I Started A New Publication — Sapere Aude, Insipe.
I don’t know why I didn’t start this earlier. I always wanted to have a publication of my own but never started one because I thought you had to pay, you had to go through a whole process, etc. I didn’t think it would only take 5 minutes — goes to show you how fear of starting can fool you.
I named the publication Sapere Aude, Insipe because first of all, Latin is kind of badass. I just think it automatically makes you sound 20% smarter.
Like my Korean grandmother used to always tell me — “Willy boy, keep some Latin words in handy in case you want to impress people on the Internet someday.” She told me this when I was only 1 year old, back in 1996.
(Okay, fine. She didn’t actually say that, but the thought of it was too funny not to share.)
Anyways, I wanted to find a quote that could show what my mission is. The quote comes from the Roman poet Horace, in the First Book of Letters back in 20 BCE, and the full quote goes like this:
“Dimidium facti, qui coepit, habet; sapere aude, incipe.”
The phrase is the moral to a story in which a fool waits for a stream to cease flowing, before attempting to cross it. In saying, “He who begins is half done. Dare to know, begin!”, the Roman poet Horace suggests the value of human endeavour, of persistence in reaching a goal, of the need for effort to overcome obstacles. Moreover, the laconic Latin of Sapere aude also can be loosely translated as the English phrase “Dare to be wise”.
The mission for this publication is to find individual thinkers who are actively trying to question their own beliefs and the beliefs of others, are open-minded, are able to converse about different ideas with good faith, and are able to remove emotions from rational discussion.
I want to be able to discuss and criticize any and all kinds of ideas on this publication. I want to discourage echo chambers and the suppression of freedom of thought, speech, and expression.
We can talk about differing ideas without character assassinations and name-calling.
We can treat each other as individuals with ideas, instead of seeing each other as good or evil based on the beliefs we hold. We can withhold assumptions of ulterior motives of the other side, and simply talk it out and try to get on the same level. Let’s listen to each other, instead of trying to drown out each other’s voices.
That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.
— John Stuart Mill
We can talk about the good books we’ve read, what we learned from them, and how we can apply those lessons to our lives to live more fulfilling, honorable and happy lives.
We can talk about epiphanies that helped change our lives for the better. We can talk about the hard times we’ve had in life and we can help each other get through them or at least be there for them as an outlet. People desperately want to be heard, to be cared for, to be loved.
We can talk about each other’s philosophies of life. What is heaven to you? What is hell to you? What is life all about? Why do we suffer? What is our purpose? Who are you? Where are we going? What are we all living for? What do we need to do to minimize suffering?
We can talk about recent political events and share our thoughts on them. This can obviously bring in controversy but I’d like to create an environment that allows and welcomes these hard discussions. We can all come out better and more educated after examining the weaknesses and strengths of our position and of the opposing position.
This publication is aiming to maximize the utility of the first amendment. Writing about your beliefs can help you consolidate your thoughts. You can see your thoughts on paper and critically evaluate them.
You will find out you might be very biased and have never looked at the other side’s argument. You will find out that you are very ignorant about most things, and that you actually don’t know much about the world. You will find out that many of your beliefs were not actually thought through by yourself— you either heard, read or picked them up somewhere and claimed ownership. You will find out that your beliefs can be picked apart by someone who is smarter than you. You will find out that what you thought was undeniable is, in fact, easily deniable.
“If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.”
― George Orwell
But instead of digging your claws deeper into the sand, open your mind and allow yourself to listen. Because if you listen, you might learn something valuable that can help change your life and find out ways to improve it. You might be able to stop suffering stupidly and figure out a way to move forward in the world.
We will not be intimidated by anyone for not thinking like them. We won’t let others tell us what we have to think and won’t let other people dictate which ideas are good or bad. We will decide for ourselves what we shall think, and we will be free to believe whatever we’d like to believe, so long as it does not harm or violate any other person’s civil liberties.
To those who are willing to join a community of free-thinkers who reject a society of groupthink and identity politics, please message me or email me at ohc.william@gmail.com.
Please send me 2–3 pieces that I can read so that I can get a taste of what you’d be writing about and let me know what your mission is in writing. Let me know what you believe in strongly. Let’s get to know each other.
Go follow the publication if you haven’t already! There’s gonna be some quality content soon and you won’t want to miss them.
For the writers that I already know, if you’re interested in joining please let me know in the comments or through email! :)
Thanos Antoniou, Max Frenzel, D.A. Kirk, 🎥 Heidi The Flamingo, David Sim, T.C. Seiko, Anastasiya Mozgovaya, Trevor Rivet, Alex Tan, Alisha Ramos, Jesse Kerema, Jeff Suwak, jordangonen, Mitch Little, Joren van Schaik, Alex Chen, Emma gannon, Maya Spikes, Ben Sim, Stephanie Jackson, Jakub Ferencik, Darryl Ucheya, Jonathan Greene, Michael Thompson, Jackson Nexhip, Maarten van Doorn, Alexander Kyle, Sarah Lofgren, Antoine Polgari, Chloe Leb, Emily Cashour, Kate Campbell, Aleesha Lauray, Giulia Blasi, Brian Kurian, Mike Arnold
Forgive me if I forgot to include you…I’ll understand if you reach out with hate mail.
This community is obviously going to be small at first, but I think there are a lot of people out there dying to have a place where ideas can be freely discussed without fear of moral judgment of their character, afraid to be slandered for saying something that goes against mainstream or popular belief.
We are here to be controversial and we are here to stay. Let’s encourage a society of free thinkers and a free market of ideas. We don’t have to be coddled and told what we should think is good or bad.
We’ll use our own judgment and rationality for that, thank you very much.
“Every man who says frankly and fully what he thinks is so far doing a public service. We should be grateful to him for attacking most unsparingly our most cherished opinions.”
— John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
