Paul Dirac was one of human history’s most influential mathematicians and physicists, and apparently did deliver the quote at left. It’s unclear, however, if he didn’t mean it as a joke.
Voltaire said (something like), “God gave us noses so as to hold up our spectacles.” Might this remark be in the same vein?
This is an interesting thought, though it’s unclear why rejecting something one knows nothing about is any more ignorant than asserting something on a subject that one knows nothing about. Maybe both are equally harmful.
I’m constantly running into people trying to tell me what they “believe” about climate change, or some other issue within the domain of environmental sustainability. Fortunately for the human race, most of us trust the scientific method, and rely on the products that derive therefrom.
Maybe the appointment of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense doesn’t scare you. You may think: Hey, we have 625 four-star generals who are more than capable of keeping our military on track. Let’s hope you’re right.
But can we tolerate Kash Patel at the top of the FBI? One of the most powerful law enforcement positions, filled by a man who has sworn to get revenge against Trump’s enemies?
Here we are, about 150 years after Marx made this statement, and we can now see that he was wrong.
Humankind has and will continue to embrace capitalism until organized life on this planet is gone, via some combination of war, environmental collapse, and world fascism.
At left is what the great C.S. Lewis advised a “schoolgirl in America” on the subject of writing.
I was particularly taken by his point #3: “Write with the ear.” In my constructing my sentences and paragraphs, I try to make my writing indistinguishable from my speaking.
When my kids were little, I noticed that, even though they were good readers, they struggled with writing. I’d say, “Tell me what you’re thinking about this subject,” which they could normally do perfectly. Then I’d say, “Great! Write that down.”
I was also gratified to see his point #4: “Write about what interests you … and nothing else.” Unless I have a specific writing assignment from a client, readers can count on hearing about what interests me today.
Yes, the situation here is sad, but keep in mind what Hegel said, “The only thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn anything from history.”
Also, remember that this “large chunk of America” is far meaner and more ignorant that anything that came before it.
Seriously, what do you expect?
I asked my lifelong Republican mom the other night on the phone how happy she was with what Trump has done since his inauguration, and she indicated her full support.
I didn’t ask specifically about the matter presented at the left, but I really can’t imagine how it’s possible for any proponent of law and order to approve of the unconditional release of 1500 felons, many of whom physically beat the tar out of hundreds of Capitol Police personnel on January 6th, 2021, while Trump watched the attack on television for more than three hours.
Here’s the viewpoint of Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT).
For my money, Murphy is among the most compassionate and insightful of our public servants.
The corporate news media has one duty above all others, and it’s not to honestly inform us; it’s to generate profits for shareholders. For that reason, it’s not rational to hope that they’ll put too much focus on American democracy’s coming to an end.
There are news organizations, e.g., “Democracy Now!” that are non-profits, for people who don’t want to see world events through a corporate lens.
This all could have gone so differently. We could have had an intelligent, compassionate, and fair-minded president, yet we opted for one of the most disgusting human beings ever to have walked the planet, And of course, we knew exactly what we were buying into.
In hindsight, it’s clear that the Democrats took too much for granted. Instead of pushing the facts into the faces of lifelong Republicans, we erroneously presumed that American voters had some level of ethical sensibilities.
Had I been advising Harris’s campaign, I would have said, “We have a choice to make, principally between honesty and criminality. But it’s also a question of this: Do you want to be ruled with a small cadre of greedy billionaires who couldn’t care less about you or American democracy? You re-elect Trump, and the vision of the Founding Fathers will be crushed to smithereens.”
