Scientific American: The Very Name Carries a Significant Level of Optimism
Today is the 171st anniversary of the first publication of “Scientific American.”
The very name of the magazine is hopeful, when you think about it. It’s always been a good time to encourage Americans to be scientific in thinking and behavior.
It’s nauseating to hear our leaders make statements that reveal how completely ignorant and distrustful they are of basic proven truth. Yet at the time, it can be quite hilarious. Here are some of (former member of the US House of Representatives — 2007 to 2015) Michelle Bachmann’s greatest hits, for your amusement, followed by these gems from (2012 vice-presidential hopeful) Sarah Palin.
Some fairly surprising quotes that seem to demonstrate the extent to which people can be speaking the same language, using the same words, drawing on the same history and yet be so completely unintelligible to each other.
My recent conversation on vegetarianism elsewhere in your comments section offers a similar example. For one person being a vegetarian is a social resources issue while for another it represents a quality of life issue. The conversation never really joins.
It is easy perhaps a bit too simplistic to dismiss other people as ignorant fools. Rather such a divergence suggests a fundamentally different belief system or way of processing the world. Is there a gene involved? Could it be we are witnessing a division of a different species? Is it something in the food or water?