It was twenty years ago today that NOT PC began, with that short post above.
Twenty years!
Crikey!
No, don't clap. Just throw money. ;-)
It's interesting, to me at least, to see what I wrote that first week, and whether any predictions came right—or if any ideas the blog promoted took hold. It turns out that...
- John Tamihere wasn't heading for political oblivion after all
- the Toy Love album is still great in any guise
- Nanny State, in every guise, has only got worse
- bloggers aren't quite as collegial now as they were then, but
- anonymous commenters are still mostly cowards
- lazy politicians are still mostly A Good Thing
- it's more true than ever that state and school be separated
- its more true than ever that the revolution libertarians and Objectivists are trying to foment is inside people's heads—even if most of them have forgotten that
- we still need property rights embedded within the Bill of Rights —and even mentioned in the RMA!
- we still desperately need a National Party that understands property rights—or even what their own Dancing Cossacks were all about
- the Herald knew more about rights then than almost everybody does now
- we still await a device transmitting signals direct from brain to 'puter —though it is one of many Musk promises
- increasing ignorance of the Holocaust does indeed "run the risk of history repeating itself"
- the IRA and other paramilitaries have still, mercifully, mostly given up the gun
- as another Pope heads to the out door, the reputation of his Church is if anything in even poorer health
In that time I've written about 4.5 million words words across nearly 15,000 posts, which have attracted 54,639 comments (thank you).
Over those twenty years, those 15,000 posts have enjoyed precisely 15,742,467 page views.
And my Top Ten posts of all time (below) features quotes from Stephen Hicks, Steven Pinker, architecture by my teacher Claude Megson, and guest posts by sundry others. My sole personal contribution to the Top Ten however is my Family Tree of Economics. Of which, to be fair, I am very proud—decent "trees" are still a rarity.
PS: Credit again to Richard Goode for calling my bluff when I told him I should start blogging—a few taps of a keyboard and he turned around and said "There you go." So I did. (Thanks Richard.)
Congratulations. I've been reading from the sidelines for a while, watching the whole "solo" dumpster fire transpire. I mostly agree, but you always make me think.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on 20 years of blogging.
ReplyDeleteHow about a commemorative "Friday Ramble" type blog to celebrate. I really enjoyed those
Congratulations on both the quality of your blogging and the length of time you’ve been doing it.
ReplyDeleteCongrats. Great that you've been able to do it for this long, especially as the rise of X and other social media intrude from the short-form side and Substack from the long-form. Always enjoy the arguments put forward, even if I think you're utopian in the extreme. :)
ReplyDeleteCongrats, Peter, both on the quantity and quality of blogging over the 20 years. Achieving both is no mean feat!
ReplyDeleteI’m very grateful
ReplyDeleteThank your sirs, and lady. Much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteI can now tell folk that my regular readers' meetings need a larger telephone box. :-)
Congrats Peter. I stopped mine in 2015 after repeating myself too much, but you always provide interest. It's not easy blogging, you must have changed the world a little bit :)
ReplyDelete