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.