Well, all knowledge is, ultimately, false. Or, at least, incomplete.
Bearing this in mind, we understand there is no such thing as false knowledge. Only people unwilling to adapt their understanding of things to the newly discovered facts… In this sense, it’s not the false knowledge which is dangerous, it’s those who worship ‘self made idols’! Those who are so convinced that what they know is enough. That their understanding of the world is so right and so complete that it has reached ‘perfection’. That their Weltanschauung is, hence, ‘sacred’. ‘Worship-able’, if you’ll allow this word.
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As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
One of my FB friends shared this meme and created the ‘opportunity’ for an interesting conversation.
“Say the same about the antics of parading gay pride activists…if you dare.”
I couldn’t resist: “Gay activists parading peacefully are no threat for anybody. ‘Activists’ who actually whip other ‘activists’ during a parade… Same thing here. You really want/need to make your point? OK, take your 9mm Beretta for a walk. But an AR-15?!? Common…”
I have the ‘bad’ habit of proofreading my comments before hitting enter…
That was when it hit me!
‘Is this for real? Was the guy actually ‘open carrying’? Was it staged? Could it be that the guy just bought it? Had it repaired? Or any other situation, but trying to make a fool of himself?’
OK, open carrying a gun in a public setting is… an exaggeration. For me, at least. But this is besides the point.
The point being that we’ve reached the stage where appearance is more important than substance. The point from which we no longer carry guns for protection but to make a point. The bigger the ‘gun’, the more important, for us, the point we’re trying to make.
The more preposterous the meme, the more convincing we feel ourselves to be…
I’m afraid FB got us where it needs us to be!
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As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated! Another very efficient way to help would be to share my posts.
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
Respecting other people’s opinions means respectfully telling them how wrong they are – when they are, of course, instead of shouting, in their faces, about how stupid they are – in that precise moment.
In this sense, this meme is, actually, inflammatory. Nobody who has paid some attention in high-school – and has maintained a working eye-sight, will ever opine about something like this. Only those who 1. don’t see/know the difference between a ‘factor’ and a ‘base’ and/or 2. don’t care enough to pay real attention – and want to get it over with, would fall prey to this ‘ruse’.
Using this example to demand ‘stop the antiscience movement’ is, in fact, disrespectful! And counterproductive. It will only deepen the chasm between those who believe in science and those who see the ‘science peddlers’ as being arrogant know-alls.
The whole thing raises a poignant question. We have a business here. The sporting tournaments live by selling advertising space. To do that, they need to grab our attention. Given the insistence with which the organizers insist that the athletes have to attend the press conferences, which is the main attention grabber? The ‘athletic prowess’ itself or the ‘big talk’ that follows the actual ‘sports meeting’?
One of my eyes is short-sighted. Both are astigmatic. Hence my visual relationship with the ‘exterior’ is impaired. Relative to that of a ‘normal’ person…
When I took up photography, as a hobby, there were no such things as self focusing cameras. Pictures as those you are about to see were way ‘out of range’ for me.
Because of my inability to focus a camera fast enough. And because long ranged lenses were too expensive for me, in those times.
Being conscious of my limits was no cure for my frustration!
Thankfully, technology made it possible for me to indulge in my hobby! To overcome some of my limitations.
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As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated! Another very efficient way to help would be to share my posts.
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
Good Old Politics used to be about identifying the common ground. And making it wide enough to harbor the foundation for a stable – as in ‘sustainable’, future. A future where ‘everybody’ could claim a place. As in ‘fulfilling the American Dream’.
Nowadays, politics is about identifying the most effective way to pull the rug from your opponents’ feet.
How wise is this?
How sustainable is it?
We learn from Michelle Obama’s book – Becoming, 2018, that her father, a blue collar worker, was the only breadwinner who provided for the family. A family of four, leading a decent life in a decent home. Who was earning enough to send both kids to school. Is this still possible today? In America? The Land of Opportunity?
Trump got elected after a huge number of well paying blue collar jobs had been exported. After wealth disparity had become ridiculous.
What convinced so many people into believing that Trump, the billionaire, was the answer to their plight?
Historian Nancy MacClean has just published “Democracy in Chains”, a book in which she looks at a group of ultra free-market thinkers who have been working to change the government systems of the United States since the 1950s. While Donald Trump was not part of their plan, MacLean says “there is no way Donald Trump would be in the White House were it not for their strategy”, which includes gerrymandering and taking control of the judiciary. She joined us for Perspective to tell us more.
No, this is not yet another post about Trump. This is about Political Science.
You see, physics and chemistry are hugely important sciences. Physics has taught us how to build planes. And atomic bombs. Chemistry how to make life saving drugs. And deadly explosives.
And so on. Science is nothing but a formalized method of gathering consistent information. What we subsequently do with the technology built around the above mentioned ‘consistent information’ is something else. It no longer depends on ‘science’.
It solely depends on us. On what plans we have for the future. On how we – the ‘meaningful’ amongst us, to be more precise – chose to use the above mentioned stash of ‘consistent information’.
Nowadays we’re toying with even more powerful tools. Tools which are able to turn back the flow of history. To make a joke out of the fabled ‘checks and balances’.
The H bomb is such a blunt tool that nobody in their right mind would ever consider using.
Tools made possible by political science are way more insidious. So insidious that most of those who wield them ignore the true amount of fallout their actions will unleash.
Compromise – give some to get some, is debatable to start with. But, ultimately, workable. History is full of successful examples. Kompromat is nothing but mutually assured destruction. MAD. Made worse by its trivial appearance.
By engaging in compromise, you give hope a chance. The other has a scope. For as long as negotiation is going on earnestly, both sides have a fair chance of getting out alive. By engaging in Kompromat, the aggressor actually sends the message: ‘I’ll stop only over your dead body’.
Sustainable?!? Are you kidding me?
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As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated! Another very efficient way to help would be to share my posts.
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
1. Always remember that your ‘ride’ doubles up as your home. And as your pantry! ‘Redecorate’ with extreme caution and be extra careful when it comes to ‘waste disposal’. For the simple reason that today’s stool will, sometime in the near future, become tomorrow’s lunch. No ‘ride’ is infinite, you know… “all come from dust, and all return to dust“, remember?
2. Treat the entire ‘crew’ as your family. For the simple reason that no mutiny has ever ended well… Even the winning parties have been presented with huge ‘cleaning up’ bills… while there is a very short supply of desert – but habitable – ‘islands’ where the loosing parties might be left to fend for themselves. So, in the end, all those interested in continuing their lives must – the sooner the better – find where is the middle ground between them.
3. ‘I’ll be dead long before the hit shits the fan’ is no longer a viable option. If Covid hasn’t taught you that already… There’s a huge difference between dying comfortably in your bed, with a cold glass of water just a wish away, and gasping for air, alone, with other moribund people as your only company!
“Beyond the images, the cremation grounds bear a painful routine of trauma that will weigh on families long after the headlines fade. The pandemic has stripped the final rites of their usual space and dignity. Instead, this intimate ritual has become both a public display, with the world watching India’s crisis, and a lonely burden.”
A story opens a space. An explanation sets limits.
A story empowers. An explanation tells how those powers are to be used.
Neither are true. Each wants to be true but neither will ever reach the exact place. ‘Bull’s eyes’ are safe. We keep trying, although those of us who know their way around words are aware how elusive truth is.
The downside of the whole thing being that words, ‘storied’ words, might kill. As in actually! And uselessly…
Unless accompanied by a valid explanation, of course.
Then we start exploring the world our parents – and all their ancestors, have prepared for us.
At first, we’re like sponges. We absorb, unconsciously, everything which takes places around us. Some according to what our parents had in mind for us, some not.
After a while, on our own and/or under our parents’ supervision, our attention starts to focus. More and more of the things which are stored in our memory are learned. Increasingly a consequence of focused labor and less and less a happenstance.
Almost simultaneously, we start adding our transformative efforts to those already effected by our predecessors. Minute at first, more and more significant as we become more experienced.
At some point, we reach something called ‘maturity’. That’s when ‘play’ ceases being a legitimate manner of learning for us. We are allowed to continue playing but only for recreational purposes…
At least we’re still allowed to explore… but from now on, we’re expected to do it in a serious manner. According ‘to plan’, that is. From now on, wandering is considered to be a sin!
‘You’re an adult, for God’s sake. Act like one!’
I’m sure most of you have experimented things. Either as an experimenter or, mostly in school, as a learning apprentice. How many of those experiments had been ‘blind’? As is neither you nor anybody else present had any idea about what was going to happen? And how many had a more ‘modest’ goal? Just to convince the ‘students’ that the ‘theory’ was valid?
If you think of it, the second sentence covers quite a lot of ground. From the second grade teacher pouring water over some sugar ‘Look, it has disappeared’, to the scientists anxiously watching the gauges at the CERN laboratory…
A few short generations ago, people had to decide whether that plant was edible or not. And had developed methods to accomplish that task. They survived, right? Nowadays we design new plants/animals and ‘cook up’ fancy snacks to be sold in supermarkets…
During our parents’ ‘watch’, Popper had come up with a test for what belonged to the realm of science – and had to do with ‘reality’. Nowadays, we brag about being able to create VA. As in virtual reality… Enhanced virtual reality, even!
Nothing good or bad about all this. For as long as we keep our eyes open… and, at least one of them, focused on the ‘hard’ reality… that which makes us possible!
nicichiarasa 