The Natural Linguist

From time to time, I've been interested in the notion of free will and discussions about the phenomenon. The notion that we do or do not have "free will" has extremely committed adherents on both sides of the issue. I personally like to keep an open mind about these things. What strikes me about this discussion is that, as far as I can tell, it seems to be conducted on purely binary terms: we either do or do not have "free will" (and sorry for the air quotes, but until we can define the idea in terms that can be generally accepted, it will serve as a weasel word). But since the universe stubbornly refuses to be shoved into the little boxes we create for our convenience, I would like to explore the idea that free will exists on a spectrum where beings can have more or less ability to deviate from innate programming, or instinct, or the prodding of the autonomous nervous system -- however you want to characterize it. I have heard people argue that the Newtonian co...

Well, it's official. We live in interesting times. It's nothing new. Charles Dickens seemed to express similar feelings of ambivalence 160 years ago with his memorable opening line in "A Tale of Two Cities". “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” I have friends who feel exalted and victorious, and friends who feel horrified, defeated, and enraged. My personal feeling is that we have merely exchanged one form of barbarity for another. Remember, we did not solve a problem -- we have only driven it underground where it will fester and quickly give rise to much more and much worse barbarity. The monied have always had recourse to "vacations" in "Switzerland". Those people will experience little inconvenienc...

 Relativism is reviled as an abrogation of a reliable standard against which to measure "goodness" or "badness". I agree that without a standard, we gradually lose all that is distinct, and devolve into an undifferentiated mush that is powerless to prevent the encroachment of the law of the jungle because it cannot bring itself to condemn evil on the off chance that it may actually be "good". I will say that I dislike and avoid the terms "good" and "bad". But my dislike of those terms is not an acquiescence to rank relativism or malignant multiculturalism. I have no wish to abolish a standard of excellence. I dislike those words because they inhibit digging deeper. They stop thought. They curtail inquiry. They are the parenting equivalent of "because I said so." The questions we often fail to ask are ones like this: Good for whom? Bad in what way? Is this a short-term good at the expense of a long-term bad? Is a "necessar...

 At the time of this writing, it is shortly after the conclusion of the 2020 Presidential election in the US, and the inauguration of a new president. This has been a turbulent time in the history of our nation, but instructive nevertheless. If you were tuned into the events of the world in 2009 and 2010, possibly you recall Harold Camping, a radio personality and Christian evangelist best known for predicting the End of the World on May 21, 2011, 6:00 PM. When the day and time arrived for that great event, his devoted followers were prepared for what they called "the Rapture".  Many had sold all their belongings and said goodbye to friends and loved ones. At 5:58, they breathlessly anticipated the long-awaited fulfillment of the promise that they would be snatched up to Heaven before God laid waste to the world for its wickedness. 5:59 arrived. Then finally the clock ticked off the seconds until 6:00, then 6:05, 6:10, 7:00, 8:00, and so on. Nothing happened. The world rolled...

The word ‘values’ has taken on some unfortunate baggage. That happens to a lot of words. They go in and out of fashion. They become associated with Us or Them. They go from praiseworthy to pejorative and  back again.  It’s a pity about values , though. I just rewatched a movie, Pleasantville , that I hadn’t seen for quite a few years. It’s a charming and moving fable about a town trying to grapple with change. The protagonists in the movie are the people who felt hemmed in or smothered by the old ways and embraced the new. The antagonists were those who liked the old ways,  for whom the change was scary, and who clung doggedly to the old ways. The word Values was dragged out to the town square and tarred and feathered, metaphorically, by virtue of being uttered by the chief antagonist, and by being the thing that stood in opposition to the change at the heart of the movie. The reason it’s a pity is that we do ourselves a disservice in a couple of different ways. Fir...

In his book, The Diamond Age, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer , author Neal Stephenson presents a gripping and epic story full of nanotechnological marvels. It's one of my favorite books, an old friend now that I've read multiple times. Like all fine literature, it grows with you. At one time of life you read it and it conveys a message that you're primed to absorb at that time. At a different time of life, you read it and it might as well be a different book. I recently finished reading The Diamond Age , yet again, and its pertinence to the current state of our nation is very striking to me in a way that it has never been before. I spend a lot of time thinking and writing about the terrible political division that sometimes seems like it is tearing the country in half. Our two political parties' differences have become so irreconcilable that nothing constructive can ever be done. And if perchance anything ever happens to benefit one party, the other party immedia...

I would like to weigh in on the current political trend of states banning abortion. Alabama started the trend, and we haven't seen the last of it. I've always maintained that if we want to understand a problem, we need to look at it like we would a sculpture, that is, something with three-dimensions that we have to view from many different angles to fully understand. Complex problems must be understood from several different perspectives if we ever hope to address them wisely and well. Our current tendency in the US is to view certain hot-button topics from the political, left-right perspective. There is possibly some value to this, but it is very limiting to ONLY see problems through this lens as we often tend to do. And the political point of view is perhaps the least useful of any perspective when confronting a difficult and contentious issue such as abortion because the parties involved have no interest in reaching a common ground. And so they just end up talking past ea...