"Jeff Gannon" asks, "Why should my past prevent me from having a future?"

In his interview with Anderson Cooper, "Jeff Gannon" falsely claims that his private life has been put on public display, and has ruined, (I guess) "his career."

Now it wasn't his private life that was exposed- merely what he had publicly put on the internet: his advertising of his services as a "male escort."

Gannon concludes the interview with the question that's the title of this post, which, I guess for Republicans, - especially conservatives- goes really to the heart of the matter (and might have been suggested by a publicist).

The question deserves an answer, and goes to the heart of the basic critique of the (auto)didactic folks (like Joe Carter on "Intelligent" "Design") who would prefer to denigrate real knowledge and expertise.


Shunryu Suzuki said, "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few."

Your past makes you an expert in your life, and in the skills which you use to carry out your life. Your past doesn't prevent your future, but certainly constrains it. That's why we don't want child molesters to work with children, we don't want tennis instruction from those who have never played it, and we don't take to heart moralizing conservative rhetoric and press releases introjected into print without surrounding context from people who claim a background as sex workers. Likewise, if I want to know about biology, I'll ask a scientist who hasn't spent a great deal of time trying to turn biology into religion, because his attention has not been on biology, but on trying to turn biology into religion. And I certainly won't rely on those not skilled in the art to get an answer that requires skill.

You have a future "Gannon." Do not waste your time by night or day. You don't even have to be a sex worker.