Does first hand experience of totalitarianism make the burden of knowledge heavier.
Why worry about existence of God, Voltaire asked, when we can’t explain how we move our broken arms?
‘Doubt is not a very agreeable state, but certainty is a ridiculous one.’ I doubt that we have the time to consider world pragmatic tradition and say, 'By their fruits ye shall know them.'
I watch the rising smoke of current political climate with the same dread as when I watched the Russian betrayal of Czechoslovakian hope for freedom and democracy. In my memory, I can still see my father standing at exposed workshop in the middle of hot summer days of 1968. He had come to know doubt early in his life, not only poverty but even fascism. There was no such thing as ‘long-term democracy.’ No matter how you reform political systems, it's not going to solve the problem. There are two parts of the problem, wealth and comfort on one hand and the liberty and democracy on the other hand. Australia is heading for times as intellectually and spiritually oppressive as those the Central Europeans suffered after its own elites chose a severe monotheism as their official ideology.
Nearly every sentiment and idea that Margo Kingston expresses about how the democracy's watchdogs are blind to the danger has been expressed before.
In my exile eyes, George Orwell modeled the Ministry of Truth in his book 1984 after the colonial premiers such as Bob Carr. Never has his insight been so conclusively affirmed as by the current behaviour of the NSW Labour Party.
‘Carr is the master of early positioning - using the security issue to drown out his opponents and to reinforce his law and order message.‘ -SMH 2 December 2002 can read him like a book.
Indeed, once again, our media has failed us when it comes to protecting our civil rights. Where are the trickiest journalists when you need them - bonding with powerful ceos and pollies at Christmas parties.
Politics of Possibilities Hope
Our parliaments don't debate it, our statisticians don't measure it - but it could be the missing ingredient in our national political life. It's that elusive thing called hope. Is our national obsession with piling up more and more things choking our hopes for a better society?
· Future Society [ABC]
Trust
This year's thoughtful BBC Reith Lectures have been given by Onora O'Neill
We say we no longer trust our public services, institutions or the people who run them. Politicians, accountants, doctors, scientists, businessmen, auditors and many others are treated with suspicion. Their word is doubted, their motives are questioned.
If we are to reduce the culture of suspicion, many changes will be needed. We have placed formidable obstacles in our own path: it is time to start removing them.
· BBC [Reith Lecture series 2002]
Public Choice
A girl, like choice, isn't any less ugly when her sister is ugly too.
Clearly a different approach is called for, but it doesn't require a suspension of logic, a willingness of people to vote against their own interests, or any internal contradictions.
· Belief [T Woodlief]
Literature Myths and Stories
Viewed ironically, even the most fantastical ghost stories, including the old stories of religion, can serve a purpose. Whether they postulate superintelligent clouds of gas, insectoid aliens in hyperspace, a demiurge with multiple-personality disorder, or a loving God who for inscrutable reasons makes us suffer, well-told ghost stories can remind us of the unfathomable mystery at the heart of things. Our creation myths and eschatologies, our imaginings of ultimate beginnings and ends, can also help us discover our deepest fears and desires. But even the most sophisticated theologies and theories should never be mistaken for ultimate truth. What Voltaire said centuries ago still holds, and will always hold: It is truly extravagant to define God, angels, and minds, and to know precisely why God defined the world, when we do not know why we move our arms at will. Doubt is not a very agreeable state, but certainty is a ridiculous one.
· Doubt [Chronicle]
