Shock *Heating*?

Dan,

There seems to be no leadership for dispassionate critical
thinking.


there's an oxymoron if ever I saw one.

"Critical thinking" kind of goes against following any kind of
leadership blindly. And that's why "leaders" tend to want those being
led to not think critically. Dubya is a prime example.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

"Thomas Borchert" wrote:
There seems to be no leadership for dispassionate critical
thinking.


there's an oxymoron if ever I saw one.

"Critical thinking" kind of goes against following any
kind of leadership blindly. And that's why "leaders"
tend to want those being led to not think critically.
Dubya is a prime example.

Hmm... Are you saying that it is impossible for a society of critical
thinkers to have a leader? Does having a leader always mean
"following...blindly?"
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM
(remove pants to reply by email)

"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
ink.net...
I disagree, as long as you allow yourself to think that droughts are a
product of sin or witches, then you will never learn about things like
el
nino and its weather affects. Believing things without any evidence
gave
us
the dark ages.


"I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudo-science
and
superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of
unreason more sonorous and attractive. Where have we heard it before?
Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of
scarcity, during challenges to national self-esteem or nerve, when we
agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism
is
building up around us -- then, habits of thought familiar from ages past
reach for the controls.

"The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness
gathers. The demons begin to stir." -- Carl Sagan "The Demon Haunted
World,"
1995.

I read this prophetic passage in the light of 9/11, the xenophobic
reaction
of the political right, the resulting attempt to grab power at all costs
on
the part of the political left, the rise of New Age mysticism and violent
religious fundamentalism, the polarization of the country over abortion,
the
environment, nuclear power, etc.; the incredible acceptance of junk
science
in the court room, people fearful of little airplanes dropping nuclear
weapons on them....

Well, I have to wonder how long it will be before we sink into the long
night of another dark age.

One could say that we're well along that road, that a new form of primitive
tribalism is at our door. Whether some form of environmental "Back to the
Pleistocene", or mystical "Dark Ages", it's very real.

"C J Campbell" writes:

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
ink.net...
Believing things without any evidence gave us the dark ages.

"I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudo-science and
superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of
unreason more sonorous and attractive. Where have we heard it before?
Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of
scarcity, during challenges to national self-esteem or nerve, when we
agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is
building up around us -- then, habits of thought familiar from ages past
reach for the controls.

"The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness
gathers. The demons begin to stir." -- Carl Sagan "The Demon Haunted World,"
1995.

Even Sagan himself was apparently not immune to the the dangers
he warns against:

(from http://www.crichton-official.com/spe...s_quote04.html)

A final media embarrassment came in 1991, when Carl Sagan
predicted on Nightline that Kuwaiti oil fires would produce a
nuclear winter effect, causing a "year without a summer," and
endangering crops around the world. Sagan stressed this outcome
was so likely that "it should affect the war plans." None of it
happened.

--
Matt Emerson

Mike Rapoport wrote:

I disagree, as long as you allow yourself to think that droughts are a
product of sin or witches, then you will never learn about things like el
nino and its weather affects.

Well, when I get that farm in NC a few years from now, I'm gonna paint a hex sign
on the barn. Can't hurt.

As they said in Brigadoon, we still have witches; we just pronounce it differently
these days.

George Patterson
A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that
you look forward to the trip.

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
ink.net...
I disagree, as long as you allow yourself to think that droughts are a
product of sin or witches, then you will never learn about things like el
nino and its weather affects. Believing things without any evidence gave
us
the dark ages.

It's called "faith".

Tom,

It's called "faith".


Yes. And that still gave us the Dark Ages.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)