Death of Hypatia®

Category: WIBCI

  • WIBCI Post #48

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If we learned from PHILOSOPHY?

    Daniel N. Robinson Ph.D. Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Georgetown/Oxford University on why PHILOSOPHY is so important:

    We are not simply foils, merely material objects to be moved around by the whim and caprice of hidden forces. Lose that reason, suspend that criticality, become gullible, accept anything that custom serves up, and YOU enter the life of a puppet on a string, the life of a slave.

    Do YOU agree that philosophy offers us the criticality to judge and live YOUR life on YOUR beliefs?

    Do YOU feel more often like a puppet or the decider of YOUR own destiny?

     … more “WIBCI Post #48”

  • WIBCI Post #47

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If POLITICS learned from history?

    WIBCI the government did not defund Public Broadcasting?

    Why can’t we back those that brought us Sesame Street, Masterpiece, Bob Ross and Mister Rogers Neighborhood?

    I bet those that cancelled checks watched PBS when they were kids…. we can’t learn and be entertained for free without commercials every eight seconds propping up a billion dollar corporation that doesn’t pay taxes?

    Not cool in my opinion.

    Did YOU watch PBS as a kid? What shows? Curious George? Sesame Street? Arthur? Mr. Rogers? The Berenstain Bears? Bill Nye the Science Guy? The Electric Company? Barney?… more “WIBCI Post #47”

  • WIBCI Post #46

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If POLITICS learned from PHILOSOPHY?

    WIBCI we understood Myth vs. Philosophy?

    Daniel N. Robinson Ph.D. Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Georgetown/Oxford University in a lecture on Philosophy discusses Myth vs. Philosophy:

    The Myth answers perplexing questions but it answers them in a special kind of way. It answers them in such a way as to create and preserve a kind of civic coherence. Now to some extent Philosophy is disruptive in just this regard. The enterprise is not an essentially civic one. It does not begin with a settled position on political and moral matters, then seeking ways to enshrine the settled view. Rather the mission is a broadly epistemological one. The search, as we shall discover, is the search for truth, or at least for such illumination as to allow us to see the biases and half-truths that have lead from one blind alley to another in the labyrinth of thought.

    Imagine if politics were so fluid and open to what is Better For The Most?

    Imagine if those in politics wanted to illuminate the public rather than take from them?

    Do YOU think philosophy could do this for YOU?… more “WIBCI Post #46”

  • WIBCI Post #45

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If we were allowed to learn from POLITICS?

    With all the departments that have been closed, all the public services that have had budgets pulled or fully defunded, all the research and grants that are no longer funded….. where did/does the money go?

    Does it offset Billionaires having to pay taxes?

    Do we get to know?

    Where do YOU think it is going? In YOUR opinion is wherever you think it is going Better than where it was?… more “WIBCI Post #45”

  • WIBCI Post #44

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If we learned from HISTORY?

    According to The Archeologist there are many factors that cause healthy, powerful empires to collapse:

    • Inequality and Overspending: When wealth concentrates in the hands of a few, the majority of the population can suffer. This economic disparity can breed resentment and social unrest. The decline of the Roman Republic is partly attributed to the widening gap between rich and poor.

    • Corruption and Ineffective Leadership: Leaders who prioritize self-interest over the well-being of their citizens can erode public trust and weaken the fabric of society. The later Roman emperors are often cited as examples of corrupt leadership that contributed to the empire’s downfall.

    Remind YOU of any present day ’empire’?…….

    If YOU had the choice of hiding away a lot of money for yourself illegally, OR receive legally a shit-ton of money you had to give away, which would YOU do….really. Why?… more “WIBCI Post #44”

  • WIBCI Post #43

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If we learned from LITERATURE?

    “Another idol has displaced me; and if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve.”

    “What idol has displaced you?”

    “A golden one.”

    -Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

    Money doesn’t love YOU back.

    YOU can’t take it with YOU.

    No one on their deathbed wishes they had more money surrounding them than people.

    How important is money to YOU? Why? What has it ever done for YOU?

    seems to me like people with a lot of money…..kinda suck.

     … more “WIBCI Post #43”

  • WIBCI Post #42

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If we learned from LITERATURE?

    An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of letters between the characters. Lady Susan by Jane Austen is an example of this.  Lady Susan was written in 1797, and at that time, it took 3 days for a letter to go from Bath to London, or a distance of 120 miles.

    Imagine the amount of time, thought and energy that went into a single letter.

    Think about the amount of time you put into sending a text…maybe 1 minute?  If you really scrutinize, edit, and rewrite a few times? WIBCI we put that effort into what we wrote?

    Now imagine if a letter was written with today’s effort in 1774:

    -Lady Susan Vernon sends a hastily written letter to Alecia Johnson with an accusatory vibe:     Monday, June 3rd, 1794

    -Alecia Johnson receives and replies immediately with a ‘pardon me?’ vibe:      Thursday, June 6th, 1794

    -Lady Susan Vernon receives and replies with a snarky ‘Like-you-don’t know-Alecia‘ vibe:      Sunday, June 9th, 1794

    -Alecia Johnson receives and replies with a ‘WTF-you-talking-about-Willis‘ vibe:      Wednesday, June 12th, 1794

    -……you get the gist.

     

    If our communications took days to reach someone and then days for a response, think about how clearly you would express yourself. You would be forced to really think about what you think before you tried to get someone else to understand it. Plus, people died back then with very little notice from a cornucopia of things. Hell, the guy on the horse delivering your letter could meet his maker in a dozen different ways. You actually may NEVER ever see the person again that you are writing to! I bet you would put some thought into that letter huh? Plus you had to pay to RECEIVE a letter back then and the price was based on the # of pages and the distance, so there were no envelopes and people wrote ‘cross letter’ which means they wrote ACROSS other lines in a 90 degree turn! These were treasured possessions and sometimes the only record of a relationship or existence left.

    I would like to get a letter like that. Would YOU?

    I would like to give a letter like that to someone. Would YOU?

    Maybe I will.… more “WIBCI Post #42”

  • WIBCI Post #41

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If we learned from LITERATURE?

    WIBCI: You knew what you thought of the world more?

    If you aren’t exactly sure what you think about the world today and where you stand in it, I recommend reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

    It’s a dystopian novel that I find eerily similar to a state which our leaders are trying to emulate today.

    In the novel infants are subjected to ‘Neo-Pavlovian conditioning’  a concept where human babies are conditioned through electroshock to shun books and flowers.

    One of the students witnessing this conditioning raised his hand….:

    “Although he could see quite well why you couldn’t have lower-cast people wasting the community’s time over books, and that there was always the risk of their reading something which might undesirably de-condition one of their reflexes, yet, well, he couldn’t understand about the flowers… Why go to the trouble of making it psychologically impossible for Delta’s to like flowers?

    Patiently the DHC explained; if the children were made to scream at the sight of a rose that was on grounds of high economic policy. Not so very long ago, essentially or there abouts, Gamma’s, Delta’s even Epsilon’s had been conditioned to like flowers. Flowers in particular and wild nature in general. The idea was to make them want to be going out into the country at every available opportunity and so compel them to consume transport.

    ‘And didn’t they consume transport?’ asked the student.

    ‘Quite a lot.’ The DHC replied. ‘But nothing else.’ Primroses and landscapes, he pointed out, had one grave defect; they are gratuitous. The love of nature keeps no factories busy. It was decided to abolish the love of nature, any rate among the lower classes. To abolish the love of nature, but not the tendency to consume transport. For of course it was essential that they should keep on going to the country even though they hated it. The problem was to find an economically sounder reason for consuming transport than a mere affection for  primroses and landscapes. It was dully found. ‘We conditioned the masses to hate the country,’ concluded the director, ‘But simultaneously we conditioned them to love all country sports. At the same time we see to it that all country sports shall entail the use of elaborate apparatus, so that they consume manufactured articles as well as transport. Hence those electric shocks.’

    ‘I see’ said the student, and was silent, lost in admiration.”

     

    What do YOU think about this?

    Next time you watch any sport, notice how many adds are on the field, on the walls surrounding the field, and on the players themselves. This doesn’t seem so out of the realm of possibility does it?… more “WIBCI Post #41”

  • WIBCI Post #40

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If we learned from HISTORY?

    WIBCI we didn’t keep repeating it?

    ‘It will be enough for me,…if these words of mine are judged useful by those who want to understand clearly the events which happened in the past and which (human nature being what it is) will, at some time or other and in much the same ways, be repeated in the future…

    My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last forever.” Ktema es aiei: “a possession forever”

    -Thurcydides (Athenian historian and general c. 460 – c. 400 BC)

    What do YOU think about history repeating itself? What do YOU about today has been repeated? Why do YOU think we didn’t learn?… more “WIBCI Post #40”

  • WIBCI Post #39

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If POLITICS learned from HISTORY?

    WIBCI the word IMMIGRANT wasn’t a dirty word? When were YOUR ancestors immigrants? When did YOUR lineage switch from immigrants to citizens? Lucky it wasn’t today huh?

    What do YOU think?… more “WIBCI Post #39”

  • WIBCI Post #38

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If POLITICS learned from HISTORY/WRITTEN WORD?

    The Tragedy of the Commons, is the concept popularized in 1968 by ecologist Garrett Hardin as an economic problem where individuals exploit shared resources for personal/selfish gain leading to overuse, demand outstripping supply, overuse and depletion.

    In the story there is a lake that supplies food for a nearby village. There are four fisherman and the lake has 12 fish; each pair will produce a full size fish overnight. If each fisherman takes one fish each day, there will remain 4 pairs of fish that will have 4 fish overnight, equaling 12 fish and therefore; the lake will continuously supply the village with food every day.

    If one fisherman takes two fish the lake will quickly be depleted and there will be no food for the village.

    AKA

    What’s good for all of us is good for each of us.

    Imagine if our current leaders understood this…………

    What do YOU Think?

    Watch this Great video on ted.com… more “WIBCI Post #38”

  • WIBCI Post #37

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If POLITICS learned from HISTORY and POLITICS?

    “The ultimate moral test of any government is the way it treats three groups of its citizens. First, those in the dawn of life — our children. Second, those in the shadows of life — our needy, our sick, our handicapped. Third, those in the twilight of life — our elderly.”

    -Hubert Humphrey (U.S. Vice President from 1965 to 1969)

     

    How do YOU think our government treats these three groups?… more “WIBCI Post #37”

  • WIBCI Post #36

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If POLITICS learned from LITERATURE?

    “Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.”

    -Pearl Buck (author of Good Earth etc.)

    What do YOU think is the test of a civilization?

    How do YOU think we care for our ‘helpless members’?… more “WIBCI Post #36”

  • WIBCI Post #34

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If we learned from WRITTEN WORD/LITERATURE/LYRICS?

    ‘They laugh at me because I’m different; I laugh at them because they’re all the same.’

    -Kurt Cobain

    Are YOU more different or more the same?

    Are the people YOU admire in the ‘public eye’ more different or more the same?

    Are the people YOU admire in personal life more different or more the same?

    … more “WIBCI Post #34”

  • WIBCI Post #33

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If POLITICS learned from LITERATURE?

    In an essay by George Orwell about Charles Dickens, he says that the constant message throughout Dickens’ novels is:

    ‘If men behaved decently, the world would be decent.’

    He doesn’t speak of upending the existing systems, nor give suggestions on how to fix that which is broken he just brings truths to our attention.

     

    What do YOU think about his statement? Do YOU think this is still true today? Why or why not?

     … more “WIBCI Post #33”

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