Archives for posts with tag: Newton
‘After a trip abroad, the Thinker from Cernavoda and the Sitting Woman will be available for the locals.’

What makes us think that the Thinker is thinking while the Woman is just sitting?!?

Is there any meaning in this?

Newton had only described gravity, he didn’t invent anything. Noticed it – like many others before him, thought about it – more (better?) than all those before him, and came up with a deeper meaning for the whole ‘falling thing’.
Nobody cared to contradict him. Because everything, once exposed, was so obvious!

I’ll make a break here and wonder… what does the Flat Earth Society think about gravity?

Had your laugh?
OK, let’s move on.

Darwin had also noticed things. Thought about them. Really hard. And put together a theory.
Which continues to be considered a theory because not everybody is yet convinced…
OK, things are a little harder to swallow. Specially the part with us being relatives, no matter how distanced, with Judy…

Furthermore, the evolution thing is not as obvious as the gravity thing… most of us would have to take Darwin’s word for it… something we don’t do that easily, specially if/when we dislike – for what ever reason, the outcome.

Then why do we ‘swallow’ – line, hook and sinker, however implicitly, the names affixed on those two prehistoric figurines?!?
Because they are obvious?
Just as obvious as gravity?

The guy must be thinking and it’s obvious that the woman is just sitting?!?

Or is it that we believe what we want to believe?
We attribute meaning according to our own standards. Then stick to our opinion. Almost no matter what…

How about He nursing a hangover and She guarding him against predators?

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You are entitled to your own opinion.
But you are not entitled to your own facts!

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

“a practice or interest followed for a time with exaggerated zeal : craze”

“Something that has actual existence. An actual occurence.
A piece of information presented as having objective reality.
The quality of being actual.
A thing done: such as”

Destination first. If you know where you’re going, getting there will be a lot simpler.

According to Daniel Moynihan – “you are not entitled to your own facts”, facts are obvious.
So obvious that doubting their existence, their factuality, would push us beyond the realm of the reasonable.
Appropriating facts – transforming them into ‘private property’, banishes the perpetrator from the community….

Hm…

Let me put it differently.
Moynihan had said something.
What was it? A fact? Or an opinion?

Currently, we – well, most of us – believe that freedom of opinion is the cornerstone of our Weltanschauung.
When it comes to facts… We’re OK with the definition – we do use the word/concept, quite extensively – but we seem to have some problems when dealing with the actual reality. Remember the still famous ‘alternative facts’?

Let me add something personal to all this.
My opinion about ‘facts’.

The current definition is somewhat incomplete.
We take something for granted. To the tune of no longer mentioning it.
We assume all of us see the elephant in the room and no longer talk about it.

For something to become a ‘fact’ we have to notice it.
First.
And then we have to agree among ourselves about its meaning!

Things used to fall down since ….
We’ve been discussing the matter since… we’ve learned how to speak!
But gravity had become a fact only after Newton had noticed the famous apple, wrote about it and we agreed. Gravity had become a fact, and continues to be one, only because his contemporaries had agreed with Newton on this matter. And we continue to believe Newton was right!

In this sense, alternative facts have been with us since day one. Well, something like that…
God had told something to Adam and Eve, the serpent had said something else… and the rest is history! For some…

Newton had said something to us. And most of us had chosen to believe him. Or ignore his words…
Darwin had said something to us. Many of us have chosen to believe him. To accept his arguments about the matter. While some others have chosen to dispute Darwin’s findings. To actively negate Darwin’s explanations about how we’ve got here.

Gravity is a fact while Evolution is still a theory.
Statistically speaking, of course.

In this sense, Moynihan was wrong.
For his words to ‘hold water’, we must to agree on how to separate facts from opinions.
Until we agree among ourselves about how to determine ‘factualness’, we’ll keep having to deal with ‘alternative facts’.

I actually cannot wrap this up before ‘unveiling’ my litmus test for factualness.
Consequences.

Does it have consequences?

Yes? It’s a fact!
No? Then it’s not – not yet, at least – a ‘fact’. It did happen – otherwise we wouldn’t be speaking about it. It even does have consequences – we do speak about it, but that occurrence doesn’t yet have meaningful consequences. It is not a ‘factual’ fact.

On the other hand, Newton was also ‘discredited’ by Einstein…

Not to mention how discredited had been Aristotle, the scientist, by those who came after him!

Yet nobody speaks badly about either Aristotle or Newton.
Because they are considered ‘stepping stones’…

https://www.britannica.com/…/Aristotle/The-unmoved-mover

Like it or not, some people, a minority, have more clout than others. Than the demographic majority. That’s a fact.
Check Vilfredo Pareto’s principle, if you need more theoretical background.

Things tend to survive.
From the moving object which ‘wants’ to conserve its linear trajectory and speed – Newton’s first law, to the survival instinct which is manifest in all living organisms.

Those with more clout than the others, the elites, are included here. Among the things which want to survive.

As humans, the elites are endowed with consciousness. They are aware of their own status. And of their own fragility.

In time, they (should) have learned a few things.
– They are not infallible. Neither individually and nor as a class.
– When things get really bad – revolution grade bad, they have the most to loose. Regular Joe has nothing to loose but his shackles while the ‘landed gentry’ has everything to loose. Even if land itself has nowhere to go.
– The best way to preserve elite status is through the cunning use of the law.

The point being that these three ‘pearls of wisdom’ must be kept in balance. Whenever one of them is forgotten, things go south. Revolution grade south.

Let me deal with the last but not least one.

Any Law is nothing but the formal expression of an already existing reality.
It doesn’t matter whether that reality is ‘hard’ or ‘virtual’, all it has to do is to be ‘real’.
For example, Newton’s laws describe a portion of the physical reality which surrounds us. The penal codes, all over the world, are the formal expressions of the prevailing mores in each of the respective countries and territories. And both physical reality and prevailing mores are actual realities, even if the first is ‘hard’ while those belonging the second category are virtual. Both have consequences, hence both are real.

OK, very nice. Your theory covers the kind of laws which attempt to describe already existing realities.
But what about the laws which attempt to ‘regulate’ the future? For instance the laws which prevent us from smoking in public places or those which mandate us to pay a portion of our income at the end of the fiscal year? Where is the reality described by these laws?
In the head of those who had come up with them in the first place!
‘They’ had somehow managed to convince us to accept these laws. Which means that ‘their’ convictions had been strong enough to produce consequences. Hence their convictions had been ‘real’.

Among the laws which regulate the future are those which attempt to conserve the already present situation. Starting with the various Constitutions and all the way through to the anti rioting legislation.

If you look close enough, the special status of the elites has a special place – even if not always mentioned as such, in all these pieces of legislation.
Which is not necessarily bad. After all, we’ve already learned that elites do have a role to play in the well being of the social organism we all belong to.

The whole thing boils down to how protected those elites need to be?
In order for them to be able to properly play their role.

We are now faced with another question which needs to be answered.

‘Their role’?

To lead the masses? Where?!?

How about ‘to maximize the chances of survival’? For both the society as a whole and for them, the elite class, as a very important part of the whole?

Let me remind you of the ‘three pearls of wisdom’.

The elites are not infallible.
They are the ones with the most to loose. Hence they are the most interested in maintaining the status quo.
The most efficient way to insure stability is through the wise use of the law. Which must be written wisely and obeyed respectfully.

Hence it’s the elites which mostly need to act wisely.
They are the ones who need the most to constantly adjust their actions according to the consequences obtained.

‘OK, very nicely put.
But what has any of this to do with ‘laissez faire’?!?’

Laissez faire is, above all, an attitude.
A mental frame-work. A blue print, if you want.

An attitude which mandates each of us to do as we please, for as long as we don’t encounter adverse reactions.

For instance, this attitude would allow any of us to shoot ourselves in the foot, if we don’t mind the pain. Or shoot somebody else in the foot if he doesn’t protest.

And this is the real problem with laissez faire.

It cannot be written into law.

‘ ‘Shoot somebody else in the foot if he doesn’t protest’… What does that mean? There are laws against bodily harming others…’

Yes, true enough. But before any law is enforced, somebody has to notify those called to enforce that law…
If the hurt person is in no position to call the ‘cops’ or the ‘shooter’ is powerful/skillful enough to avoid the unpleasant consequences of his actions…

On the other hand, laissez faire is essential.

People do need to be free. It’s their nature to explore every available opportunity!
Specially so for the elites.
Remember their role? To maximize the chances of survival?
How would they be able to do that if nobody is allowed to do as they please? To explore, that is!

Hence the true role of the elites.
To constantly adjust the meaning of laissez faire to whatever happens around them.

Present owes just as much to Reaction, if not more, as it does to Revolution
Ilie Badescu, PhD.

Newton had noticed  that everything, no matter how ‘inanimate’, reacts whenever ‘prodded’. And, maybe even more importantly, that the reaction is exactly balances the ‘prodding’.
Provided that the ‘prodding’ doesn’t actually ‘destroy’ the ‘target’, of course. But even then, some ‘reaction’ is always exerted against the ‘intruder’.
Walking, for instance. Whenever we walk on tarmac, our weight is fully supported by the pavement. When walking on dry, fine sand, our feet leave an impression. Our weight is eventually counterbalanced but not before some local ‘readjustments’ have been made. Finally, when walking in knee deep water, our feet completely ‘destroy’ the layer of liquid before reaching the ‘terra firma’ below. But not without having been met by some hydrodynamic resistance – which is far greater than the aerodynamic one we constantly overcome when walking on dry land.

Darwin had noticed that species either evolve – and survive, or ‘go under’ whenever something changes in the environment they had been accustomed to.
It’s a no brainer to remark that here the reaction is no longer as instantaneous nor as ‘equally opposed’ as in the first case.

Since Berger and Luckman’s The Social Construction of Reality it is tacitly accepted that our fate is heavily influenced by our actions.
Some of those inclined to entertain religious beliefs will now add that it is our actions which take us to hell or to heaven but since there have always been some ‘misunderstandings’ between the various currents …
Anyway.
My point is that in this third case, each specific ‘reaction’ is actively shaped by the individual ‘reactionary’. According to their own projections of the future, to the prevailing, socially adopted and individually internalized, rules and to the individual understanding of the until then discovered ‘natural laws’.

And that our future, as a species/civilization, is being shaped now.
By us.
Using whatever cultural heritage our ancestors have left us and, maybe more important, according to our limited understanding of the world.
And according to our wishes, of course.

It will be our children who will bear the brunt of our current decisions.

There is an almost unanimous consensus about laws having to be considered either natural or man made.

As in the law of gravity is implacable – hence ‘natural’, while the Penal Code is a lot more ‘amenable’.

Yeah, right…

Then how come Hammurabi had been able to write his Code some three and a half Millennia before Newton famously noticed that apples do fall to the ground? Besides being such irresistible objects of temptation, of course.
One way out would be to assume that Hammurabi was a lot smarter than Newton but that would be too easy, don’t you think?

Now that I’ve mentioned the noticing game, let me point out some of my own observations.
People have tried to fly way before Newton had told them this is impossible – for us, at least.
Individuals might occasionally get away with murder but murderous societies are far less stable than the more peaceful ones.
Gravity has been already ‘defeated’ while no totalitarian government has yet managed to ‘stay afloat’ in a consistent manner – no matter how many dissidents it had murdered.

Another approach to this conundrum would be to consider that natural laws deal with the non responsive kind of chaos while man made ones are meant to approximate what happens when the chaos is able to respond to what’s being thrown in it.

For instance weather and financial market. No one can change the weather – hence it is considered a non-responsive kind of chaos, while the market is constantly pushed one way or another by the various pieces of information that reaches the participants. Which participants respond to those inputs – according to their own abilities and preferences, hence the ‘responsive’ character of the market.

So, could we consider that nature is non-responsively chaotic while humans behave equally chaotic but in a responsive manner?

The key word here being ‘we’, of course.
After all, we have coined the very concept of law, we are the ones speaking about the difference between ‘natural’ and ‘man made’ and we have discovered, formulated and eventually bent all laws… both natural and man made.

It seems that the whole situation is a lot foggier than at the begging.
That I’ve messed things up instead of making some sense of them…

Let me use another tack.

First of all, let me notice that we’re surrounded by ‘things’. And that these things relate to each other. And to us, of course.
From this point of view, the world is made of things AND of the relationships that appear amongst these things.

And here’s the catch. Laws are not things. They are a small part of the relationships that appear between the things that exist in this world. And since we’ve already discovered that there are a lot more things around us than we will ever be able to ‘see’/notice, it would be unreasonably to expect us to be able to notice all the relationships that ‘tie together’ the world.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try!

Returning to what we call ‘laws’, let me add yet another classification.

‘Noticed’ laws versus ‘pro-active’ laws.

In this sense ‘thou shalt not kill’, the Law of Gravity and ‘drive on one side only’ are, all three of them, ‘noticed’ laws. In the sense that things remain in order as long as we observe these laws.

On the other hand, pro-active laws are a lot more trickier.

‘Do this, do that’! …

‘Why?!?’

‘Because I know better AND/OR because I can make you obey my orders!’

While observing the noticed laws is essential in letting things flow naturally, imposing/accepting ‘pro-active’ laws is the recipe for disaster. Man made disaster.

sex education

“Last week, we heard the story of a West Texas high school that plans to expand its sex-ed program after its abstinence-only policy resulted in a mass outbreak of chlamydia amongst its students.”

Let me ask you something.

Could it be that most of the ‘modern’ children live in ‘bubbles’?
That they have (meaningful) contact almost exclusively among themselves and seldom with older/younger generations?
This being the reason for which ‘sensitive’ information passes so hardly from one generation to the other.
And this is valid for way more subjects than just ‘mere’ sex!
“It’s not the kids who aren’t mature enough to learn about sex, it’s their parents who aren’t mature enough to let them.”

 

Ilie Badescu, unul dintre stalpii sociologiei contemporane romanesti, ne atrage atentia ca “…marile revolutii se dezmiarda in mediul cel mai reactionar cu putinta. Marile reactii, procesele reactionare, sunt tot atat de necesare, ba poate ca acestea sunt, pana la urma, cele care confera sens, atat cat poate fi acesta, oricaror revolutii”. (Enciclopedia Sociologiei, 2005, Vol 1, pg 6)

Spunerea poate parea banala.
Pana la urma despre acelasi concept vorbeste ‘Legea a treia’ a lui Newton: “atunci când un corp acționează asupra altui corp cu o forță (numită forță de acțiune), cel de-al doilea corp acționează și el asupra primului cu o forță (numită forță de reacțiune) de aceeași mărime și de aceeași direcție, dar de sens contrar.”, legea inductiei electromagnetice: “Eu, curentul cel indus, / Totdeauna m-am opus / Cauzei ce m-a produs.“, teoria evolutiei a lui Darwin: ‘speciile supravietuiesc doar in masura in care reactioneaza adecvat la schimbarile din mediul in care traiesc‘ precum si “Construirea sociala a realitatii” de Berger si Luckmann.

Evident ca sunt deosebiri calitative. Daca in primele trei cazuri reactiile sunt de tip ‘automat’ – ‘specificate’ de legile valabile in cazul fiecarui domeniu – in  cea de a patra situatie ‘reactiile’ sunt modelate de liberul arbitru al persoanelor implicate in interactiune.

Ei bine, modul in care Ilie Badescu prezinta acest concept – ‘inainte’ si ‘dupa’ – este extrem de important in intelegerea a ceea ce este ‘schimbarea sociala’. Revolutiile apar in mijlocul si din cauza unor medii reactionare iar in urma fiecare dintre ele ‘supravietuitorii’ reactioneza la ceea ce s-a intamplat si isi recladesc societatea. Cu alte cuvinte daca ‘reactiunea’ initiala ar fi fost mai putin intensa lucrurile ar fi putut fi schimbate treptat, fara sa fie nevoie de o ‘revolutie’ in adevaratul sens al cuvantului. la fel, pentru ca o revolutie sa nu se iroseasca este nevoie ca ‘reactiunea’ sa fie adecvata la motivele care au produs acea rasturnare de situatie.

Genul asta de analiza poate fi facut si pe evenimente mai marunte iar concluziile desprinse s-ar putea sa fie surprinzatoare.

In urma cu aproape un an o fata a fost ‘condusa’ pe un camp unde a intretinut relatii sexuale cu 6 tineri dupa care a fost condusa pe un alt camp unde celor 6 li s-a alaturat un al 7 iar fata a mai indurat inca un calvar. Dupa ce a ajuns acasa tanara i-a acuzat pe cei 7 de viol iar trei dintre ei au recunoscut faptele. Acum toti sunt acasa, sub control judiciar, si isi asteapta procesul.

Fapta mi se pare barbara dar nu despre asta am de gand sa vorbesc acum ci despre modul in care reactiile noastre releva amanunte interesante despre societatea in care traim.

Consatenii agresorilor sar in apararea acestora, „Şapte băieţi de oameni gospodari” si o desfiinteaza pe victima: „Aşa-i trebuie, dacă s-a urcat în maşină cu şapte. Dacă era fată cuminte nu păţea nimic”. Trecand peste ‘amanuntul’ ca fata s-a urcat in masina cu doar doi dintre agresori – unul dintre ei fiind ‘prieten’ cu prietenul victimei – nu pot sa nu ma intreb ce s-o fi intamplat cu mentalul colectiv al oamenilor din satul acela? Pana nu demult actele sexuale in grup erau considerate aberatii… acum oamenii organizeaza campanii de sustinere pe Facebook si cer ‘să nu fie pedepsiţi cei şapte „pentru câteva minute de plăcere””
Ce s-a intamplat cu solidaritatea tipica micilor comunitati?

E adevarat ca mersul istoriei a fost dur cu comunitatile de la ses. Mai intai aparitia arendasilor – ciocoi a produs o intensificare a ‘luptei de clasa’. Acestora nu le pasa de nimic in afara de castigul imediat – vechii boieri, proprietarii pamanturilor, mai aveau o oarecare legatura cu locurile, ciocoii luau in arenda mosia, stateau cativa ani si plecau in alta parte dupa ce il inselau si pe boier. Nici o mirare ca taranii au dezvoltat ‘strategii de supravietuire’ care presupuneau ‘disparitia misterioasa’ a unei parti din recolta.
Dupa colectivizare fenomenul s-a accentuat iar oamenii furau, pentru a supravietui, roadele propriului pamant.

Numai ca genul asta de ambiguitate morala nu putea sa ramana fara consecinte. Chiar si pentru un observator neantrenat exista diferente enorme intre satele cooperativizate si cele ocolite de acest flagel. Nu este vorba aici despre dimensiunea caselor ci despre modul in care sunt gospodarite aceste sate, despre cum unii matura si altii nu in fata curtilor. Despre modul in care oamenii se ajuta, sau nu, unii pe ceilalti. Despre ce parere au unii si altii despre furt. Sau despre viol.

Initial nici restul societatii nu a reactionat mult mai bine. Trec peste faptul ca cei 7 se plimba pe strada si pot da nas in nas in orice moment cu victima lor. Pana la urma acest aspect se va rezolva. Sau cel putin asa sper.
Unii s-au indignat atat de tare incat au propus pedeapsa cu inchisoare pe viata pentru cei 7 – si au folosit pentru a-i descrie termenul de ‘limbrici’.
Apoi si-au facut aparitia comentatori care pun pe acelasi plan exagerarile din ambele tabere. Ca si cum indignarea deplasata ar fi acelasi lucru cu ‘favorizarea infractorului’. Nici una nu este buna dar nu sunt in nici un caz comparabile.
Altii prefera sa nu bage in seama ce se intampla. Dupa principiul ca ce nu stiu nu poate sa-mi faca rau. Ba da, numai ca nici macar nu vei sti ce ti se intampla.

Toate astea nu sunt altceva decat simptomul atomizarii societatii. In loc de o mare comunitate – natiunea – am inceput sa dezvoltam tot felul de loialitati meschine de tipul ‘noi impotriva celorlalti’ – care de cele mai multe ori sunt descrisi ca fiind mult inferiori. Femeile sunt menite sa-i distreze pe barbati, Toata Romania stie ca moldovenii/ moldovencele sunt o buba a societatii noatre

Din fericire incepe sa se faca auzita si ‘majoritatea de obicei tacuta’. Curg mesajele de sustinere a victimei si incep sa iasa la iveala alte si alte cazuri de viol a caror anchetare a batut pana acum pasul pe loc.

Exact asa cum spunea Ilie Badescu, dormim asa cum ne asternem. Avem datoria, fata de noi insine, sa rezolvam problemele inainte sa se instaureze starea de exasperare. Trebuie sa trecem odata peste efectele trecutului pentru ca nu are cine o faca in locul nostru. Altfel ne vom strecura printre degetele istoriei si vom deveni o simpla umbra pe una dintre paginile ei.

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