"Very speedily that feeling of freedom, that openness and directness of statement which is the vital air of the true intellectual life, faded out of Alexandria. From the first the patronage even of Ptolemy I set a limit to political discussion. Presently the dissension of the schools let in the superstitions and prejudices of the city mob to scholastics affairs.
Wisdom passed away from Alexandria and left pedantry behind. For the use of books was substituted the worship of books. Very speedily the learned became a specialized queer class with unpleasant characteristics of its own. The Museum had not existed for half a dozen generations before Alexandria was familiar with a new type of human being; shy, eccentric, unpractical, incapably of essentials, strangely fierce upon trivialities of literary detail, as bitterly jealous of the colleague within as of the unlearned without - the Scholarly Man. He was as intolerant as a priest, though he had no altar; as obscurantist as a magician, though he had no cave. For him no method of copying was sufficiently tedious and no rare book sufficiently inaccessible. He was a sort of by-product of the intellectual process of mankind. For many precious generations the new-lit fires of the human intelligence were to be seriously banked down by this by-product." P. 382-383
"Our contemporaries are constantly excited by two conflicting passions: they want to be led, and they wish to remain free. As they cannot destroy either the one or the other of these contrary propensities, they strive to satisfy them both at once. They devise a sole, tutelary, and all-powerful form of government, but elected by the people. They combine the principle of centralization and that of popular sovereignty; this gives them a respite: they console themselves for being in tutelage by the reflection that they have chosen their own guardians. Every man allows himself to be put in leading-strings, because he sees that it is not a person or a class of persons, but the people at large who hold the end of his chain."
By this system the people shake off their state of dependence just long enough to select their master and then relapse into it again. A great many persons at the present day are quite contented with this sort of compromise between administrative despotism and the sovereignty of the people; and they think they have done enough for the protection of individual freedom when they have surrendered it to the power of the nation at large. This does not satisfy me: the nature of him I am to obey signifies less to me than the fact of extorted obedience.
I do not deny, however, that a constitution of this kind appears to me to be infinitely preferable to one which, after having concentrated all the powers of government, should vest them in the hands of an unaccountable and or irresponsible person or body of persons. Of all the forms that democratic despotism could assume, the latter would assuredly be the worst." (boldface added, wm)
1. the state or fact of being answerable or accountable, as for something within one’s power, control, or management 2. a particular burden of obligation upon one who is responsible irresponsible -"not showing or done with due care for the consequences of one's actions or attitudes; reckless" - "not legally answerable for conduct or actions," from in- "not" + responsible (q.v.). Meaning "not acting with a sense of responsibility" is from 1681. Definition: irresponsible Synonyms: bum, capricious, careless, changeable, dubious, erratic, fickle, fly-by-night, inconsistent, inconstant, indefinite, indeterminate, loose*, no bargain, no-good, treacherous, trick, tricky, trustless, unassured, uncertain, unpredictable, unreliable, unsafe, unsound, unstable, unsure, untrustworthy, variable"Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy, the moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days, my friends, will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves, to our fellow men.
Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live."
"Here it is not enough to think, 'I should just be content.' Or, "Well, this is my karma,' and take no action." If there is injustice, then I think inaction is the wrong response. The Buddhist texts mention what is called "misplaced tolerance," or "misplaced forbearance." So...misplaced patience or forbearance refers to the sense of endurance that some individuals have when they are subject to a very destructive, negative activity. That is a misplaced forbearance, tolerance and endurance. Similarly, in the work environment, if there is a lot of injustice and exploitation, then to passively tolerate it is the wrong response. The appropriate response really is to actively resist it, to try to change this environment rather than accept it. One should take some action."
"it's a short walk from schoolyard bullying to hate crimes to genocide."
"..its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumour is printed, no secret is revealed."
"Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed--and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy."
"...And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment-- the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution- -not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply "give the public what it wants"--but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mould, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion."
"But by the thirteenth century the first intimations had already dawned of an ideal government which is still making its way to realization, the modern ideal, the ideal of a world-wide educational government, in which the ordinary man is neither slave of an absolute monarch nor of a demagogue-ruled state, but an informed, inspired, and consulted part of the community. It is upon the word educational that the stress must be laid, and upon the idea that information must precede consultation."
"Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature."
"The dream of every thinker is to replace the politician by the scientist; why does it remain a dream after so many incarnations? Is it because the thinker is too dreamily intellectual to go out into the arena of affairs and build his concepts into reality? Is it because the hard ambition of the narrowly acquisitive soul is forever destined to overcome the gentle and scrupulous aspirations of philosophers and saints? Or is it that science is not yet grown to maturity and conscious power? - that only in our day do physicists and chemists and technicians begin to see that the rising role of science in industry and war gives them pivotal position in social strategy, and points to the time when their organized strength will persuade the world to call them to leadership? Perhaps science has not yet merited the mastery of the world; and perhaps in a little while it will".
"There are certain technical words within every academic discipline that soon become stereotypes and cliches. Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other word in psychology. It is the word "maladjusted". It is the ringing cry of modern child psychology, "maladjusted". Now of course, we all want to live the well-adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities.
But as I move to my conclusion, I would like to say to you today, in a very honest manner, there are some things in our society and something’s in our world, for which I am proud to be maladjusted, and I call upon all men of good-will to be maladjusted to these things until the good society's realized. I honestly say to you that I never intend to adjust myself to racial segregation and discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to religious bigotry. I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few ... leave millions of gods children smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society."
PEDIATRIC FORENSIC PATHOLOGY REPORT RELEASED ON OCTOBER 1, 2008 http://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/inquiries/goudge/li/pdf/Commissioners_Statement_oct1_08_en.pdf
Sunday, March 27, 2011
The Reprehensible Dr. Charles Smith
"Your transgressions were egregious in nature, repulsive in result, caused irreparable harm to many innocent victims." Dr. Marc Gable, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario
This was the opinion of a panel of five doctors acting on behalf of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, who sat to determine the College's response as a disciplinary measure to be levelled against Dr. Charles Smith whose professional misconduct as a highly respected paediatric coroner was found so lacking in professionalism and ethics as to declare him incompetent, strip his medical license to practise in Ontario and fine him a paltry $3,650. http://rita-rosenfeld.blogspot.ca/2011/03/reprehensible-dr-charles-smith.html