I have always subscribed to the belief that had I been young in 1916 I would have been a Communist eager to free the serfs and build a just society in Russia and I would have been one of the first to be shot when Lenin destroyed the ideal by creating a dictatorship. I am…
Misplacement
Whilst we can easily justify our search for ways to tame nature because of nature’s inherent dangers, in recent history most of our efforts have centered on protecting ourselves from each other. at first glance it isn’t perhaps of great moment why we achieve the discoveries we achieve as long as we achieve them, but…
Tea Anyone?
In Charlie Chaplin’s autobiography he talks briefly about his poverty in England and his upbringing and he mentions his mother being taken away because she was sick. He doesn’t go into great detail about her mental collapse but when she is lucid she tells him she would have been alright if he had made her…
The Sweep Of History
I was talking to my friend Beverly in the USA today and for some reason began to explain British history from Alfred through to the Civil and the modern day from the point of view of British royalty. Taking in what makes kingship, what it is and the artificiality of the crown. Afterwards, and by…
Nature’s Intentions
My aunt Polly sent me The Philosopher and the Wolf by Mark Rowlands in which Mark tells the story of living with a wolf for eleven years. Apart from the fact that he discusses this as a profound experience, as all people who have loved anything that is non-human will concur, he writes about how…
Different Loves
The human mind has to come to terms with an entire world as it develops in childhood and adulthood. If you think about how different we are from day one to year thirteen it should not be a surprise that it takes a while for us to understand our own feelings once they kick in…
Kon Tiki
I remember well looking at the black and white television watching Thor Heyerdahl and his team crossing some part of the pacific in a reed raft to prove that people could have sailed the Ocean to populate the Polynesian Islands. It was a practical demonstration as his first raft sank, proving that only some of…
Happy New Year
As my next ramble through my head will be in 2011, I thought I would say goodbye to 2010. Not being a businessman to start a new venture is more a creative shot in the dark and FootSteps Press is very much a ‘creative collective’ taking advantage of the digital publishing revolution which has brought…
Language Is Not Always Meaning
Of course the creation of languages by animals is one of the immense evolutionary steps in the development of the earth-bound brain. I recall reading a bit about what it is for a sentence to be ‘true’ (correct) and how truth and meaning go hand-in-hand and have noted where people think we limit our understanding…
Science Affliction
I have to admit I love the ideas in science, even though the mathematics leaves me failing badly, the whole idea that things are related at the particle level, that there are laws and rules to chemical actions and physical objects no matter how large, is fascinating. Like many people I do not think it…