I initially started writing this blog whilst off my feet following a sports injury. The (only) advantage to injury is that it gives one time to slow down, recover, and take some time out to think. The blog writing has, therefore, given me time to make the decision to dedicate more time to making a living out of journalism.

In this blog, I report on a mixture of current affairs, debate “hot topics” published by the media, and discuss my random (and sometimes brutally honest) observations whilst going about my daily business. Not everything here will be entirely serious, as there will always be the possibility of a little bit of humour thrown in along the way! This brings me onto the following quotation:

“Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.” – Brendan Gill.

I concur! – Life is what we make it. However, to say that there are not some very serious issues occurring in the world, would be a non sequitur, because there undoubtedly are. Life has a number of metaphorical slopes, which can occasionally be rather slippery. Society has its problems, but we should also remember that our direction on the slope can be upwards, too. Sometimes we just need to climb harder.

Despite the title of this blog, and the fact that life is undoubtedly a slippery slope of sorts, I must point out that I do not favour the infamous “slippery slope argument”, per se. Its principal use is to defend the status quo by making us fear a situation, based upon the belief that one negative event will inevitably lead to another negative situation. Of course, this is sometimes true, but it is an example of a typical modus ponen: a very simplistic argument form, and rule of inference. Such an argument can also be very vague, and I am of the belief that there is nearly always an alternate argument that can capture the same viewpoint. Life may very well be slippery, and although we can sometimes develop a cogent slippery slope argument; given its most common usage, it can also be fallacious. We need to bear in mind that we occasionally need to endure one negative situation in order to change our circumstances into something more positive. Take, for example, the bad publicity that might result from a public protest. Despite initial bad press, the protest might subsequently lead to a very positive change of circumstances. Change, of course, is not always for the greater good, but conversely, it is not always something to be fearful of, either. As mentioned above, sometimes our direction on the slope is upwards.

Readers are more than welcome to join in and have a good ol’ rant, by contributing their comments and personal viewpoints. If it starts up an interesting debate, then all the better!

Whoever said a slippery slope couldn’t be fun…?