Blog 1

This is my first blog. I guess I've finally gotten swept up in the process. I have chosen the title iconoclast for the simple reason that I often find myself having views that run counter to the conventional wisdom. So, my comments are likely to reflect my views of the nature of what's going on in the world. I may or may not offer some unique insight, but I figure that I have got as much to say as the next person.

Most importantly, I believe that I, like many others, am distressed at the distructive pattern that we seem to be in in our world. As someone with a focus on economics, I believe that our aims should be to create and to add value to the world, not tear down. Yet what I see is entire segments of the world with no aim but distruction. We destroy groups who don't believe like us or who threaten our beliefs, rather than asking if we can find common groud to build uppon so that we can all be better off.

There are those who argue their acts on the basis of some set of moral tenets, but these are sharlatans. They offer nothing. Their sole aim is their own power. Nothing else. We must simply say stop!

These may sound like idealistic ramblings, but one need only look at Ghandi and Martin Luther King to find the strength in what I say. Parents, tell you children that destruction is wrong. Pastors tell you flocks. Imams tell your faithful. This is not about whether you believe in one God or another. It is simply that destruction is wrong. Period. Just wrong.