Hi All,

I’m new here, but I was interested in joining because the Center for Inquiry essentially shares the same goals as the Non-Profit organization that I’m trying to start, called The WhY? Movement.

Essentially, The WhY? Movement seeks to empower and encourage people to ask “why?” (of themselves, society, and authority), because I feel that not asking “why?” is the root of much of the world’s ignorance and stupidity; in essence, because of a general lack of critical inquiry.

The WhY? Movement was inspired by Paulo Freire who, in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, said

“Education does not and cannot serve the interests of the oppressor…no oppressive order could permit the oppressed to begin to question why”.

And by Socrates, who said

“The unexamined life is not worth living”

With the latter, though, I think of it as “the unexamined political opinion is not worth having”.

The reason it’s “WhY?” is because I’ve actually designed and trademarked a symbol for this movement, which is the word “why?” in one symbol (a capital “Y” combined with a “?”). I hope that the sight of this symbol will eventually inspire people to ask “why?”, much like the Peace Symbol inspires people to think of peace.

The reason why I’ve trademarked it is because I don’t want some corporate pig to exploit this symbol and turn it into the butt of an ironic joke. The Peace symbol is now printed in sweatshops in countries that violently crack down on dissent and critical inquiry, and I don’t want people who are not allowed/encouraged/empowered to ask why to have to see this cruel reminder to do so.

Anyway, if you’d like to check “us” out, the webpage is:

http://www.thewhymovement.org

and our facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/thewhymovement

Also, attached is a .jpg image of The WhY? Movement’s “card”.

Now that I’ve said all of this, and made my introductions, do any of you have any suggestions about how I can help this movement grow, and thus empower and encourage more people to ask “why?”.

Note (added later): the first time I posted this, I totally forget my manners and forgot to say my name!

So yes, my name is James Clarke

Nameless from Pittsburg. 

Welcome; checked out your website added it to my favorites.  i like the idea of asking why rather than giving lectures.  This is an attitude that many of us here (including myself) should keep in mind. 

Welcome and thanks for the information on you site.  I fell that if we had never learned to ask questions like why and what if we would still be in the caves.

I’m terribly sorry, where are my manners?

My name is James Clarke. I guess I forgot that crucial bit of information

OK, got it now Jim.

I checked out your website, briefly. Frankly, it is too amateurish for me to bother reading. If you want people to spend their valuable time reading your ideas at least pay attention to grammar, spelling and punctuation. Your site reads like you ran the words through a random apostrophe and comma generator before publishing. Further, do you have permission from Zerlina Maxwell and The Grio to republish their article in its entirety? If so you should state such at the top of the article. If not you are violating federal copyright law.

While I welcome fresh voices and thinkers to the CFI Forums, your website is not up to professional standards and not worth my time.

Hi James, 

  Here is my modification from DarronS:  I checked out your website, briefly. Frankly, I think it is cool.  I don’t give half a crap about grammar, spelling and punctuation.  I do my stuff in Microsoft Word, then I let Word do the spelling check, and then I re-read it to see if it is OK.  Then I paste it into the document for posting.  However, be aware that I was never good in language or in English.  I am only interested in communication ideas swiftly and accurately.  I am not concerned with the structure that I use to effect that communication. 

    How very refreshing to communicate with someone who has a real name.  Some people use a Screen Name because they think it’s cute.  Others use a Screen Name because they fear social reprisal. 
  Your WhY group sounds interesting.  Let us see if it is still in existence in a year or so. 
  You might appreciate a bit of information from Salem, MA on Police Psychology.  (Channel 4 News 2/21/2012) The situation was a follows: 

Question:  WhY do the Police occasionally portray themselves as Super Jerks?

The location is suburbs - sparsely populated – not city.
Thief breaks into House #1 and robs it. 
Then Thief proceeds to neighbor house #2 and begins to rob it. 
Meanwhile Owner of House #1 observes house has been robbed, picks up licensed gun and begins to track robber. 
Owner observes robber exiting from house #2 with bag of loot. 
Owner fires warning shot into the ground and holds robber at bay until police arrive.

Result:  Owner is charged with a felony – reckless endangerment!

Moral of the Story:  Civilians do not have the right to defend their property.  That is the job of the police.  Any attempt by civilians to do the work of the police is an insult to law enforcement and will be dealt with swiftly.

The charge of “Reckless Endangerment” is totally ridiculous.  The police were just pissed because a civilian was doing their job and this was a big blow to their massive egos.

I like your website.  Keep up the good work.

TT.

In this case the gun owner had no need to fire the weapon; displaying it would have been enough. This is not a matter of hurting the feelings of the local LEOs, it is a matter of a gun owner using unnecessary force. The perp was not threatening anyone’s life. Discharging a firearm to protect property recklessly endangers people’s lives.

Here’s a story of proper use:

A few years ago one of my friends, who lives in the country, came home to find a man carrying his big-screen LCD TV out the front door. He grabbed his rifle out of his truck and told the guy to put the TV down and his hands in the air. The perp’s partner came around the corner of the house and pointed a handgun my friend’s direction. My friend put a bullet through the second perp’s chest and killed him. The first perp dropped to the ground next to the TV and waited for the sheriff’s deputy to arrive. The local DA did not press charges against my friend.

The nice thing about science is that it allows one to disagree.  I agree strongly with DarronS, and disagree with Ted.  As one retired chemist to another, I get really turned off when someone doesn’t have the courtesy or enough respect for his/her readers to use decent language.  In our age of word processors misspellings are inexcusable.

And why the hell should you care about whether or not I post my given name?  Judge my posts, not some side thing like that.  I chose a screen name that indicated a concept that was important to me.

Occam