Thinking Outside Several Boxes

“We should stay on the lookout for marginalized people — people whom we still instinctively think of as ‘they’ rather than ‘us.’” Indeed, we should “keep trying to expand our sense of ‘us’ as far as we can.” -Richard Rorty 


The quote above comes from a New York Times article by Stanley Fish. NYT readers already know Dr. Fish and others may wish (or not) to read the article. I warn only that he is an academic and tends to write about as clearly as academics can, which means semi-dense.


The point of the Rorty quote is obvious, we should strive to include more people in the "us" that we consider our us, our family, our race, creed, humankind. But his article starts not with a conflict between human and human but with Dorothy picking an apple off an Ozian tree.


The tree protests: "Well how would you like for someone to come along a pick something off of you?"


And therein yet another opportunity to overuse the line: "We're not in Kansas anymore."


The point is, OK one of the points is, that we think in categories and those boxes, those segments of reality are constructed by our society, by the way we was raised up. On the nature/nurture scale, this one is way over on the nurture side. Momma done taught us how to think. Sure we can grow and change but big swings in our view of reality are few and far between. As Fish says: 


"Wholesale conversions like Paul's on the road to Damascus do occur, but more often a change will affect only a small corner of one's conceptual universe."


So don't expect a lightening strike to change your olde friend's views on women or politics anytime soon. Which brings me to point number two for today. I have a friend who is in lock-step with everything the republicans are doing over the debt ceiling right now. In fact, he thinks they are being too lenient. His is 104% anti-Obama and would let the country default, if that's what it takes to get rid of Barack.


I, as you may remember, do not agree with the republicans; on the other hand, I completely disagree with the democrats as well. I don't think all politicians are crooks or evil; I simply think they are politicians. We have a ridiculous system that requires allegiance to a political party before and ahead of doing what is best for the country, the nation and the citizens. Stupid system.


But I was talking about my friend. I have come to realize that he is not an idealogue. He has a long held belief system that aligns with the right wing of American politics. He does not think social welfare in any form is the business of a constitutionally derived government. He is not a mean, heartless person; in fact, he is a highly principled individual. His principles are based on certain beliefs and observations that I disagree with, that I feel are exclusive of the larger "us" in Rorty's thinking.


But my friend is not a bigot or a racist, he is a principled individualist. In fact, it troubles him that many of those who agree with his political views are indeed, as he puts it, "those nut jobs with cabins in Montana stocked with freeze dried weasel brains." 


We agree to disagree about nearly everything political but secretly we both are hoping for a random lightening strike. Rorty would point out that we probably are hoping those bolts of conversion will impact those we still have in the "they" box.

Are We Alone in the Multi-Verse?

Current scientific estimates are that there are about 200 billion stars in the Milky Way, so that means there could be at least 400 billion drifting planets in space, add to that the planets that orbit stars and the smaller free-floaters we can't detect yet. Well that means somewhere out there are between 600 and 800 billion planets give or take. The number is subject to upward revisions.

So what exactly are the possibilities that we are the only rock in the Milky Way that has somehow managed to sustain life. Not to mention we are only talking about the Milky Way, our galaxy. So, we are just talking about the local neighborhood and not the entire universe or universes depending on your nomenclature. And we are talking life as we define it, you know carbon-based in need of oxygen and probably H2O. Other life forms based on different chemical processes, well...

The point being - the intelligent, thoughtful question is no longer "Are We Alone Out Here?" but rather, "When are they going to find us or us them?" Of course, science fiction has speculated for a long time that we have already been found and they are simply patiently waiting for us to grow up or blow ourselves up, in which case they may just start over with another seeding of the Earth and hope the next evolutionary cycle ends with the survival of a rational, intelligent species that will contribute to the cosmic empirical experience.

And it all started with a Big Bang - maybe.

the gummy big bang

Easter

The egg is the pagan symbol of rebirth and often used in Spring rituals to signify the renewal of the seasons and of the earth.

OK this one is a Faberge Egg.
Symbol of elegant greed.

and this one is a chocolate egg
a sugar delivery vehicle

but the rest of these are actually dyed chicken eggs

These, of course, being tie dyed.

Intricacy sometimes make me cross-eyed.

You know this took hours and hours to look that simple

use a laser on an eggshell 

to get a very mixed holiday message

Pictures of Earth

If someone hasn't already sent you these earth-from-space photographs (yes that is a real photo above). You will be getting them from several friends in the next few days I am sure. These particular shots are a couple of years old but they are making a internet renaissance in a new format. All of these photos were taken from the Space Shuttle. I may have mentioned in the past that I suffer from a small addiction to pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope, but Hubble never turns it's cameras on the Earth, it can't focus on something so close!

Here is a link to one of the many sites where these images are posted. If you find them at all interesting, I strongly recommend downloading the PowerPoint presentation called Blue Beauty (just google picturesofearth.pps). The photos are so much clearer and make a much stronger impression viewed in a full screen PP mode. I don't know when I first saw these but I did not see them in the PP presentation, it really makes a huge difference in size and contrast.

While the night shot of Africa above is my favorite, there is one of Iceland that is so impressive. You know how they say Iceland is green and Greenland is ice; well maybe not so much. I am sure you will have your own favorite

Try to ignore the somewhat over-the-top words and music that accompany the PowerPoint slide show, sometimes people actually can't help themselves and try to enhance perfection.

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photo credit: NASA and Gaia