A New Years Thought

I was talking with a friend recently about thinking and doubt. My friend told me that he has been questioning ideas and beliefs that he's held for a very long time.

Personally, I agree with Socrates, who insisted that the "unexamined life is not worth living." And lest anyone think he didn't really mean that, Socrates uttered those words while explaining why he couldn't abandon his practice of questioning prominent Athenian citizens as an alternative to execution.

I, of course, am not as courageous as Socrates. But I agree that examining one's beliefs is, on the whole, a good thing. A scary and dangerous thing. But in the end, a good thing.

So I commended my friend.

He then added that, because he no longer feels as certain as he once did about traditional theological teachings, many people in his church fear that he has gone off the deep end. In response, and off the top of my head - while pumping gas no less - I replied:

"No one goes off the deep end by not believing something."

The more I think about that statement, the more convinced I am that it is true. The deep end and beyond is for believers, not skeptics. Unbelievers may be many things, but they rarely become nut jobs. Believers, on the other hand, frequently do somersaults with a twist off the ten-meter board and plunge into deep waters. Some of them never come up for air.

Even more interesting is the fact that in American politics, "people of faith" tend to be associated with what we call "conservativism," whereas secular people tend to be "liberals." The reason this is interesting is that skepticism is the conservative epistemological posture. Belief is the wild-eyed liberal practice.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not criticising people for believing things - I believe many things myself. I just think we ought to acknowledge that belief, not doubt, is the path to crazytown, and the less skepticism we bring to the practice of forming our beliefs, the more likely we are to arrive at that destination.

Happy New Year

Joe H.

Move Your Money

I think this is a great idea. If any of you have money invested in one of the big Wall Street investment banks, bust a move.

Joe H.

Republican Nihilism

This is a pretty fair explanatory treatment of conservative resistance to progressive change and the crippling effect an inflexible anti-government ideology has on the conservatives' ability to address social problems. The article is a bit long, but it will provide you with insight and perspective on the reasons, and methods by which, conservatives resist progressive change. Apocalyptic hysteria - what I call the "the sky is falling, we do this at our peril" strategy, is not new. It greets all major reform efforts.

"Death Panels," anyone?

The authors have also traced and reprinted conservative predictions of the doom to come after the enactment of each major reform - going back as far as the enactment of restrictions on child labor in the early 1900's. The alarmism is remarkably similar in each case.

And it always turns out to be dead wrong!

Note - as a caveat, let me say that I respect the conservative impulse to go slow and change incrementally. There is wisdom in recognizing that human reason is limited and fallible, particularly in its ability to predict the effects of interference with complex organic systems. Thank God we have a food and drug administration.

That being said, I think the article definitively establishes that we should ignore the entirely predictable alarmism that precedes all political efforts to reform broken systems and/or end injustices.

I am upset that there is no public option - and that insurance will be mandatory albiet with no effective price control - except community pricing, which I favor. I think that is a big give away to the insurance industry that was unnecessary.

Nonetheless, the legislation is a major step in the right direction.

Merry Christmas!

Joe H.

Death Panel Redux

For those of you who refuse to believe that Sarah Palin is a pathological liar, I give you death panel redux.

What's remarkable is that even when she's caught red - handed in a lie, her supporters suffer no cognitive dissonence, and the press continues to take her seriously.

Actually, that is not merely remarkable - it is terrifying.

Joe

Decade of the Con

In this column, Frank Rich gets the last decade exactly right. 2000-2009 was the decade of the "Con."

Consider the disasters wrought by our credulity. Rich lays them out for us to behold. I have already confessed that I am among those taken in by Obama's con - not his timidity, as Frank describes it, but his rank dishonesty and/or political cowardice in refusing to do what he promised.

My wife and I watched "Invictus" yesterday afternoon. At one point in the movie, Nelson Mandela, who has become the president of South Africa after a 30 year imprisonment for his opposition to apartheid, opposes his political party's plan to rename the national rugby team and replace its traditional Green and Gold colors - a name and emblem revered by by white Afrikaners, but despised by the black majority as symbols of their former oppressors. Knowing that this would confirm the worst fears of White Afrikaners, Mandela risks his political standing to challenge his supporters to rise above their legitimate grievances and hatred and be better than than they are expected to be - and he succeeds. But the most moving part of the scene is when he is travelling to meet with his supporters and his aid is urging him to not to intervene and risk losing their support. Mandela responds with "the moment I am not willing to risk losing their support is the moment that I am unfit to lead." Enough said.

By the way, all of the disasters of 2000-2009 will pale in comparison to the disaster we'll visit on our children if we do nothing about global warming. Consider this scenario.

At any rate, I know that emotion is far more powerful than reason. But the only way humanity is going to survive is if it develops a passion for the truth, the capacity for critical analysis, and a clear headed appreciation of the inexhaustible willingness of people - even our erstwhile allies - to deceive us for personal gain.

Over 100 years ago, William Kingdom Clifford penned this short article - "The Ethics of Belief." His conclusion is overstated and surely wrong. But his basic point - that each and every one of us has a moral obligation to exercise our faculty of belief responsibly - and the arguments he he invokes in support of that conviction - are our only hope of survival.

Joe H.

What Drives Me Crazy

Do you know what drives me crazy? I am a Christian. I believe in one God, the father, the almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, and of all things seen and unseen. I believe in one lord and savior, Jesus Christ, . . .

And yet I have far more in common with Rachel Maddow than I do with the yahoos she's making fun of for their "prayercast" efforts to defeat healthcare reform. Health care reform that will save tens of thousands of lives and provide security against bankruptcy - medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States -is opposed by Christian leaders.

How did we get to this point?

Joe

"Health Care Reform Please - and hold the Crap!"

Regarding his opposition to the current senate healthcare reform bill, and his relationship to Obama - some have speculated, and I have even wondered, whether he might mount a primary challenge to Obama in 2012 - Howard Dean responded:

"I remember what it was like to have George Bush as president and I'm not on a mission to destroy the Democratic Party, having rebuilt it. But we didn't elect Democrats to pass crap. We elected Democrats to make a difference"

Here here!

Joe H.