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A theory is, or so I've heard, "something usually murdered by facts."
A free and fair democracy may be difficult to achieve, and preserve; but, it is not impossible.
According to George Santayana, a difficulty is "that which can be done immediately', while an
impossibility is "that which takes a little longer". According to Ralph Waldo emerson, what we
call difficulties are "educators". According to Epictetus, difficulties are "obstacles that show
what men are".
According to Louis Dembitz Brandeis, impossiblity is "most of the things worth doing". OK!
Socialism and democracy are impossible! And yet, they are worth doing. They are worth
achieving.
Whenever there is a conflict between reason and reality, how does one know which is which?
What is fantasy? According to John Ciardi, fantasy is "what reality becomes when we ask
enough questions of it."
What if reason is itself a kind of fantasy? Or, what if what we believe is reality is but a fantasy?
"The castle which conservatism is set to defend is the actual state of things, good and bad."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The point of the Prisoners' Dilemma is that the conspirators are in a new and different
circumstance, which might bring about a new and different (unpredictable) pattern of behavior.
"Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence; Conservatism is distrust of the people
tempered by fear."
-- William Ewart Gladstone
An arbitrary action is not an irrational action; a despotic decision may be rational, even though
it is arbitrary, because it is a decision which is not limited by the needs of the people who are
directly impacted by a draconian decision, for example, to lay off workers, or to shut down a
factory. The factory proprietor is unaccountable to the wage-workers, just as a tyrant is
unaccountable to the people. What a tyrant does may be rational from the tyrant's perspective;
but, it is still arbitrary. The antonym for the word arbitrary is the word democratic, not the word
rational.
"The subordination of labor to capital is the source of all slavery: political, moral and material."
-- Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin
Reason is internal, and the world is external. The mind's eye is internal. Facts that are seen
are no longer just out there. Facts that are measured are measured by human measurements.
It is not easy to separate reason from reality.
Who can distinguish what is out there from what is in here?
"As for me, I would rather
Be a worm in a wild apple than a son of man."
-- John Robinson Jeffers
There is a difference between revenue and profits. |
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Posted by rallen2 on 2008-06-22 11:52:01 | Rating: | Views: 26
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