Postby Technomancer » Thu Oct 07, 2004 8:30 pm
Living in the country full time is not really for me. I enjoy nature, and would certainly want to be able to more out of doors, but ultimately I would find the country life to be too isolated from the things of interest to me. I'd miss my favourite delis, markets and so forth, not to mention the various goings on the make the city interesting. Of course, I'd also miss having a large public library.
Suburban life can be pretty good too, if the area is designed right. Few of the newer subdivisions are though. You have to drive forever to find something interesting, not to mention the boring sameness, and land plots too small to really do anything with.
The scientific method," Thomas Henry Huxley once wrote, "is nothing but the normal working of the human mind." That is to say, when the mind is working; that is to say further, when it is engaged in corrrecting its mistakes. Taking this point of view, we may conclude that science is not physics, biology, or chemistry—is not even a "subject"—but a moral imperative drawn from a larger narrative whose purpose is to give perspective, balance, and humility to learning.
Neil Postman
(The End of Education)
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge
Isaac Aasimov