Oooo.. it deserved a reply.
Not really -
It was me venting all manner of bile as the result of dining and wining (whining?) with friends who complain of the power, corruption and lies, but who continue to make good money (as do I, except fo the good money bit). You copped it, and apologies for that.
So many talented and intelligent individuals who subsume their light under the bushel of contract law or property development, etc.
Of course, everybody has to make a living, pay off the mortgage, fend off the taxman, etc. But you can also use your spare time to provide critical commentary beyond the confines of a particular and socially isolated forum (if that is your wont).
You don't have to spend your spare time playing golf or attending parties where you really don't care for anyone present.
You only get one life.
Practise commentary as an active contribution to the general discussion.
By all means use the Battlefront Forum as a training ground, but there's a time and a limit beyond which you are merely talking to like-minded individuals (more or less) and no-one in the wider world is the wiser.
Freelance journalism - do it.
Of course, this is difficult because you don't have an 'in'; you have no way of reaching an audience IOT persuade them, but and however:
A considered and well-reasoned argument is worth more than the letters: MBA or PhD.
Particularly now, when your average MBA graduate has no idea how to construct a reasoned argument, let alone how to express it in a persuasive and lyrical manner, and a PhD can be bought.
An ability to critique a given status quo, and to argue for imrovement in a coherent and logical manner is of the highest order of importance.
There are, however, places for your argument to be aired given an ability to edit, which on repeated acceptance might warrant the demand: 'Hey, how come I'm not being paid for this?'
I'd say it'd be relatively easy for you to be published in the dailies at the least four times a year to begin with, given some small effort (and a lot of editing - no offence).
If you submitted a 300 word piece every week (how hard would that be, really).
People might actually appreciate the reasoned argument, rather than the purely subjective opinion-piece that usually passes for reader contribution.
It's just an idea.
Not to practice this ability, not to train the mind that is capable of doing so is an affront to the genetics that created you.
Not to do it Sir, would be the most grievous of insults (my glove).
Oh, and try to disguise the argument in terms of a shpiel that will appeal to your readership. Make it light if it's the weekend magazine ('So I was gardening in Tuscany the other day...'); make it entertaining if it's the dailies. If all else fails, make it relevant WRT the issues that concern the average comfortable rich person (cancer, taxes, education, etc.).
Anyone who lives in a sense of security and with the ability to plan is rich, no matter what the neighbours or annoying brother-in-law may earn.
Gosh, I think I need to stop preaching and do this myself.
But there is a resource there - the ability to form a reasoned, coherent argument, couch it in succinct and erudite prose, and it would be a shame to allow this ability to stagnate in a forum of like- or near-like minded individuals.
Regards.
Quote: (seems to be de rigeur) "..the reading public is still so naive and immature that it cannot understand a fable unless the moral is given at the end, fails to see jokes, has no sense of irony, and is simply badly educated. It still doesn't realise that open abuse is impossible in respectable society or respectable books, and that modern culture has found a far keener weapon than abuse. Though practically invisible, it is none the less deadly, and under the cloak of flattery strikes surely and irresistibly.'
Mikhail Lermontov 1840