Carry on Science( and men); or, Never Say Die; or, It's a Rich Man's World
Having thoroughly vented my spleen on subjects such as the supremacy of science, and male values, and competitiveness and the like, it is now time to kiss-and-make-up! --- the title of this blog should go some way to mollifying anyone who might be feeling picked upon.
Well, the clue to the direction this blog is going to take, is to be found in all I have said about evolution, cooperation and DIVERSITY. ---- NEVER SAY DIE!
When Christian missionaries first went to India and tried to convert the Hindus, they told them all about God and Jesus Christ and heaven and the Devil, and the Hindus nodded and said, "yes, very interesting", and proceeded to add God and Jesus Christ and the Devil to the Hindu pantheon! Ah, well, that is not quite what the missionaries had in mind. They meant their religion to be exclusive .... and that is the heart of my quarrel. Christianity has all sorts of good things in it, and had accessed many deep truths, but so has Hinduism, and so has Science, and THERE ARE YET MANY OTHER DEEP TRUTHS THAT REQUIRE MEANS NOT YET INVENTED.
One of my mother's favourite pearls of wisdom was: all knowledge enriches life. And that is the point. We are talking about human being, and life, and what makes a good life, and a good life is a rich life, a life that is full of things you like, things you want to do, and so on. And this raises on human ability above all others ( and I take the opportunity here to thumb my nose at computers again!), and that is the ability to learn to like.
The MONA LISA has nothing innately beautiful in it, (ask a Chinese gentleman! or an alien, if you can find one) in fact, nothing at all in it. But Da Vinci, and all the rest of us who like the MONA LISA, have develped the ability to SEE it as beautiful.
There is a poem, I cannot remember by whom, but it may have been Keats, in which he decries science with the lines: (talking of rainbows) We know her woof, her texture now, She is given in the dull catalogue of ordinary things. That, of course, is Art competing with science, but they are COMPLEMENTARY. To look at rainbows with a poets eye is to appreciate them in one way, but to study them and understand where they come from is to appreciate them in another way, and the more ways you can find to appreciate rainbows, the better you like them --- and that is what makes life good.
So, anyone that tells me that you should look at the world in one way, and in one way only, impoverishes me, enslaves me, and, to all intents and purposes, condemns me to death.
So it behoves me, for my own sake, to find what is wonderful about science ( and men).
I have talked already about the beauty of theoretical physics, and that goes for other sciences, but experimental science? Experiment-time is play-time. There is so much I hardly know where to begin ... 'suffer the little children' encapsulates quite a lot, and what I have to say here, now that I think of it, applies to Art as well: you get to like and understand (much the same thing, really) it a whole lot better when you try it for yourself. Theoretical science, and art, is like admiring someone from a distance, while do-it-yourself is like getting up close and personal, getting to know all the little quirks and peculiarities, and getting deeper insights.
And, if you want a more intellectual version, experimental science teaches people how to observe the world around them (you'd be amazed how many people go around with their eyes closed!), how to spot patterns, draw conclusions, and such inestimable pearls as: actions have consequences ( you'd be surprised how many people make-it-up-as-they-go, as though making free with the truth will have no consequences! golly, if they only knew!!). So, science is of immense value, at all levels.
As to men ... I have spent much time extolling the female virtues, but the sad fact is that men (sigh!) are also necessary to the good life!
By and large, women 'do what they like'. That is, they are driven by feelings, and if they don't like it, they will have no truck with it. That leaves you in a world where any negative feelings block you from doing or liking things, and negative feelings are prone to appear like viruses. Thus the female is home-bound. The male can run on intellect, so negative feeling need not hinder, and, indeed, can be seen as a challenge, so the male is in an expanding world, and without the male, the world of the female would shrink away to nothing over time( hence the tradition of the male protector)
In interpretive terms, this relates to the physicists view of the universe, as an expanding space. However, the expansion of the universe will not necessarily go on forever. In physics terms, if the total mass of the universe is below a certian limit, then the universe will start to shrink after a time; if the total mass is over that limit, the universe will go on expanding, and will 'die of cold'; but if the total mass is just on that limit, the universe will be in balance and will cease to expand or shrink, and will go on existing forever. I would interpret this as: an excess of femininity will result in a shrinking of our universe, an excess of masculinity will result in an expansion, but with eventual freezing to death, but the male and female in correct balance and the universe can go on forever. This, by the way, applies to individuals. I am talking here of MY universe, YOUR universe ... the metaphor of universe. So, each of us requires a balance of male and female in our make-up --- which neatly relates to Yin and Yang!
So, in conclusion, I'm off to take up my maracas and chant "I'm a boy! I'm a boy!" (Jack Lemon --- Some Like it Hot?)
Well, the clue to the direction this blog is going to take, is to be found in all I have said about evolution, cooperation and DIVERSITY. ---- NEVER SAY DIE!
When Christian missionaries first went to India and tried to convert the Hindus, they told them all about God and Jesus Christ and heaven and the Devil, and the Hindus nodded and said, "yes, very interesting", and proceeded to add God and Jesus Christ and the Devil to the Hindu pantheon! Ah, well, that is not quite what the missionaries had in mind. They meant their religion to be exclusive .... and that is the heart of my quarrel. Christianity has all sorts of good things in it, and had accessed many deep truths, but so has Hinduism, and so has Science, and THERE ARE YET MANY OTHER DEEP TRUTHS THAT REQUIRE MEANS NOT YET INVENTED.
One of my mother's favourite pearls of wisdom was: all knowledge enriches life. And that is the point. We are talking about human being, and life, and what makes a good life, and a good life is a rich life, a life that is full of things you like, things you want to do, and so on. And this raises on human ability above all others ( and I take the opportunity here to thumb my nose at computers again!), and that is the ability to learn to like.
The MONA LISA has nothing innately beautiful in it, (ask a Chinese gentleman! or an alien, if you can find one) in fact, nothing at all in it. But Da Vinci, and all the rest of us who like the MONA LISA, have develped the ability to SEE it as beautiful.
There is a poem, I cannot remember by whom, but it may have been Keats, in which he decries science with the lines: (talking of rainbows) We know her woof, her texture now, She is given in the dull catalogue of ordinary things. That, of course, is Art competing with science, but they are COMPLEMENTARY. To look at rainbows with a poets eye is to appreciate them in one way, but to study them and understand where they come from is to appreciate them in another way, and the more ways you can find to appreciate rainbows, the better you like them --- and that is what makes life good.
So, anyone that tells me that you should look at the world in one way, and in one way only, impoverishes me, enslaves me, and, to all intents and purposes, condemns me to death.
So it behoves me, for my own sake, to find what is wonderful about science ( and men).
I have talked already about the beauty of theoretical physics, and that goes for other sciences, but experimental science? Experiment-time is play-time. There is so much I hardly know where to begin ... 'suffer the little children' encapsulates quite a lot, and what I have to say here, now that I think of it, applies to Art as well: you get to like and understand (much the same thing, really) it a whole lot better when you try it for yourself. Theoretical science, and art, is like admiring someone from a distance, while do-it-yourself is like getting up close and personal, getting to know all the little quirks and peculiarities, and getting deeper insights.
And, if you want a more intellectual version, experimental science teaches people how to observe the world around them (you'd be amazed how many people go around with their eyes closed!), how to spot patterns, draw conclusions, and such inestimable pearls as: actions have consequences ( you'd be surprised how many people make-it-up-as-they-go, as though making free with the truth will have no consequences! golly, if they only knew!!). So, science is of immense value, at all levels.
As to men ... I have spent much time extolling the female virtues, but the sad fact is that men (sigh!) are also necessary to the good life!
By and large, women 'do what they like'. That is, they are driven by feelings, and if they don't like it, they will have no truck with it. That leaves you in a world where any negative feelings block you from doing or liking things, and negative feelings are prone to appear like viruses. Thus the female is home-bound. The male can run on intellect, so negative feeling need not hinder, and, indeed, can be seen as a challenge, so the male is in an expanding world, and without the male, the world of the female would shrink away to nothing over time( hence the tradition of the male protector)
In interpretive terms, this relates to the physicists view of the universe, as an expanding space. However, the expansion of the universe will not necessarily go on forever. In physics terms, if the total mass of the universe is below a certian limit, then the universe will start to shrink after a time; if the total mass is over that limit, the universe will go on expanding, and will 'die of cold'; but if the total mass is just on that limit, the universe will be in balance and will cease to expand or shrink, and will go on existing forever. I would interpret this as: an excess of femininity will result in a shrinking of our universe, an excess of masculinity will result in an expansion, but with eventual freezing to death, but the male and female in correct balance and the universe can go on forever. This, by the way, applies to individuals. I am talking here of MY universe, YOUR universe ... the metaphor of universe. So, each of us requires a balance of male and female in our make-up --- which neatly relates to Yin and Yang!
So, in conclusion, I'm off to take up my maracas and chant "I'm a boy! I'm a boy!" (Jack Lemon --- Some Like it Hot?)
posted by joan @ 4:06 AM
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