and the voice seems to different for different people, and how we respond to it or how we heed it is also a matter of individual choice as much as we capable of making such a choice. And sometimes there is no voice, and the compulsion of moral imperative does not happen. But when the voice, the daemon of moral imperative, does call and when one does listen to it, then it sometimes happens that even the choice is no longer a choice. Similarly, one does not normally choose to love, one just does. And so when it comes to some very compelling imperatives, one just has to obey regardless or even in spite of what others or everyone else chooses or is compelled to do. Kantians do not qualify as Platonists, and Platonists don't make Kantians.

In conclusion, let's wrap the message into the lyrics of a Czech song from the 1970s. This song was played one whole evening at a Christmas party of my class in the eight grade in 1976. The song also expresses well that sort of Czech ethos and culture which I miss. The vulgar and the obscene now rule there instead.

"Friendship is sometimes more than love, it is faith ... a shy, tender beauty who waves to the one who gives more than few sentiments ... words that are true both in songs and in the rain of bullets ... what returns hopes, confessions, and a smile ... it is the same goals in the distance, it is a strength both fragile and the greatest of all ... worlds of people where one forgets how to say 'alone' ... eyes that see .... what knows its way as birds and the sun do ... beautiful meetings ... warmth returning to ourselves ... it is one of the simple indispensable words ... but who learned its true price at least once will never forget for it is the essence and meaning of life itself ... "