I don't know that I personally deserve such an all encompassing effort but I'm honored to have been offered a window into your processes and philosophy. I cannot find anything to disagree with in your reply, not that I'm looking for something mind you, I just think we are pretty much on the same board. It's encouraging to know I'm not the only incurable autodidact out there who has empathy for the earth and raised lip toward the stupid that emanates from society.
On the subject of Randianism, hell I'm not going there. Every time that subject comes up I want to gag myself with a spoon. On a lighter note but with similar disdain I hold the dangerous ideas of.. prepare yourself... Mr. Rogers for injecting narcissism into the minds of generations of preschool children with the trope "You are special" and "There is no other child in the world just like you" bullshit. We are not special, perfect individuals whose every act is sacrosanct, infallable and that must not be criticized. That is contrary to a successful natural world and evolution itself. It doesn't surprise me that so many children from the 80's and 90's have grown into adulthood expecting to be at the top of every field by osmosis and become frustrated and disillusioned at society and politics when they are not. They seem destined to seek a perfect mystical being and system to fill that hole in their perfection, and therewith "subdue the earth and every creature" to fill the bottomless majesterial pocket... the underling be damned. I digress.
I don't want to blame Mr. Rogers as a singular evil that caused a rash of narcissism in those generations but that idea was rampant in psychology starting in the 70's. I see a clash between necessary and successful "collective colonies of human beings working toward common goals" and the ridiculous and dangerous expectation that every child will become a king or a queen. BTW, there has never been a TV or cable in my home and my children have never had the misfortune of plopping before such gods of disgust after coming home from school... they are brilliant, ethical and empathetic.
On mistakes of my youth - that line reaches right to the present. My views are always ready to evolve; I've made too many mistakes and held too many misconceptions to think otherwise. With one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel my journey is still fresh. You, for one, helped me fix a major deficiency in my knowledge of nucear energy and the backward thinking of "renewables" as they exist in the present technology. I too was an anti-nuke know-nothing not too long ago. I read some of your material, had a cow... or several.. studied up on your "incredulous accusations" and -ping- the light went on with the exclamation, "oh my god he's right". Now, I don't have the same mind you do, I'm an artist, musician type with a propensity toward the aural and visual, so I can only go so far into the physics at this point, but we all at some point have to trust those with verifiable knowledge. That's not a blind faith, mind you, it's trust and trust can change as the data changes where faith dismisses data. So I keep digging and at 62 I've dug a pretty deep hole so far. But you know, I think I'm still getting somewhere.
Hope - Ah, there's the rub. I tend to be pessimistic by matter of personal experience, my limited study of human nature plus the general times we live in with all the baggage it contains. But I think you are right, that hope is the "belief that what seems improbable is still possible" and I know that "everything that is was once improbable". Our children, your's and mine are what give me a vision of the possibilities beyond the probabilities. We're not going to experience their future so why should we predict it. All we can do is keep fighting against the prevailing stupid and keep pointing to the landmarks that can lead us out of that firey furnace.
All the best to you this new year.
D7
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