Why Socialism?
Submitted by PriceRip on Sat, 07/16/2016 - 11:30pm
I would never suggest that an article has merit solely based upon its author . . .
Albert Einstein, Monthly Review (May 1949)
I have a copy of the text but I suspect most would object if I were to simply pour it into this space. A simple search produces many discussions about what he wrote and the Monthly Review has the full text. His comments are not very different from comments I have been hearing these past few months.
Comments
Thank you.
Though I have read this previously, my understanding and my concurrence increases with each reading. What a truly remarkable essay.
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
You are welcome.
I am sure it was a coincidence but I like to think my dad knew about this at that time (I was 6 months old when this was published). From before I can remember my dad taught me to think like a scientist and the chatter in our household was rather like this article during those halcyon (we need an irony font) days.
The sign of great writing is its staying power. This essay (and many others I was exposed to in the 50s and 60s) is as true today as in the past. Each reading is more illuminating than the last. I hope we-all can manage to leave such a legacy for the future.
It is what we need more of in elected office
Not necessarily Einstein level genius but we need far more Ph.D.'s in congress. Congress is comprised of almost nothing but lawyers and professional politicians. We need more scientists and liberal arts people in there.
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
I could not agree more . . .
From what I have read here we could do well by supporting a c99% ticket. The challenge (as always) is electability, something for which I have no acumen. The denizens of c99% fit the "herding cats" trope better than the "getting on the bandwagon" metaphor.
"Herding cats" never fails to make me chuckle
Somewhere, early on in Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" he describes in the story how society is at its best when "Science, Art and Religion" are represented in equal parts. It was eons ago when I read that but it struck me as perfectly sensible. Today, I might substitute religion for spirituality, even if spirituality means atheism. (I find atheism to be a belief system of its own).
Sadly, it seems that the people who often would be best suited to govern are never drawn to seek public office. Why is that? From my view, it's because running for office requires a particular sense of competitiveness that is antithetical to scholarly achievement and cultivation of politically suitable praxis. The process being brutal and ugly, it interferes with any academic euphoria.
I want Ludwig Wittgenstein for president, Harry Seldon as SoS. And as Kurt Vonnegut pondered, a Minister of the Future. Also, Paramahansa Yogananda as Secretary of Peace, but what do I know?
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
I like your candidates.
Now that I am retired, I must rebuild my library and reread what started me on this path 60 some years ago. I think I would want R. Daneel Olivaw as director of Covert Operations attached to the department of state. That would be my dream team Harry Seldon's clear thinking with Olivaw's ability to adapt in the field. Asimov did that scenario a bit in some of his later books of that stream of consciousness. Well sure Seldon was not in those stories but his legacy was there.
R. Daneel Olivaw..
The oldest robot? I'd forgotten the story and took it for a moment as a real life character. Har. Now I remember. Olivaw came much later in Foundation Series.
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
Later attached to that series . . .
Caves of Steel was part of Asimov's Robot Series. The Foundation Series was in a different universe. As he developed the foundation series he saw how the two universes could form a coherent whole. I think it is funny that Asimov did not see it earlier, as most of us (his avid readers) saw it almost from the start. If the internet had been around at that time the fan comments would have pushed him in that direction.
Thanks for the Einstein piece.
I don't know if I had read that before or not, but, since I sometimes can't remember what I had for lunch, that doesn't matter. What matters is that I found it prescient and apropos.
I think maybe we should update the Foundation people to contemporary characters such as Gandalf and Dumbledore. They're more amusing too.
-Greed is not a virtue.
-Socialism: the radical idea of sharing.
-Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy, In a speech at the White House, 1962