roadtofailure

I’ve struggled with how to frame this article – and indeed, the purpose of this website. It’s gone through several rounds of iteration between Bitterman, Dirac, and I – and it will probably go through more. I’m going to attempt to answer the question, “Why is RoadToFailure here?”

We want to do our part to stop the self-destruction of America.

Perhaps it’s easiest to understand our purpose by hearing what this site was almost called: “Don’t Be a Fuck”. Tired of reading demagogues and hucksters such as David Broder or Robert Kiyosaki exploit a misinformed public, we were going to keep a running commentary on these scammers in an attempt to show the truth. Our goal would have been to help people become happier (and thus, not turn into “Fucks”) by steering them away from propagandists and “advice” given in bad faith. We’re still doing that, but we’ve adopted a larger scope...the threats to Freedom and Democracy.

Once upon a time, there existed a realm where ideas and arguments weren’t condensed into fifteen-second sound bites. The weight of arguments were not measured in the treasure, popularity, or opinion of kings, but the soundness and validity of the underlying facts. During that age, an orator’s ability to gather information and wield facts as dangerous daggers poised to strike the throats of the despot, dictator, and denier alike was sought and feared, honored and coveted. Victory on this battlefield of ideas and logic was not measured in net profits, “exceeding analysts expectations”, PAC contributions, approval ratings, or House and Senate seats won or lost. No, victory was the triumph of the most logically sound idea. This idea most likely did not start life before debate, but was the offspring of an orgy involving public discourse, debate, and deliberation; the idea impregnated in the minds of those courageous enough to think freely, seek new avenues to solutions, and blaze their own path. Only after this free exchange of information has taken place can any group truly arrive at the most logically sound, fair, and appropriate solution to any problem.

Today’s political, ideological, and information landscape has strayed far from that ideal portrayed in Raphael’s masterpiece. Over 2300 years since the death of the great philosophers, we’ve become a people where money and manipulation reign supreme; the great metropolises reduce to serving merely as menageries for our materialism.