Category Archives: painting

An Educational Dilemma

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I’ve been reading about knowledge boundaries and the idea of island as metaphor. Within the island, our body of knowledge, we pursue lines of thought, traverse the island, and eventually reach the shore beyond which lies the unknowable. The island grows as the breadth of our knowledge increases, the shoreline expands, and we are confronted with more mysteries and incomprehensive considerations that, when the island was smaller, were beyond our wildest imaginings. I guess the idea is, the more we know the more we don’t know.

For those of us who are not inclined to add dilemmas to the one’s we already struggle with, perhaps limiting knowledge is a preferrable strategy. We gain the peace of unquestioning acceptance of things simply being the way they are as opposed to living the uncertainty of constantly seeking answers; the problem the chronically curious must deal with.

Maybe it doesn’t have to be either/or. I can appreciate peaceful contemplation and still entertain intermittent bouts of curiosity. I think, these days, my island is still slowly growing. I’m just not venturing to the beach as often as I used to.

landscape 2

The Dangers of Totalitarianism

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I’ve been thinking about the George Orwell novel 1984, how the totalitarian regime in the book implemented catch phrases to secure the minds of the populace. ‘War is Peace’ is used to establish a permanent enemy, a scapegoat, that can be blamed for any and all ills that befall the citizenry. ‘Freedom is Slavery’ discourages individualism tribalism in order to keep everyone bound to the collective. ‘Ignorance is Strength’ encourages the subservient populace to forego intellectual reflection, follow the dictates of those in power, not think about things to hard and they will realize contented peace. The message is, I guess, that given such ideas along with sufficient deterrents a totalitarian regime turns people into sheep without them realizing it.

It does seem a bit familiar these days but I guess as long as a free exchange of ideas remains in place reasonable responses can happen.

Are We Living in a Simulation?

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There are certain theoretical physicists contemplating, as I understand it, the idea that perhaps we are not living a base reality but are in a simulation, a simulated reality. We may be, they surmise, virtual beings created by a higher intelligence with infinite computational facility. Our limited capacity to fully understand our world renders impossible to grasp the closed system provided by our overseers.

The overseers, acting as game players, pit us against each other, create inventive situations for us to deal with and suffer through and then play favorites, much as the ancient Greek gods did. The idea is, I guess, our overseers are using us as players in the ultimate virtual Game of Life.

Well, if I am existing in a virtual closed system, I really can’t complain too much, reclining, as I am, in my lounger in the warm summer breeze. There are difficulties that occur, of course, from time to time but they’re solvable and life is, all in all, good.

Hate Groups (part two)

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I’ve been thinking about what draws people, predominantly young men, to these exclusive anti-social organizations.

Without intending to simplify the phenomenon I muse that many of these young men have reached adulthood without a sense of direction, have found themselves powerless, lacking functional legitimacy and are spiritually, intellectually and socially lost, have become fodder for extremist groups bent on grasping political power through often devious misinformation, knowing the vulnerability of their prey.

Sad to think American society has deteriorated to such an extent that it lacks a path to social success for everyone.

Hate Groups

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I’ve been thinking lately about the increasing numbers of people who attach themselves to groups that organize on the basis of condemnation of certain others. The groups I’m thinking about profess to be Christian organizations, but whose Christian ideals don’t include acceptance of non-white races or those of differing sexual orientation or equality of the sexes. Such groups believe there Americal would be better off without these others and, given the opportunity condemn and harass them.

Consider the Christian Nationalists whose narrow interpretation of their Bible determines the US is a Christian nation first and foremost, other faiths do not belong and given the power these people would drive the others from the country.

Then there are the Orthodox Christians, followers of the Eastern Church, emphasizing male dominance, are antisemitic, anti-gay rights and inclined toward violent rhetoric spread through the social media. The 4th of July this year saw hundreds of masked members of the Patriot Front march in Washington DC. These folks are an alt-right group opposed to a pluralistic society and distain a social inclusive America.

All such organizations are hate groups. Rather than seek common ground they oppose social unity, displaying an arrogance they support with Biblical cherry-picking and a sense of racial superiority, attitudes one can only assume is generated from fear of the Other.

Quantum Realities

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If Schrodinger’s cat experiment offers plausability to the existence of two simultaneous realities, does the quantum world open up existences to worlds that can only be imagined? Could time fluctuations create parallel worlds and multiply dimension fracturing time and space into unimaginable complexities splintering the here and now?

SciFi fodder for sure, but the quantum world can’t be ignored. 85% of what makes up the physical universe is dark matter or energy, invisible substance that does not emit or absorb light but provides the gravitational underpinnings that hold the planets in place and the universe together.

Or so it is supposed; there is little but conjecture, albeit offered by the most knowledgeable theoretical physicists, to justify belief in any sort of universal order. Enter the spiritual realm.

Alive and Dead?

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Irwin Schrodinger’s thought experiment poses the paradox: A cat in a box bombarded with photons (the photons being particles and/or waves) and containing a cyanide capsule (triggered by particles but not waves) will be alive and dead, that is, in a ‘super position’ until the box is opened and the condition of the cat observed.

The implication is that multiple realities exist and will only become one in the presence of an observer. Which means, I guess, we all determine our own reality.

It makes me think about the importance of assuming personal responsibility for one’s existence.

What Good is Critical Thinking

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Wondering lately about what it means to exercise critical thinking. Daily occurrences will produce events that require judgements. Often such mental requests should be denied, go unanswered because as soon as they’re thought about they {the critical assessments) will take hold, become of greater importance than if they would have been ignored or denied and more than likely such critical assessments are of little importance anyway, requiring, nevertheless, intellectual energy almost always better spent on positive actions.

A lesson I must concentrate on relearning.

Transcendence

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Our first camping trip of the season with our small camper has me noticing the variety of large camping trailers and vans filling the parks this month. I’m struck by the names of some of these large mini-homes that are being directed into the nicely designed private campsites the state parks offer.

I’m wondering how the campers who are bringing these camping luxuries are thinking about the experience they’re expecting to have. Names like Transcend, Escape, Flight and the like suggest a vision the owner might have of finding his way beyond everyday existence to an alternative reality, at least for a few days, where the children will be happy and occupied where one can sit near an open campfire in contemplation, exchanging pleasantries with equally serene neighbors while enjoying well-functioning wifi access, warm toilets and showers.

Reality, of course will eventually set in as one tires of the long walk to the restrooms, replenishing the camper’s water reservoir, chopping wood and starting fires; the bed could be a bit more comfortable. It’s time to return home, let one’s colleagues know about roughing it while enjoying ‘the great outdoorsman’ status.

I guess it’s no wonder why so many people do it.

Quantum Mechanics

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I’ve been reading about quantum mechanics, not so much what it is but rather how the theoretical physicists of the early 20th C attempted to explain it. Years were spent attempting to derive mathematical explanations for how tiny invisible sub-atomic entities exist, interact and behave, and what form they assume in time and space.

The elusiveness of the endeavor led some theoretical physicists to determine that quantum existence was a closed system beyond the known structure of physical science, an idea refuted by brilliant thinkers such as Albert Einstein.

Still, the observed behavior of sub-atomic entities defied explanation. They could be waves or particles, their position and momentum impossible to determine with certainty. The thought experiment offered by Erwin Schrodinger emphasized the counterintuitive dilemma by suggesting photons presented into a closed box in which a cat was placed with a cyanide capsule triggered by particle but not wave suggested multiple scenarios: a cat dead in one, alive in another not reduced to a single truth until viewed by an observer, exacerbating the mystery of what quanta truly are, which leaves us within an unknowable realm beyond the reasoned three-dimensional world our limited intellects can conceive.