After my recent foray into economics, this has become my internal lament:
It appears that I must try to understand everything in order to understand anything.It feels like I'm constantly moving backwards when I try to understand anything. I founded this blog thinking that I would focus my thoughts on cognitive science, but I've found that my kernel of curiosity, allowed to express itself over a period of years, has smeared itself into an omnidirectional wave.
In the May 2, 2011 edition of The Nation, John Nichols explains that not all Democrats cowered after being called "socialists." His article features this vignette regarding Harry Truman:
[C]onservative Republicans, led by Ohio Senator Robert Taft, announced in 1950 that their campaign slogan in that year’s Congressional elections would be “Liberty Against Socialism.” They then produced an addendum to their national platform, much of which was devoted to a McCarthyite rant charging that Truman’s Fair Deal “is dictated by a small but powerful group of persons who believe in socialism, who have no concept of the true foundation of American progress, and whose proposals are wholly out of accord with the true interests and real wishes of the workers, farmers and businessmen.” Truman fought back, reminding Republicans that his policies were outlined in the 1948 Democratic platform, which had proven to be wildly popular with the electorate. “If our program was dictated, as the Republicans say, it was dictated at the polls in November 1948. It was dictated by a ‘small but powerful group’ of 24 million voters,” said the president, who added, “I think they knew more than the Republican National Committee about the real wishes of the workers, farmers and businessmen.” Truman did not cower at the mention of the word “socialism,” which in those days was distinguished in the minds of most Americans from Soviet Stalinism, with which the president—a mean cold warrior—was wrangling. Nor did Truman, who counted among his essential allies trade unionists like David Dubinsky, Jacob Potofsky and Walter Reuther, all of whom had been connected with socialist causes and in many cases the Socialist Party of Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas, rave about the evils of social democracy. Rather, he joked that “Out of the great progress of this country, out of our great advances in achieving a better life for all, out of our rise to world leadership, the Republican leaders have learned nothing. Confronted by the great record of this country, and the tremendous promise of its future, all they do is croak, ‘socialism.’” Savvy Republicans moved to abandon the campaign.
I just learned of the site called "It Get's Better," dedicated to telling stories to dispel the hate. Here are a few excerpts from the About page:
Growing up isn’t easy. Many young people face daily tormenting and bullying, leading them to feel like they have nowhere to turn. This is especially true for LGBT kids and teens, who often hide their sexuality for fear of bullying. Without other openly gay adults and mentors in their lives, they can't imagine what their future may hold. In many instances, gay and lesbian adolescents are taunted — even tortured — simply for being themselves . . . In September 2010, syndicated columnist and author Dan Savage created a YouTube video with his partner Terry to inspire hope for young people facing harassment. In response to a number of students taking their own lives after being bullied in school, they wanted to create a personal way for supporters everywhere to tell LGBT youth that, yes, it does indeed get better. The website www.itgetsbetter.org is a place where young people who are lesbian, gay, bi, or trans can see how love and happiness can be a reality in their future. It’s a place where our straight allies can visit and support their friends and family members . . .
Bees look free. They seem to dance capriciously from flower to flower. No one seems to be telling each bee what to do. Anyone who has carefully studied bees, however, knows that they are not “free.” The health and welfare of bees and their hives are highly sensitive to a great many factors. Here are a few:
A) Excesses and deficits in rainfall and temperature; B) The survival and location of plants from which bees gather nectar; C) The prevalence of parasites and viruses; D) The existence of rival hives and predators; E) Human encroachment, including pesticides and destruction of habitat;Whether bees thrive is subject to these and many other factors. If any of these factors is changed, the bees will be affected. “Free as a bee,” is an expression I have heard from time to time, but it turns out that bees are not actually very “free.” Hard-working bees and hives are often killed for factors beyond their control. [more . . . ]
I keep hearing more details about how the U.S. government pulled off the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. These tactics and strategies are all being leaked by U.S. government employees, of course, because no one else was in a position to leak this valuable and sensitive technical information to the press. Government officials are energetically crowing about how to trace a wanted figure, details on how to do electronic surveillance, how to plan a surgical attack and how to carry it out, down to minute details. Everything a enemy might want to know. It seems to me that this is the type of information that should be kept secret, lest some other enemy of the U.S. might need to be tracked down in the future. Now compare to the details leading up to Osama Bin Laden's death to the types of information being leaked by Wikileaks, most of which falls into the categories of exposing lies, revealing torture, revealing civilian deaths, and revealing hypocrisy on behalf of U.S. officials. I suppose that it matters more who is leaking the secrets than what kind of secret is being leaked.