It’s good to be back.

I have been thinking about who I would have liked to have met in my life so it might be time to get a few names down.

Of course I may want to change my opinion some time in the future but I am going to make a start.

I have been combing history for good people and the first person who springs to mind is Otto Von Bismark. History will undoubetly judge him very well. Its a bit leftfield but I just wanted to start with him.

Plato, made a very significant contribution by pointing out how we are all individuals and it is impossible to assume that we are all alike. Kant took it a step further when he pointed out the we can never know who is right.

It would have been very interesting to get their take on the human condition if they would have had the benefit of the the developements of Watson and Crick. You would have to throw in Leonardo to that mix.

Back tto the list.

Lets have in the same room, Steven Pinker,Bertrand Russel, Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Dawkins,Paul Davies, Christopher Hitchens, Robert Hare, Bill Bryson, Ernst Gombrich, Albert Einstein,Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin.

Its a pity that some of them are no longer with us.

There is no doubt that the moderator would have to be Geoffrey Robertson.

If you are wondering about these names it is because all these people have impressed me in some way or had some effect on my life.

These days I am mainly interested in the human condition and the “physiology” of rheteric. There does not appear much info around on the power of rheteric that I have found but I will keep on looking.

Bryson and Gombrich are on the list primarily for their human history books and I cannot recommend these highly enough. Although I must admit that I have derived immense pleasure out of every single one of Bryson’s other books. Just while I am mentioning travel I should make a mention of Paul Thoreaux. He always seems a little crabby in his writing but I do admit too having a lot of admiration for him. I will just throw in another name here. If you ever get a chance find a copy of “News from Tartary”by Peter Fleming. It is a very enjoyable read. Oh well might as well mention Bruce Chatwin.

Most of the others relate to cosmology,philosophy, physics and genetics.

Every single person on Earth should have some understanding of these subjects. 

These people have a couple of things in common. They have all been outstanding in their field and all except Bismark have never held political office. 

One more thing that is common to most of the people mentioned is that they have all been writers.

It is such a trajedy that there may have been so many great minds that have escaped history by virtue of the fact that they just did not have the ability to write things down.

There could be people out there now who have some fantastic ideas yet do not have the ability to communicate them. I wish the I knew how to reach and communicte with these people.

One of the above mentioned names holds the key to the evolution of society as we know it . More about that later.

I am doing a speech for Toastmasters shortly and I thought that I might do a faux election speech.

I want to do a speech like something that I would like to hear from a prospective politician.

This is my first draft.

My friends.

We Aussies are a funny lot.

We have very strong opinions about a lot of things and we tend to be a little cynical at times.

We can be especially cynical about politicians and I guess in a lot of instances that can be justified.

There is a perception among some in our community that some of our politicians set low standards and continually fail to reach them.

But I want to change that mindset. Thii sis not a time for recriminations. This is not a time for being negative.

I want to expose you to some new ideas and I want you all to be a part of it. I want you to feel that the next government is your government. I want you all to feel as if we can break new ground , take our thinking where we have never been before.

We live in changing times. We live in exciting times. We live in a time when things have never been so exciting and when things have never moved so fast.

It is time we aimed a little higher.

It is time to question our old methods.

It is time we examined new possibilities.

I want you to consider just for a moment a time in Australia when people can live for a very long time and never get sick.

I want you to consider a time when energy sources are freely available and very cheap.

I want you to consider a time when all conflict can be resolved without resorting to aggression.

When mans activities on Earth will have very little negative on our precious environment.

All this knowledge is now available or very close to it.

I say we don’t just build a new hospital.

I say we aim to build the best teaching and research hospital in the world.

We should be in the forefront of developing new drugs like Telomerase, the drug they say that may help us all live a longer and healthier life. We should be in the forefront of helping to develop new stem cell therapy and cancer research.

We are on the threshold of developing new energy sources that will free us from dependency on fossil fiuels.

I don’t say let’s all applaud our volunteers.

I say lets foster an environment where we can all be encouraged to be volunteers. Where we all can be made aware that there are a lot of terribly disadvantaged people in our community who need a helping hand.

It is not someone else’s problem. It is all our problem. Everyone at some time in their life needs a helping hand.

Our future will be best served in an environment of mentoring and encouragement….not blame and criticism.

Lets aim to replace a culture of celebrity with a culture that is about encouraging the best out of all people.

We live in the best place in the world and Australians are a generous and good natured people.

I recognise that Australians do not want to hear hyperbole, clichés and political spin.

But….. we are here.

It is now .

We can all be a part of creating tomorrow.

I do not have all the answers but YOU DO and so do you and you and you

If you want to be a part of an exciting future the time to make a decision is now.

Make a commitment.

Back to the regular blog later.

Vote for me.

First Post

Blog
It is January 2013 and I am entering a stage of life when many people think it is a time to reflect and perhaps commit to record the things that are important.
This blog is intended to serve no other purpose than to assist me in organising my thoughts and maybe leave some indication to my descendants about who their grandfather, great grandfather etc really was.
And perhaps I may just learn something.
I do not have the greatest memory……….. I forgot what I was going to write next! Oh yes! I find that I read and discover so much insightful, uplifting, inspirational and just plain astounding information and then I just forget it.
No more.
To begin with, I am fairly sure that I am who I am as a result of my genetic programming combined with my cultural conditioning. Steven Pinker wrote about this in his excellent book “The Blank Slate”. I saw it written about Pinker that he had perhaps one of the greatest living minds. After reading “The Blank Slate” and “The Language Instinct” I have to admit that he would certainly be up there.
“The Language Instinct” is definitely the most learned book that I have ever read on any subject. It does hurt the brain to read it but every page somehow manages to give the impression that linguistics could be interesting.
But I digress.
The three most important lessons that I have learned in life are 1- Blaming is bad and 2- Encouragement is good. Those two seem a bit mundane don’t they? Do not be deceived. Those two little bits of advice could change the world. The third one is a lot more complex and I feel is the single most important factor in determining how civilization evolves and will be that most referred to subject in this blog.
More on that later after I say how I reached that conclusion.
Part of my genetic programming has determined that I devote a considerable part of my life investigating the “human condition”, that is, Earth, civilization and my role in it. And to do this it is important to have some knowledge of cosmology, physics, genetics and philosophy.
I really wish that al, these subjects were mandatory in all primary schools.
First of all Cosmology. Everyone, and I really do mean everyone should know where we are in the universe, when it all started and where it is all going.
This is not a blog about cosmology but there are a few basics. Ie. It all began about 13.7 billion years ago. Earth formed about 4.5 billion ya. Our sun is a fairly smallish , nondescript sun which is about half way through its life cycle. It will turn into a hot dwarf in about five billion years but the Earth will have been long gone by then, swallowed up by the expanding Sun.
Just to put things into perspective, light takes about eight and a half minutes to reach us here on Earth travelling at the speed of light (about 300,000kps). There is a sun out there, Canis Majoris, that is so large that it would take light , travelling in a straight line, eight hours to travel from one side to the other.
Cosmology is fascinating and I have found one of the best sources for information on the subject is Paul Davies. He has written a number of books on the subject and they are all easy to read and understand