Only a remote past is not history but the recent past too which will some day be called history

A point is made why history as it is taught in schools and colleges concerns itself with only remote history,not about what had happened in the recent past before our very eyes.

Interesting question,the answer to which lies perhaps in the distance from which we observe the past events and put them in a linear perspective,one leading causally to others. The remote events are remote enough to yield their outlines to us against other events in their outlines and give us an idea of how one has led to the other,or rather flowed out of the other.

In the case of the recent events we take enough time to understand them as events that have relevance to the course of history, in the way other things flowed out of them,yet other things in time and space. Their hazy outlines are not visible until enough time has lapsed in human memory ,i.e.generations have gone on with the memory of the events embedded in their conscious.

E-books are no books

Tags

borges' library, e-books, future of books

“I’m sorry to have to tell you that books are now considered an endangered species. By books, I also mean the conditions of reading that make possible literature and its soul effects. Soon, we are told, we will call up on “bookscreens” any “text” on demand, and will be able to change its appearance, ask questions of it, “interact” with it. When books become “texts” that we “interact” with according to criteria of utility, the written word will have become simply another aspect of our advertising-driven televisual reality. This is the glorious future being created, and promised to us, as something more “democratic”. Of course, it means nothing less then the death of inwardness – and of the book. This time around, there will be no need for a great conflagration. The barbarians don’t have to burn the books. The tiger is in the library. “

-Susan Sontag, Where the Stress Falls via The floating library

E-books are supposed to replace paper books in the end ,mere book-screens which will bring any book on demand,as also give you the ability to speak to portions of it ,i.e. They will enable you to potentially break the silence of the words.Words which have lain quiet in the pages of the book for years will now be forced to speak,reply to your answers, recant if necessary on what they have already said while in the burial mode. The authors words have lost their final say.What they say will be subject to newer interpretations ,available not in the reader’s unspoken minds but right there on the screen, to be reinforced and revised as more readers apply their minds to it.

Will the paper books remain ? Looks like they will. There will always be some who prefer the last word as from the author.Wouldn’t one sometimes like the monotone of an author’s drone? And then what happens to the barbarians? Where will they go to burn? Well , they can now burn life-sized effigies of the authors in the city squares.

http://thefloatinglibrary.com/2011/09/25/dear-borges/

One step at a time

Tags

one step at a time, structured thinking

If it is very warm ,what will you do?
I sit near the air-conditioner.
If it is still warm, what will you do?
I shall switch on the air-conditioner.

Wonder if this is a mere joke or it is fairly illustrative of a structured thinking,which leads the mind though a carefully constructed logical sequence proceeding , one step at a time.If one has to achieve a “jump” in the steps,i.e.skipping the intermediate step ,one must have the freedom in the mind derived from an intellectual exercise usually possible in a thinking mode freed from structures.

The mind must have the capacity to judge the inconsequentialness of the intermediate step and take steps in advance to get on to the significant next step,a cognitive skill the lack or inadequacy of which produces hilarious outcomes such as the one in the above dialogue.

Skimming

Tags

internet reading, skimming

Skimming seems to be the problem of internet reading for most of us. Depth is not what we are looking into but rather the width and the range of reading.I hardly read much,except around 10% or so as I begin to read .I guess the remaining 90% and make it all up so well in the mind,so that at the end of the day I belch in complete belly-satisfaction! Because reading only stokes the fires of my imagination ,forcing me to make up for what should be the thinking of the writer in the balance part of the writing.

If this is what is skimming in the context of the present day internet reading, it cannot be true that we skim in order to overcome the problem of plenty,the abundance of reading availability. It is merely that we skim in order to fill in our minds most of what other people write with our own stuff.

Needs elaboration ? The next time.

(From my Ohlife journal)

The past is not dead

Tags

once born that will never die, present is merely past rolled up, the past is not dead, will durant, you are an idea

“It is a mistake to think that the past is dead. Nothing that has ever happened is quite without influence at this moment. The present is merely the past rolled up and concentrated in this second of time. You, too, are your past; often your face is your autobiography; you are what you are because of what you have been; because of your heredity stretching back into forgotten generations; because of every element of environment that has affected you, every man or woman that has met you, every book that you have read, every experience that you have had; all these are accumulated in your memory, your body, your character, your soul. So with a city, a country, and a race; it is its past, and cannot be understood without it. Perhaps the cause of our contemporary pessimism is our tendency to view history as a turbulent stream of conflicts – between individuals in economic life, between groups in politics, between creeds in religion, between states in war. This is the more dramatic side of history; it captures the eye of the historian and the interest of the reader. But if we turn from that Mississippi of strife, hot with hate and dark with blood, to look upon the banks of the stream, we find quieter but more inspiring scenes: women rearing children, men building homes, peasants drawing food from the soil, artisans making the conveniences of life, statesmen sometimes organizing peace instead of war, teachers forming savages into citizens, musicians taming our hearts with harmony and rhythm, scientists patiently accumulating knowledge, philosophers groping for truth, saints suggesting the wisdom of love. History has been too often a picture of the bloody stream. The history of civilization is a record of what happened on the banks.” – Will Durant

An interesting quote. The past is never dead,but only rolled into the present. When you are dead you do not become the past but infuse the present with your absence, your past . An idea once born,will never die and you are this idea that becomes a part of the past rolled into the present and you are always there.

Does democracy prevail only in moderate rainfall countries?

A rainfall theory of democracy

From Stephen Haber and Victor Menaldo:

Why have some countries remained obstinately authoritarian despite repeated waves of democratization while others have exhibited uninterrupted democracy? This paper explores the emergence and persistence of authoritarianism and democracy. We argue that settled agriculture requires moderate levels of precipitation, and that settled agriculture eventually gave birth to the fundamental institutions that under-gird today’s stable democracies. Although all of the world’s societies were initially tribal, the bonds of tribalism weakened in places where the surpluses associated with settled agriculture gave rise to trade, social differentiation, and taxation. In turn, the economies of scale required to efficiently administer trade and taxes meant that feudalism was eventually replaced by the modern territorial state, which favored the initial emergence of representative institutions in Western Europe. Subsequently, when these initial territorial states set out to conquer regions populated by tribal peoples, the institutions that could emerge in those conquered areas again reflected nature’s constraints. An instrumental variables approach demonstrates that while low levels of rainfall cause persistent autocracy and high levels of rainfall strongly favor it as well, moderate rainfall supports stable democracy. This econometric strategy also shows that rainfall works through the institutions of the modern territorial state borne from settled agriculture, institutions that are proxied for by low levels of contemporary tribalism.

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/10/a-rainfall-theory-of-democracy.html

The above theory seems ,on the face of it, a reasonable one but if you look close enough ,it does not explain the lack of democracy in some countries like Pakistan where despite repeated democratization attempts military rule keeps coming in every once in a while. In India and Pakistan similar rainfall conditions prevail but in India there has never been an authoritarian regime.

The philosopher’s puzzlement

When I was still doubtful as to his ability, I asked G. E. Moore for his opinion. Moore replied, “I think very well of him indeed.” When I enquired the reason for his opinion, he said that it was because Wittgenstein was the only man who looked puzzled at his lectures.

– Bertrand Russell
(Quote taken from The Floating Library)

I wonder what he means when he said the fact that Wittgenstein was the only man who looked puzzled at his lectures made him think well of him .Was it merely facetiousness ? One possible reason could be that everything of what he said posed no puzzles to others while he seemed to think there was much in it that was too deep for the audience to grasp and there was no reason for them not to look puzzled. Surely this cannot be the reason because Wittgenstein could not have been presuming that his lectures should go over their heads.The fact that Moore thought well of him merely on the basis of the philosopher’s puzzlement before an audience who seemed to understand everything is a certificate of the philosopher’s ability . Apparently it is the ability of the audience which is suspect.If they had tried to grasp what he was saying they too would be as puzzled as the philosopher was.

But the question that remains unanswered is whether the audience’s inability to grasp what he says proves,ipso facto,the philosopher’s own ability to grasp the subject,irrespective of his ability to explain it to the audience.The fact that he looked puzzled does not necessarily prove that he is “at sea” on the subject.It may even prove the other possibility that there was much in what he says that had to puzzle anybody.The fact that he was the only person who looked puzzled indicates that he alone understood the subject while the audience did not attempt to grasp it.Had they attempted it,they too would have been puzzled.

Going mobile

One wonders how the mobile phone penetration (at about 30%) has reached such a high level in a country where 80% of the people earn less than Rs.20 per day(less than half a dollar) (that assets worth 25% of the GDP is owned by as few as 100 people out of a billion-odd people is another story). Validity of these data apart, I keep thinking that the popularity of the cell phone in India has a lot to do with the closed spaces in which India’s vast majority of people live. Imagine a typical Indian family of around 4 to 5 people living in a tiny space of around 300-400 sq. ft of space, where everyone is within seeing and hearing distance of the others all day. The family bonds are very close and extend beyond the family, embracing people in the neighbourhood and the entire community. In such a milieu drawing on each other’s support in the daily business of life is a very natural thing.

A mobile phone enables all the members of the close-knit community to stay in touch when some of them are out eking out their living in other parts of the town or even in other towns. The mobile phone keeps together all the members of the community making others of the community available instantly. A real good substitute for the traditional community habitations like mohallas, poles, chawls in which several families live in close communities. That probably is what explains the phenomenal popularity and use of the mobile phone in India

How much can we believe of what a philosopher says if we cannot understand a part of his argument?

How much of what a philosopher says we can believe if we don’t understand a part of his argument .
The way a question is framed depends ,not all the time,upon what one seeks to know . For example ,in this question ,it is difficult to believe that the questioner actually wants to know how much one can believe of what the philosopher says.Probably he wants to know how one should evaluate the effectiveness of a philosophical argument if a part of the argument is incomprehensible.

The point this gentleman makes is there could be defects or patches of logical inconsistency or the philosopher’s own obscurity in an argument .Should one take the overall drift of the argument if conforms to a pre-conceived thought even if there are occasional holes ,real or perceived, in the argument .An interesting thought. A reading of the Hindu philosophy (Vedanta) will give you such a feeling . The basic argument remains the same while the words go on .There is hardly a difference in thoughts and words as though words cease to be vehicles for thoughts and have a purpose of their own apart from conveying meaning.Words themselves are meaning.The gaps that happen are mere semantics where instead of the mind proceeding with thoughts they struggle with words.

Figures and speech

panhandle
“something resembling the handle of a pan,” 1851, especially in ref.to geography, originally Amer.Eng., 1856, in ref. to West Virginia(Florida, Texas, Idaho, Oklahoma also have them). Meaning “an actof begging” is attested from 1849, perhaps from notion of arm stuckout like a panhandle; verb panhandle “to beg” is from 1903.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source

I have just learnt that “panhandle” is an Americanism for begging. I am fascinated by the beauty of the expression, especially the image of the arm of a sitting beggar stuck out like the handle of a pan. The expression contains an entire word picture of a beggar who sits on a crowded sidewalk extending his begging arm towards the passers by. In India the beggar sticks his hand at you from out of your car window.