Interesting and provocative reflection on what makes the world go 'round. As I approach the terminal decade of my life, I have found that there are a few pretty well-defined buckets that hold much of what we know and observe about the universe. Most of those buckets have been defined by scientific inquiry--Newtonian mechanics, the laws of thermodynamics, the composition of matter (although we keep discovering more sub-atomic particles/forces), and some of the biological systems, for example. But when I try to predict or understand events that depend on human behavior, I have come to regard life on Earth as a random walk. Outcomes often bear no resemblance to the intentions or values of those who initiate the actions. The age-old question of "why bad things happen to good people" remains unanswered except by the theory of randomness. But even if you believe this worldview, that does not mean that we should simply avoid all efforts to effect outcomes. How can you look at starving children and turn away because that is just the way life is?
I wish I had seen this prior to Sunday! :)
I took a little different tack.
Interesting and provocative reflection on what makes the world go 'round. As I approach the terminal decade of my life, I have found that there are a few pretty well-defined buckets that hold much of what we know and observe about the universe. Most of those buckets have been defined by scientific inquiry--Newtonian mechanics, the laws of thermodynamics, the composition of matter (although we keep discovering more sub-atomic particles/forces), and some of the biological systems, for example. But when I try to predict or understand events that depend on human behavior, I have come to regard life on Earth as a random walk. Outcomes often bear no resemblance to the intentions or values of those who initiate the actions. The age-old question of "why bad things happen to good people" remains unanswered except by the theory of randomness. But even if you believe this worldview, that does not mean that we should simply avoid all efforts to effect outcomes. How can you look at starving children and turn away because that is just the way life is?