Rereading Jack Havig's account of Berkeley, 1970, I wonder whether to comment but check and find that I have already done so better than I could have done now. See: Gadarene Swine. This novel was first published in 1973, only three years after "Berkeley." We are rereading it in 2025. The issues have not changed. We have moved closer to the blowup and breakdown that Havig experiences in the further future. Or, if we imagine ourselves as in the Technic Civilization timeline, then we are still in the Chaos. I will reread something more cheerful, maybe attend meditation group, and then return to this Maurai History.
10 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And the comment I wrote for "Gadarene Swine" continues to be applicable now. Anderson would have had as much scorn for the PC woke "radicals" of today as for the Berkeley leftists of 1970. Both are much the same!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
The main point is how do we save the world, not which other groups do we scorn?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Instead of repeating principles/policy proposals you would probably disagree with I'll quote this bit from the end of Chapter XXI of OPERATION CHAOS: "You will not, repeat not, get improvement from wild-blue yonder theorists who'd take us take us in one leap outside the whole realm of our painfully acquired experience; or from dogmatists mouthing the catchwords of reform movements that accomplished something two generations or two centuries ago; or from college sophomores convinced they have the answer to every social problem over which men like Hammurabi, Moses, Confucius, Aristotle, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Thomas Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, Voltaire, Jefferson, Burke, Lincoln, a thousand others broke their heads and their hearts."
This will get copied into my second Andersonian notebook.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
How does that answer the question?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Obviously, this quote tells us where Anderson believed we should not look for answers to our troubles. Consider the list of thinkers he plainly had the most respect for.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
My question was how do save the world now, not which thinkers Anderson respected.
Our painfully acquired experience is currently producing disasters. However, either we will find our way forward (not backward!) - or we will not.
Paul.
how do we save
Kaor, Paul!
We will not save ourselves via wild blue yonder leftist dogmatists, we will not save ourselves with that catastrophic failure called socialism, we will not save ourselves banning things like nuclear power, as so many leftists demand. I could go on and on and on listing leftist follies.
No, only the limited State, in whatever form, along with free enterprise economics (plus a strong pro-Space mindset), has been shown to work, when ever they were given a chance. Just for starters, look up Robert Zubrin's THE CASE FOR SPACE.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
We really are at complete cross-purposes here. I do not support wild blue yonder leftist dogmatists! Your extreme language suggests that you are a dogmatist. I have given my reply on "socialism" many times. You can keep stating that economies which are merely partially nationalized are catastrophic failures. You are reinforcing your own opinions, not convincing anyone who sees things differently and who is prepared to discuss the issues (but not like this!). I could go on and on and on listing rightist follies.
No. Shared abundance can make both free enterprise and the need for state coercion redundant. Just for starters, read something else.
I have been referring to the issues in THERE WILL BE TIME without intending to reopen all these arguments yet again. Although my opinions of course come out in the course of discussion, I do not here set out to propagate any political dogma. You do seem determined to propagandize for free enterprise, the limited State and anti-socialism and of course I reply to this although I would prefer not to have to do so over and over.
Paul.
Western interference in the oil rich Middle East is worse than a catastrophic failure.
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