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June 29, 2005
Religious
Dad sent around a link to a speech by author Michael Crichton delivered in 2003. Crichton sees the religion of environmental fundamentalism as a key stumbling block in the way of effective, scientific approaches to environmental problems. He also sees "politics" as another key stumbling block.
Rob and Luke laughed at me for enjoying Robert Anton Wilson's book, Quantum Psychology. Rob calls it, "Shit Psychology," in reference to the amount of horseshit you have to shovel through to get to anything substantive in what Robert Anton Wilson writes. Rob also laughed at Critical Path for some of the same reasons, something to do with dolphins. Rob believes in the Scientific Method, so he reads books by Russell and Feynman.
I reacted negatively to Crichton's speech. I don't have well-formulated beliefs about environmental policy, perhaps because I shy away from contact with the world outside ideas, instead remaining in a cool, dark corner of that cave, replaying the same slides with the old branding. I hate the Scientific Method, although I cannot imagine anything better. The hate seems totally irrational.
Rage comes out of a feeling I've had my entire life, a feeling of powerlessness and of being trapped in the same sense as the narrator of Kafka's Bericht für eine Akademie, yet with the eldest child and idealist stress of both infinitely high expectations -- there are only failures -- and the pressing need to do something about it. That rage drives my extremism and my revulsion. Sometimes it also drives reserve and compassion, since most other people must also be islands of horrible suffering.
When I look at the situation from outside, it's positively hilarious. Psychological slapstick.
At another level, it's another interesting engineering problem. That makes at least two:
- What fits better than rule of law?
- How do we think straight?
Mark Williams observed years ago in Vaihingen when he was studying at Stuttgart and I was farting around that engineering looks out at the world to solve problems in the hope of finding a better fit, and that the Buddhists decided instead to look within and solve problems in the expectation that if you get yourself straightened out, the world will follow.
It occurs to me here on the floor of my cave that in wondering which to do, I'm doing neither.
Posted by Mark at June 29, 2005 06:20 AM