Politics According To Krauthammer

Posted by Herb7734 6 years, 8 months ago to Politics
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I just finished Charles Krauthammer's last book, "Things That Matter." It is so brillian that I literally found over 100 topics to discuss in this forum. But I won't. At the very start of the book he makes the point that no matter how much effort he puts into writing about science,medicine, art, poetry,architecture, chess, space, sports, numbers, in the end they must "bow to the sovereignty of politics."In trying to move the spectre of politics off the table he got into the Voyager probes and whose voice narrated but Kurt Waldheim, a former NAZI. It prompted me to ask the Gulch one simple but extremely profound question: What one thing would you send on Voyager 1 and/or 2? Krauthammer finally winds up saying what biologist and philosopher Lewis Thomas proposed as evidence of human achievement ;the Complete works of Bach.(Personally, I would have chosen Beethoven). So, am asking this forum, if you were allowed to send only one item on Voyager 1 or 2, what would it be? Remember you are representing all of earth from fauna to flora, from philosophy to nonsense, from math to quantum. Just one thing. Music? Science? words? go for it.


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  • Posted by 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    If nothing else, it would be a proof of intelligent life.Wherever it wanders for the next several millenia it's a sign which shouts Here We Are!
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  • Posted by term2 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I would also say that Trump is under a LOT of pressure from liberals who want to destroy him at every turn. I think he says things to tweek them and to show people that PC is not such a good thing. Therefore, I do watch what he DOES more than what he says, although he does say what I am thinking more times than not. The libs hate his honesty and willingness to say what he thinks.
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  • Posted by 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Really? You must lack imagination. While that was not my intention, a bright future is almost totally dependent on Trump as of now.The problem is who or what are we going to get after Trump. Looks like he is going to continue to do what is needed no matter what the weasels on the left do.
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  • Posted by term2 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I think you are being a bit unfair to Branden. He helped bring Objectivism down to a more personal level and easier to actually apply in ones life for most people. Ayn Rand's epistemological and philosophical approaches, while strictly correct, were a bit hard to translate to everyday life for most of us (definitely you excepted)

    Branden went on to do more work in psychology than in philosophy, and he did expose some quite dramatic psychological difficulties that Ayn Rand had. She was a bit hard to deal with, which I saw for myself, if you werent absolutely perfect in your application of Objectivism. She tolerated absolutely no deviations.

    I lived through that period, and in fact had Branden come speak at Stanford while I was a student there after the famous breakup. I never heard him denigrating Objectivism or Ayn Rand personally. I think they each had their place.
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  • Posted by 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It may be of interest to us via our children and grandchildren. It would be good to know that they were going to live in a bright future.
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  • Posted by 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I care less about what he says than what he does.He's doing the right thing 80% of the time, which is better than any previous recent President.And what he does counts much more than what he says.
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  • Posted by term2 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    You are right. Ayn Rand was very intelligent, and a great writer and forward thinker. She was great when she was being interviewed- sharp as a tack.

    But except for AS, she didnt communicate with people where THEY lived. Branden, on the other hand did communicate that way. One could talk with Nathaniel, but not so much with Ayn Rand. She was more aloof. I agree that the movement stopped when Branden was excommunicated.
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  • Posted by ewv 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Trump is not always doing the right thing. When he does happen to do the right thing we will take it, but someone who temporarily does something right for the wrong reasons does not deserve "credit" for it, is not a solution, and is not a reason to be equated with him in what he stands for in the Trump idolatry.
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  • Posted by ewv 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Individualistic is the opposite of "libertine", "self destructive" and "acceptance of evil". Individualism requires rationality in self reliance.
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  • Posted by 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I give him credit for doing the right thing -- even if its for the wrong reasons.So long as he keeps it up, I'm all for him. He does things that others apparently don't have the balls to do, like moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem. They are the right things. In rhetoric, he is the good, the bad, and the ugly, but so long as he continues to reverse Obama, leave the man alone.
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  • Posted by 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Freedom only works if the individual is taught from the beginning to have a philosophic base that shows one is responsible for one's life, and coercion is not allowed in any form.
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  • Posted by $ blarman 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    In my mind, Williams is the greatest composer of our age. His scores are synonymous with a great movie and credits "Jaws", "Close Encounters", "Star Wars (theme)", "Harry Potter (theme)", "Jurassic Park (theme)" and several others.
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  • Posted by mia767ca 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    yes....and I read most of them in my phd program...plato...Aristotle...hume....locke...etc...along with david Kelley and Stephen hicks...and kant and the post-moderns...but that was 50 years ago...majored in epistemology...loved it...
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  • Posted by term2 6 years, 8 months ago
    Trump definitely slowed the steady March to collectivism, which is all we can expect at this point. Look at the vitriol against trump. Not than a principled president would ever be elected today, but if he were imagine the hatred from the liberals that would be unleashed. He would probably be assassinated
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  • Posted by ewv 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That doesn't make Trump admirable. He's a last gasp of something pro-America, but not American individualism or Constitutional limits on government.

    Gore came very close to winning power after Clinton (and would have if the Senate had removed Clinton), and so did Kerry. The trend into Obama was only a matter of time, and that set new precedents paving the way for the mentality of Sanders and Warren. Trump on the white horse was a desperate anti-intellectual backlash against it, without being for the right principles, in a zig-zag downward trend.
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    • term2 replied 6 years, 8 months ago
    • Herb7734 replied 6 years, 8 months ago
  • Posted by term2 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    What I am getting at is that is unlikely to be another elected president in the the future to defend American constitutional values anywhere near as much as Donald trump. In the future they will be liberal hacks. Look at how close Bernie Sanders got through popularity with the young voters

    I just don’t see much of a future for the usa
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  • Posted by ewv 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Communicating with aliens is pure speculation. As for Ayn Rand, no she was not "colloquial". She expressed herself with clarity and precision.
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  • Posted by ewv 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The Hilary scale does not make Trump "the last stand for what’s left of American constitutional values" and is not a reason to broadcast his photo to the universe.
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