Why The Blog?

An existential question, to be sure.  More specifically, why start a blog dedicated to the renaissance man in particular?  There are a couple of reasons for this, apart from a certain amount of egoism, narcissism, and solipsism on my own part (the true source of all blogs, without a doubt).

For one, I find renaissance men to be interesting people.  As I stated in the original post, they are generally the most interesting, eclectic people I've ever met.  They are typically the kind of men to go to for advice with every-day life issues, and when they attain a certain amount of age, are usually considered 'wise' or 'sage'.  Historically, some of the greatest, most interesting men who ever lived were notable renaissance men: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Pascal, to name a few.  Also, renaissance men tend to get laid.  A lot.  And everyone knows that sex makes for good blogging.  But, probably the foremost reason for starting a blog dedicated to the renaissance man ideal is my firm belief that our modern tendency to specialize is making it harder and harder for this 'theory of being' to thrive, or even survive, which will eventually lead to the destruction of civilization in a fiery firepit of hell.

Or, it will be very boring.

One of the two.

Anyway, the conscious idea of the 'renaissance man' originated during the renaissance period (big surprise), although the term was first used much later (early 20th century).  I'll spare you the boring history lesson about who coined it first, etc, but the idea, during that period of time, was that a man should be 'a complete man', which generally necessitated that a man attempt to excel at as many fields as he possibly could in a lifetime.  In particular, emphasis was placed on sport and/or warfare, the sciences, literature, the arts, linguistics, theology, and philosophy, not necessarily in any particular order.  The idea probably grew from the Knighthood ideal, and the view that an 'educated' knight was a gentleman, warrior, and a scholar.  Prior to the Renaissance period, other great thinkers (notably the early Greek philosophers), purported that an ideal man should be proficient in many things, and those men were deemed 'polymaths'.

Regardless of where or why it began, it was and is still, without a doubt, the greatest of idealistic notions relating to the betterment of the male human animal.  To be 'all encompassing'.  To be 'well rounded'.  The incessant and insatiable quest for knowledge and skill.  The proverbial and symbolic 'Search for the Holy Grail'.  The Quest which is, of course, inherently doomed to failure, since no man can ever attain perfection in all things.  To some degree the renaissance man accepts the fact that he will never reach the 'ultimate goal'.  He accepts, in fact, that there might never have been a true goal in the first place.  The Holy Grail will never be found, even if it does exist.  But, the journey to find it elevates the man more than the object itself, which, as any renaissance man will tell you, was the whole point of the journey in the first place.

Nothing to me is sadder than the man who paid good money for his MBA, stuck in a cubicle or corner office for 40 years, pushing some papers around for a company that produces nothing in particular, living vicariously through his television set at home, just so he can retire comfortably in a motorhome bound for Arizona when he's at death's door.  We live in a day and age where schools are no longer teaching music and/or the arts.  High school students are pressed to take early college credit courses on their way to becoming 'productive' members of society.  Gone are the wood shop, the drama club, and the band room.  Talented athletes are pressed more and more to focus on one sport alone, and with all-consuming intensity, to the derailment of their overall physical and mental education.  Higher learning institutions are pressing students to declare majors early, and putting most of the available educational dollars into 'valuable' degree programs, such as Business, Law, and Medicine, at the expense of disciplines such as Philosophy, Art, and History.  Worse yet, we have been duped into believing that the surest path to 'success' is a 'marketable' college degree.  All around us we are deafened by the cacophony of the snare drums and cymbals of the 'specialists' to the drowning out of the triangles, wood blocks, and cowbells of the 'generalists'.

It is time to make a revolution of sorts.  It is time to bring back the ideal of generalization.  To appreciate what we already know intuitively: that a man can be better at one thing when he is knowledgeable about many.  It is  the mixing of disciplines that spurs innovation.  It is the drawing from a multitude of experiences that makes a man wise, not the studying of one thing for a lifetime.  It is my intent to provide a forum here that will hopefully lead to a sanctuary and outlet for renaissance men throughout the blogoshpere (along with the women who love them, want to love them, or want desperately to be loved by them), and to help prime and cultivate the next generation of renaissance men.  My hope is that you, web community of self-proclaimed renaissance men, latent renaissance men, repressed renaissance men, and renaissance men in training, will help me in this endeavor.  I welcome your comments, stories, diatribes, and/or suggestions.