“Abgrund” is an Internet pseudonym I adopted in 2000 – all the good names were taken by then. It is a German word meaning “abyss”, which I took from Nietzsche’s famous aphorism “He who struggles with monsters, should take care lest he become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into thee.” (“Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, daß er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.”)
It’s a silly name, but distinctive, and perhaps fitting, since it seems to have stuck to me and I’m still “Abgrund” even to some people who know my “real” name. Some people change internet names like hats, as if trying to escape the identity they have created, but I’m not among them. I remained Abgrund and have continued to plague the Internet as such ever since. Once upon a time, I hung out on philosophy discussion boards – and even ran one for a while – but the sad fact is that there’s very little of value going on in that scene, just the same crap over and over. There’s plenty of trite “pop” philosophy, some “serious” philosophy (i.e., semantic games creating an illusion that someone is actually saying something), a great deal of mysticism and incoherent rambling, and of course the endless bickering over politics, but precious few interesting ideas, new arguments, or actual communication.
Since there’s really no venue on the Internet suitable for serious discussion, I decided to create one – minus the discussion part. Unfortunately, for every worthwhile response to a serious article, there will be a hundred of the “you’re stupid because I think differently” or the “you misquoted Popper” or the “what this has to do with Iraq” varieties, and a hundred more of the ever-dreaded “Let’s argue about the validity of your minor example” and “Let’s argue about something I assumed after skimming four sentences of a thousand word essay” varieties. Discussion is really much better without responses.
Hence this site, where I can periodically post my ruminations unencumbered by the “contributions” of ideologues, morons, dipshits, and crackpots. (One crackpot per site is enough). Of course, if you want to make a comment, there’s a possibility I’ll read it, especially if it’s short (unlike my own posts, but it’s my back yard after all). If it’s insightful or raises a pertinent question, I might even post it and respond to it. If not, it will be quietly dispatched to the circular file. I know you think you’re smart (doesn’t everyone think he/she is just as intelligent as anyone else?), but chances are you don’t know what you’re talking about. If you get something out of what you read here, that’s great; if not, I don’t care.
If you’re really clever, you’ll have noticed by now that there isn’t much information here about me personally (other than what you may infer about my character, or lack thereof). That’s intentional. I read and write about philosophy, history, psychology, politics, economics, and the like; that’s as much as you need to know. This is not a personal blog; this site is about what Abgrund thinks, not where he lives, what he does, or whom he sleeps with. I do not claim to have any credentials, academic or otherwise; anything I post here should be within the reach of any reasonably intelligent adult and should be judged on its own merits. If I give facts or figures, then I have verified them to my own satisfaction, but I probably won’t quote a source – if you don’t trust me, look it up yourself.
So who is this man they call Abgrund? He’s the guy writing this stuff. You can conclude whatever you like from that; you may think I’m an asshole and you may be right. I’m not writing to earn approval, I’m writing to make you think – if that’s possible.
The eight-pointed arrow is a symbol of Chaos, taken from the works of Michael Moorcock. It represents the unrestricted potential to move in any direction. To me, this is both a freedom of the mind and a way of living.
