The Troll

Western culture today provides a façade in which even the most ill-mannered of men can find refuge from the eyes of the rational critic.

It has become a culture of trolls, making seemingly sarcastic arguments in favor of trivial viewpoints in order that the pursuit of real truth might be ignored.

It is popular to look for problems where problems may not exist and to engage in worthless arguments, in which, even if there was a victor, no life is changed for the better.

Such a powerful relativism has now been introduced that individuals are unwilling to even inquire as to whether or not their own beliefs are true. Instead of contributing to rational and reasonable conversation, these individuals hide behind the troll; and even become themselves the troll.

The troll allows us to overlook the mirror that we so desperately need to, at the least, acknowledge and instead causes us to point out the apparent flaws in other worldviews without even considering the view at large.

Look, look at what I’ve done. Have I myself become the troll while speaking of popular western culture? Have I, just now, produced a trivial argument in which no benefit can be found? Let it not be so! Let it not be so!

Let us commit not to judge what we do not understand. Instead, we must commit to understanding and then to constructive criticism. The troll may have a place in the comedic weaves within our own minds, but let it not have a place within a rational and reasonable inquiry of worldviews and of truth. If we must search, let the search be meaningful.