Comments on: Need To Know Basis

By: jd

jd — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:37:05 +0000

Lymaree, If I remember correctly, I once read that people collected their daily pay in wheelbarrows at the peak of the inflation. But I don’t guarantee that the story is true.

By: Lymaree

Lymaree — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:27:12 +0000

Heh, jd. My son’s comment, on my Weimar Republic exclamation, was, “We should be stocking up on wheelbarrows.” He may have something there.

By: jd

jd — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:10:13 +0000

Well, at least I gave Jane something to write about. But I think she has lost one battle. My undergraduate university has a School of “Arts and Sciences” and MIT has a “School of Science” and a “School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Science”.

Yes, I do consider History to be relevant but I don’t consider the date of Pearl Harbor to be important. The lesson I learned from World War 2 was drawn from the Munich Agreement (Peace in our times), the German-Soviet Friendship Treaty, and the Yalta agreements. Negotiating with dictators only buys time. They will break the agreements any time they think they no longer benefit from them.

Some science fiction novels I’m reading put the point another way. Alliances are based on mutual benefit.

Lymaree, I am also thinking of the German Hyperinflation and making an effort to increase the amount of canned food I have on hand. :(

By: robert_piepenbrink

robert_piepenbrink — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:19:11 +0000

I am much in favor of cultural knowlege and especially history, but you may be giving ignorance too much credit. I would at least keep in mind the possibility that Singer and his supporters know pretty well where such ideas come from and much better where they lead. History teaches us the consequences of ideas and behavior. It will not tell us right from wrong–though being morally neutral, it’s a better guide than the average philosopher.

By: Lymaree

Lymaree — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:09:37 +0000

My exclamation on learning our government planned to “help” the economy by printing more money? “Doesn’t anybody remember the Weimar Republic???”

I was relieved to find my 21 year old son did in fact remember the relevant facts. Apparently our government economists do not. Grrr.

So yeah. I absolutely agree that the liberal arts, including all those pesky cultural references, do in fact make a big difference.

By: cperkins

cperkins — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:46:42 +0000

Amen.

I’ve done my share of arguing some of these issues, and finding out that people don’t know it’s all been argued before – and we’ve seen where they go.

I just don’t have any solutions to the situation.

You did remind me of a high school student who came to my little cubbyhole where I was playing something instrumental on my CD player – I can’t remember what; from my memory of my taste at the time, probably something vaguely folky. She looked at me with some awe, as at some peculiar phenomenon, and said ‘That must be classical music – it doesn’t have any words.’

Music is a liberal art too, isn’t it?