The Ramblings of An Eternal Student of Life

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Current Affairs ... Foreign Relations/World Affairs ...

The cover story in the March 2015 issue of The Atlantic is entitled “What Does ISIS Really Want”. I have the issue on my kitchen table (yes, a old-school paper magazine), but haven’t read the article yet. However, I did come across a good summary today on the Atlantic web site by none other than the article author himself, Graeme Wood.

If I’m reading him right, Mr. Wood is trying to drill down past the “western enlightenment” analysis regarding the social and economic conditions that arguably lead to political extremism and violence, and see just how serious ISIS is about its religious ideology. He seems to be saying that we do in fact need to take seriously the notion that ISIS finds its inspirations in existing (if not entirely mainstream) strains of the Islamic tradition. Although the Islamic mainstream is peaceful and tolerant, the ISIS viewpoint was not made up on the fly for entirely political and sociological reasons; Mr. Brown says that it is not a laughable misrepresentation of historical Islam. And that fact makes it all the more dangerous and powerful.

Of course, many intelligent people here in the US want to think that this really isn’t about religiously-inspired belief. We just can’t believe that anyone in the modern world would accept the notion that God demands an extraordinary level of purity, one that requires violence and death to achieve. In order for the many to be saved, some (“the wicked”) need to die. No, it just can’t be that anyone living today would think that . . . it has to be poverty, historical exploitation by the west (motivated by oil), brutal dictators who were supported by the US and its European allies . . . Recall the recent TV interview statement by State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, who asserted that a primary motivation for people to join ISIS is the lack of job opportunities in Middle Eastern countries.

Good old Tom Friedman, the self-appointed Middle East guru of the NY Times, today weighed in on what ISIS is, and what problems need to be solved in order to stop it. In a column entitled “ISIS Heads to Rome“, Friedman takes an “all of the above” approach. He asserts that ISIS is led » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 9:33 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Saturday, February 21, 2015

◊ Symmetrical Ponderings

Science ...

I’ve been writing too much lately about all the problems of the world and about life. It’s time to take a break for a little while and do some pondering about math and science. Allow me to forget the real for a spell and wander a bit into the land of abstraction.

Today I’d like to ruminate on the notion of SYMMETRY a bit. To most of us in our daily life, symmetry isn’t all that important. We notice it now and then when two things seem basically the same in their overall design, but some important features about them have been changed or swapped. For instance, there are many different versions of Oreo cookies (of which I was a big fan as a youngster; they’re way too sweet and over-processed for me now). The basic Oreo has two dark chocolate cookies surrounding a white-ish vanilla icing layer. But there is an “inverse Oreo” on the market that has light, vanilla-flavored cookies surrounding a dark chocolate filling. The two are different, but in a symmetrical fashion; some part of the basic “Oreo-ness” is still there. Also if you like photography and remember black and white film, you may have noticed the symmetry between a negative and its print (the flip between dark and light areas on the image).

In the world of science (and engineering, i.e. the art of applying science to everyday things), symmetry is really important. In understanding how things in our bodies work on the molecular level, symmetry between molecular structures and compositions can tell us a lot. It helps to understand how things work, and also why things sometimes don’t work (i.e. disease); » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 4:55 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Monday, February 16, 2015

◊ Tuck Not-So-Everlasting

Philosophy ... Religion ...

I was listening to the local NPR station one evening and they were playing an interview with the author of a children’s book called “Tuck Everlasting”. The author’s name is Natalie Babbitt, and the book tells a story about a family (the Tucks) living way out in the middle of some forest. In their travels, they came across a spring of water one day, and took a few drinks from it. It turned out that this particular springwater has the power to make you immortal. They came across the spring a long, long time ago, and by all rights they should all be dead by the time of the story. But they (and their horse, which also took a few sips) hadn’t aged a day. And it don’t look like they are going to.

In the story, a little girl from a local village decides one day to take a hike in the woods, and happens across the same spring. She’s thirsty and is about to drink up, when someone in the Tuck family comes across her and yells out “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” He runs toward her and leaps and tackles her in slo-mo, just as she raises her cupped hands to her lips. Well, maybe not (this book was written in 1975, before everything had to be a violent action-adventure in the Terminator style); but they still dissuaded her from taking that fateful sip.

There’s a lot more to the plot, but the leitmotif of Tuck Everlasting is about whether anyone should really want to live forever. Babbitt doesn’t think so, and thus » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 10:33 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Friday, February 13, 2015

◊ Tragedy in Valhalla — Personal, and Social?

Society ... Technology ...

You may or may not have read or heard about the tragic SUV – passenger train crash that took place on the evening of February 3 in Valhalla, NY, when 6 people were killed after the train caught fire from the SUV’s gas tank. There are plenty of stories in the press about all of the various fatal accidents, crashes, explosions and other sorts of mayhem that occur when the infrastructure of modern society goes astray. A new one seems to appear almost most every other day; a bridge collapses, an airliner crash-lands, a chemical factory blows up, a ship sinks . . . and this is just the accidental stuff, not even counting all the crime, terrorism and wars that happen all over the world. Then fold in all the diseases and physical disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, etc.) that nature throws at us. So yes, a fatal train-car crash in the suburban New York metro area doesn’t really move the dial too much relative to everything else going on in the national and world news.

But still, this accident sort-of hits home for me. Valhalla is not that different from Montclair, as they are both upper-income suburbs of New York. The Metro North line there is similar in many ways to the NJ Transit Montclair-Boonton train line that runs about a ¼ mile from my apartment. And I am an old “railroad hand”, was always interested in trains and even worked part-time for a railroad during my college years. So, I couldn’t help but give this one some attention. (In a way it’s sad how we have to “triage” what we get from the news; we just don’t have time to mourn and grieve for every unfortunate victim being reported in the news these days).

The woman driving the car, Ellen Brody was about 12 years younger than me; she was a mother of three, lived in an upper-crust suburban town (Edgemont section of Scarsdale) not far away from Valhalla, and worked nearby in a jewelry store (in Chappaqua). The news stories are unclear on the details, as they always are; but from the reports I read about what was said to reporters by witnesses and officials, it appears » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 8:24 am Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Saturday, February 7, 2015

◊ February Cheer (almost, anyway)

Photo ...

We just got thru January without too much snow . . . thanks to that blizzard that took a last-minute turn away from us just about a week ago. But February is turning into a true winter month, with lots of snow, ice and frigid misery. But hey, it’s past Groundhog Day; old man winter got a late start this year and may not last too long into March given current climate change trends. So we need to grit our teeth and tough it out. It’s still too early to look for signs of spring, but even in the midst of the winter grunge, you occasionally see a note of beauty. Such as these newly ripened fruit on a holly tree branch. You can’t eat it (it’s poisonous), but it does add a note of cheer. Well, almost, anyway.

◊ posted by Jim G @ 6:32 am Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

◊ God 2.0

Philosophy ... Religion ... Spirituality ...

I’ve talked here before about the “New Atheism” movement, a rather interesting social development over the past decade or so. Citing progress in particle physics and cosmology in crafting a “theory of everything” (based on vacuum energy, superstring/M-theory, inflationary cosmology, and the resultant multi-verse process), along with continuing scientific and philosophical work on the deep nature of human consciousness, a handful of philosophers and scientists have propounded a new synthesis by which science explains it all; there is no further need to appeal to ideas about “God” or any other mysterious phenomenon or force in the universe. Perhaps the most famous proponents of this movement are philosopher Daniel Dennett and biologist Richard Dawkins. But many people say there are “four horsemen” of this new view: Dennett, Dawkins, the now deceased writer Christopher Hitchens, and neuroscientist Sam Harris. Their overall synthesis boils down to a mix of 1.) physical monist philosophy, in which all things are either known or will eventually be known through empirical science and rational analysis; and 2.) secular humanism, the notion that human beings are capable of being ethical and moral without religion or a God.

I just put the New Atheism’s ideas in a positive fashion, i.e. emphasizing what they appear to be arguing FOR. But they are probably better defined by what they argue AGAINST: i.e., classical theistic, God-based religions. According to Wikipedia, the New Atheists believe that religion should not simply be tolerated as an alternate if inferior point of view, but should be aggressively countered, criticized, and exposed by rational argument wherever its influence arises. The famous biologist E.O. Wilson recently said that “the best thing we could possibly do would be to diminish, to the point of eliminating, religious faiths.”

The New Atheism thus takes the secular humanist agenda to the next level, by asserting that humanity will achieve the highest levels of humanism and » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 2:45 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Friday, January 30, 2015

◊ Why Jews Don’t Farm Much Anymore

History ... Religion ... Society ...

I came across two interesting articles recently about why you don’t see all that many Jewish farmers out there. A recent economic study points out that back in ancient times (say when Jesus lived or even before), most Jews were farmers just like in most every other human culture. But over the upcoming millennium, they largely left that way of life, mostly moved to the cities, and took up a wide variety of trades and enterprises.

According to these economists, this was not so much because of laws forbidding land ownership by Jews (although such laws did exist given that Jews were usually a minority group and often treated as outsiders by the powers that were). The main factor was the high degree of literacy promoted by the Jewish culture. I.e., smart people found better things to do in a world where trade was growing than raise crops and milk goats.

A similar conclusion was reached in a Slate article from 2003. Judaism has always emphasized the importance of reading, so as to keep the Torah alive (and thus preserve the Jewish identity). And so, Judaism early on developed a tradition » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 2:41 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Monday, January 26, 2015

◊ Pleading With The Snow Gods

Photo ...

We are now getting a big, nasty snowstorm here in northern NJ. On the eve of the storm, some of my neighbors lifted up there windshield wipers in preparation. I never could figure out why people do this. Up or down, you’re still going to get a lot of snow on your car and will need to clear it off and clean the ice from your windshield. Today I noticed that these wipers look something like arms lifted up to the heavens, petitioning for mercy. Perhaps this is something of a modern talisman, pleading with the snow gods for clemency. I guess that putting your wipers up before a storm satisfies the urge to do SOMETHING, despite the fact that you can’t do a darn thing to stop or alter a snowstorm. I suppose it makes people feel better while waiting for the flakes to fall. As the Tom Petty song goes, the waiting is the hardest part . . .

(Or is it the actual shoveling and then putting up with all the ugly aftermath of a snowstorm in over-crowded suburban NJ?)

P.S. — AFTERMATH: The forecast when I took this shot was for 20 to 24 inches of snow. The final total here was about 4 to 5 inches. As said on the beer commercial: IT’S ONLY WEIRD IF IT DOESN’T WORK.

◊ posted by Jim G @ 11:22 am Read Comments (3) / Leave a Comment

Thursday, January 22, 2015

◊ Night Bus

Photo ...

Just some people riding on the 28 bus in Montclair, NJ on a winter’s night.

◊ posted by Jim G @ 8:39 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Monday, January 19, 2015

◊ Donde Esta Santa Claus?

Religion ... Society ...

In my last entry, I discussed some questions regarding belief in God versus atheism; in it, I mentioned a young philosopher named David K. Johnson, who in his various works has concerned himself with similar questions. Interestingly, Dr. Johnson also weighed in not long ago on another cultural mythology, one perhaps a bit less momentous but still rather interesting. Johnson has addressed the question as to whether parents today should continue telling very young children about a semi-magical figure who delivers presents during the wee hours of Christmas morning, while they sleep. Yes, we’re talking here about Santa Claus.

If you read my impressions of Johnson (I am currently listening to a Teaching Company audio course on philosophical metaphysics taught by Professor Johnson) or otherwise know of him, you would not be surprised to learn that he is quite anti-Santa Claus. In a nutshell, he advises modern parents not to continue the practice of telling post-toddlers about Santa Claus and convincing them to believe in him.

In sum, Johnson feels that continuing the Santa Claus myth is harmful and even immoral because (1) it risks damaging parental trustworthiness (2) it encourages credulity and discourages » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 9:08 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

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