Carl's Comments on Lectures  I  &  II

Marx.com - http://www.angelfire.com/id/urev
From:   Carl Zimmerman <czfz@bellatlantic.net>
To:     drews2000@online.de <drews2000@online.de>;          franzjutta@cantv.net
        <franzjutta@cantv.net>; frogmobile@yahoo.com <frogmobile@yahoo.com>
Date:   Sunday, August 22, 1999 10:11 PM
Subject:        Of Mice and Men

   Hi Franz, George and Khalid:
 
This is in response to the "human being" and "jambo" messages:
 
 George, I hope that you feel better. Vitamins C (2 grams), E (400   mg) and B-complex daily will help build your immune system.
   
When poet Robert Burns wrote "The best laid plans of mice and men never  'aft gang ajay' (don't always succeed), he referred to the inadequacy of people to predict the future. Interestingly, he used "mice" as an analogy to "man," probably believing that like mice, people don't think but run aimlessly and, thus, are poor futurists.
   
John Steinbeck's novel "Of Mice and Men" deals with poor farm workers in the 1930's (USA) whose plans to become financially independent fail due to circumstances. Nevertheless, the characters in Steinbeck's novel or Burns' mice could hardly be considered thinkers. In Steinbeck's novel, Lenny Small "tell me about the rabbits" was mentally retarded. History proves that you gotta be a thinker to effectively predict the future.
 
The "thinking human being" is a universal concept. According to my father's accounts, my paternal Grandfather (emigrated from Germany to USA in 1895) often said "Whether you drink brandy or wine, you must be a "human being." I understand that he was referring to a "thinking" human being who thought deeply on a variety of subjects in the arts, sciences and humanities. He believed that thinking human beings developed a keen understanding of people and situations; this enabled them to make better decisions by predicting the outcome of these decisions with greater certainty. Being a human being, he concluded, doesn't mean always being a "nice guy" such as when he needed to defend himself against a bully's attack in a bar.
 
I believe that helping people to develop as "emancipated, thinking human beings" (enabling the person to change) will result in an emancipated, non-exploitative system in post-industrial society; this should be the main goal of a new philosophy today. Effective communication is needed to accomplish this, and while writing is a struggle, it is the most effective communication tool to stimulate thinking.. What has visual communications, such MTV, accomplished but pump a lot of crap into the minds of young people?
   
Because post-industrial society changes rapidly almost every day due to continuous advances in technology,  the new philosophy should be concerned primarily with the three interrelated p's  - priorities, prediction and perspective - , and secondarily with the truth. The truth deals with the past and present (what was or is), while prediction deals with the future (what can be). Since today, the future happens before we turn our heads, we need to be quickly prepared to deal with it.  Establishing proper priorities and putting experiences and information in perspective help improve prediction.
   
When we look at writing on a page, we frequently ask ourselves how could it have been written better? This often means how could the event described be changed, producing a better future?. So it is not surprising that one of the best futurists was H.G. Wells, science fiction writer.
   
We need to take a hard look at writing skills and how to use them to stimulate thinking. For example, consider the issue of brevity. Brevity is desirable for some purposes, such as directions for using a new  technology since most people will not take the time to read verbose 500-page manuals. However, brevity should not be a cult, especially where the purpose of writing is to stimulate deep thinking.
   
 For instance, contemporary cartoonist Ken Smith has been called the "Hindenburg of ten dollar words" by a critic who perceives his dialogue as inflated.
   
 Example A:
 Brief meaning:
 Proof that dinosaurs existed is inconclusive.
 Ken Smith: "Riddling mysteries are posed to illuminate their (dinosaurs) existence, or to eliminate it."
   
Example B:  Brief meaning: The ship is sinking.
Ken Smith: "The vessel ceases to retain its buoyancy in the face of the Dionysian ascent of the pervasive liquid."
   
The critic, in my estimation, misses the boat. Smith's dialogues
stimulate the reader to think more about the subject while the brief meanings don't.

I offer the following additional suggestions regarding Parts I
and 2 of the Franz - Khalid "Human Being" debate:

a.  Invite Pandemonium Crew members to apply the ideas expressed in the debate, and to describe their personal experiences.  . Philosophy should be positioned as a tool that enables people to think independently and thus avoid being co-dependent on the ideas imposed by others.

b.  Explain why today more people in the post-industrial world reject reason and evidence than previously, and, as a result, hoaxes are widely accepted.  Outline the history of intellectual property starting with ancient civilizations, describe the major issues involved, and discuss whether protecting intellectual property is realistic.

c.  Address the prevalence of three philosophic ideas - unreason, self-sacrifice and collectivism - that were the basic roots of Nazism and Soviet-style Communism, and which, despite the previous demise of these systems, are driving many post-industrial societies
toward the establishment of similar dictatorships.

The Franz - Khalid debate is one of the best descriptions on the human condition that I have read. Keep sending these lectures. Consider the following suggestions:

d.  Publish these lectures in on-line book form.

e.  Prepare a 60-minute (two 30-minute parts) audiocassette tape digest of selected parts of these lectures read by you and Khalid. I will gladly offer editorial comments on the tape script (I have considerable experience writing and editing audio and video scripts).

Offer the book and tape on-line for sale to cover the cost of producing these materials.

Cheers.
 
I think this is the beginning of a beautiful debate. I welcome your
comments.
 
Regards.
 
Carl

CONTINUATION