Bob's blog - the realm of threalm

I'm told it was Gustav Flaubert who said (presumably in French) that: Our ignorance of history makes us libel to our own times. People have always been like this.. I am inclined to interpret this as saying: we forget that our forebears' future was as uncertain for them as our future is for us today. We conveniently elide the context that even though we now know how things turned out for our predessors and now see that history as inevitable, for them that same future was a mystery. It puts me in mind of another worthy quote the source of which I have forgotten and am too lazy to track down, that goes something like: You might as well study history. The present is too complicated and nobody knows the future. There is enough recognisable truth in both these statements for most people to see that they can help us make some sense of our world. It's a pity that those who model our climate future and allocate our economic resources don't have more regard to such sentiments. Mo

1. Australia is culturally as American as Alaska, Hawaii or Oregon . 2. Most rich people are dumb. 3. Most poor people here are doing just fine. 3. Popularity measures one of the least important aspect of things. 4. The financial meltdown is the market working. 5. Democracy is a crap system of government. (admittedly also the least crap one available) 6. Obama's policies will be pretty much the same as W's. 7. People who succeed in exams are self selecting as conformist followers. 8. Political cunning is a characteristic of a person who should not be elected. 9. Religion is a powerful force for good. 10. Humans choose pedestrian leaders because they prefer reverse dominance hierarchies. . 11. People who make lists of things they think are impolitic are delusional sociopaths. (Lid dip: Jaltcoh )