To rebuild the party, we need to rebuild Art, Knowledge and Science. APOD reminded me of all of this today [View all]

For me, this striking image (made by an Italian) showing the deep immensity of space, immediately brought to mind Carl Sagan's book Broca's Brain. The whole APOD image and write up flooded me with hope. Least this is all seeming wayyyy too wooey — raising the question WTF is being posted in the pragmatic Way Forward — am posting here because I think that it is fundamental to recall WHY it is that we need to rebuild, WHAT it is that we actually wish to rebuild.

The image points to the importance of Art, of Knowledge, of Science, of Wonder in creating a World in which we wish to live. To my thought, to focus minutely upon such things as 'we lost because ...' can distract from why people should give a *hit about our party in the first place.

It was the vaguely skull shaped and deeply convoluted image that brought Broca's Brain to mind. It is a wonderful read. The title refers to Paul Broca the French physician who identified a portion of the brain (now called Broca's Area) important in speech. Broca’s own brain is preserved in a jar of formalin in the Musée de l'Homme in Paris.

When visiting the museum, Sagan asked himself how much of the man known as Paul Broca can still be found in this jar. The book is a collection of more or less related essays which, one way or another, tries to answer that question.

Many will be familiar with some of the quotations from this book. Perhaps the most widely known is “I believe that the extraordinary should certainly be pursued. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”

He also made many other observations in the work. Two of my favourites being:

“Anger at queries about our beliefs is the body’s warning signal: here lies unexamined and probably dangerous doctrinal baggage”

“Both Barnum and H. L. Mencken are said to have made the depressing observation that no one ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the American public…But the lack is not in intelligence, which is in plentiful supply; rather, the scarce commodity is systematic training in critical thinking”

We need to regain the ability to think critically. In particular we need to work to help society to regain that ability.

Thus endeth the sermonizing and to confess that the name of the nebula also brought to mind FSM — the Flying Spaghetti Monster

We need to keep moving forward, and we need to remember WHY.