b. traven and W.J. Astore

Thank you, thank you, thank you.  In only eighteen months since starting this blog, we’ve reached the 100,000 “hits” milestone and are approaching 300 followers.  We also have nearly 200 “likes” on our Facebook page without the benefit of paid advertising.

To readers of and contributors to The Contrary Perspective blog: Our founder, Stuart Lyle, a successful technology entrepreneur, wondered if a dedicated “contrary views” blog could get off the ground. You have shown that those who question the dominant “wisdom” will always look for and find kindred spirits.

Our goal is to present the thoughtful views of regular people, and we include ourselves in that category.  Our citizen-contributors have experienced war, military life, public service, age, and yes, even business. Thoughtful contrarian views of our society and country exist in all walks of life but are increasingly seen as heretical. Witness our contributors like Michael Gallagher, a Catholic layman who questions church policy; Greg Laxer, a Vietnam war resister who still resists; and Michael Murry, who witnessed actions in Vietnam that turned his fertile mind to polemical poetry to oppose the insanity of our leaders. B. traven, the ancient one, a veteran of the Great Depression and World War II, is dedicated to reminding us all of the history of our country, warts and all, which he has lived in for nine decades; and Bill Astore, a retired Air Force Lt. Colonel and professor of history who as this site’s editor strives to help others to air their contrarian views.

Among our occasional contributors are a wide variety of Americans from every walk of life. Dan White, equally skilled with words as he is with machines, a truth-telling Texan (what more need we say?); Alex Dunn, our E.U. contributor; Steve Naidamast, a software expert from the tech industry; Mimi Madduck, a trauma therapist; Don Rose, a Chicago political consultant; Richard Sahn, a sociology professor with more than four decades of teaching experience; Mathew Jacobson, a political history buff. We also occasionally borrow from what we believe are particularly insightful pieces from sites like richardsilverstein.com and wemeantwell.com (created by Peter Van Buren) that are contrary to accepted views.

We invite and encourage you to join the conversation and to comment freely on our articles.  Better still, if you have a contrary view of what those in power have ordained as reality, write an analysis with your views and send it to our editor, Bill Astore, at wjastore@gmail.com.  We can’t offer payment in money; what we can offer is a community of like-minded thinkers.

Again, we’d like to thank all of you for being involved in our contrary community.  Together we can bring independent and critical (and contrarian!) thinking from everyday people back into vogue.