BBC had an interesting podcast on the Bloomsbury Group this week. The Bloomsbury Group included Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and others that was active in the early 20th Century in England. I’m not suggesting I agreed with much of the ideas coming out of that gang but it was a reminder of my longstanding view that we need to talk -and talk a lot - if we want to address the big challenges of our time.
The Elites are, by definition, the intellectuals...superior in intelligence, education, and attitude. They don't start revolutions, they pick up the pieces afterwards. They are hated because they are superior to the rest of us and most hate begins and ends with jealousy. Talking is good, but we should not listen to people who have no expertise in the current topic. An artist has no business talking about nuclear power...a nuclear scientist usually has no expertise in the social value of post-modern art. Today we are faced with technologies that only a tiny fraction of people understand, but everyone has an opinion. Never in human history has so much information been readily available, and we have reached the point where logic crushes fantasy, and we struggle to reconcile our beliefs. When we talk, we use platitudes and generalities, scoffing at science and logic. We think "Belief" is a substitute for reality, but logic defies our fantasies. Whether talking will help or hinder our efforts to create a better world is open for debate and something we should discuss in public.
The Elites are, by definition, the intellectuals...superior in intelligence, education, and attitude. They don't start revolutions, they pick up the pieces afterwards. They are hated because they are superior to the rest of us and most hate begins and ends with jealousy. Talking is good, but we should not listen to people who have no expertise in the current topic. An artist has no business talking about nuclear power...a nuclear scientist usually has no expertise in the social value of post-modern art. Today we are faced with technologies that only a tiny fraction of people understand, but everyone has an opinion. Never in human history has so much information been readily available, and we have reached the point where logic crushes fantasy, and we struggle to reconcile our beliefs. When we talk, we use platitudes and generalities, scoffing at science and logic. We think "Belief" is a substitute for reality, but logic defies our fantasies. Whether talking will help or hinder our efforts to create a better world is open for debate and something we should discuss in public.