Limitless Fire

Berlin, Isaiah, Russian Thinkers, Hogarth Press, Viking Press, 1978.

The Hedgehog and the Fox: “A queer combination of the brain of an English chemist with the soul of an Indian Buddhist.” E M de Vogue

page 42…..”There is a particularly vivid simile (War and Peace, epilogue, part 1, chapter 2) in which the great man is likened to the ram whom the shepherd is fattening for the slaughter. Because the ram duly grows fatter, and perhaps is used a a bell-wether for the rest of the flock, he may easily imagine that he is the leader of the flock, and that the other sheep go where they go solely in obedience to his purpose. He thinks this and the flock may think it too. Nevertheless the purpose of his selection is not the role he believes himself to play, but slaughter–a purpose conceived by beings whose aims neither he nor the other sheep can fathom.”

OBSERVATION: Berlin is a thinker who helps us see, and understand beyond the surface that presents itself. Perception, the enlightened activity of insight, and the ability to recognize the function of words, conceptualization, and communication assist us in the quest to understand who and what we are. As human beings, it is our duty to know, to think and ponder. Perception, point of view, content, all drive understanding. How effectively and accurately we use these various conceptual tools, helps us truly understand the nature of reality, and our individual part in the human collective.

Frederick S. Lane, The Decency Wars : The Campaign to Cleanse American Culture
M. Katherine B. Darmer and Robert M. Baird, Morality, Justice, and the Law : The Continuing Debate
Michael Ruse and Christopher A. Pynes, Editors, The Stem Cell Controversy : Debating the Issues, 2nd Edition
Steve F. Sapontzis, Food for Thought : The Debate over Eating Meat
Peg Tittle, Should Parents Be Licensed? : Debating the Issues
Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, Editors, Same-Sex Marriage : The Moral and Legal Debate
M. Katherine B. Darmer and Richard D. Fybel. Editors, National Security, Civil Liberties, and the War on Terror
Edited by Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, Death Penalty
Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, Editors, Euthanasia : The Moral Issues
Robert Zubrin, Energy Victory : Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil
Michael Ruse and David Castle, Editors, Genetically Modified Foods : Debating Biotechnology
Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, Editors, Caring for the Dying : Critical Issues at the Edge of Life
Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, Editors, The Ethics of Abortion : Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice, Third Edition
Lee Nisbet, Ph.D., The Gun Control Debate : You Decide, Second Edition
Michael Ruse and Aryne Sheppard, Editors, Cloning : Responsible Science or Technomadness?
Robert M. Baird, Reagan Ramsower, and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, Editors, Cyberethics : Social and Moral Issues in the Computer Age
Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, Editors, Hatred, Bigotry, and Prejudice : Definitions, Causes, & Solutions
Robert M. Baird, William Loges, and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, Editors, The Media and Morality
Jeffrey A. Schaler & Magda E. Schaler, Smoking : Who Has the Right?
Robert M. Baird & Stuart E. Rosenbaum, Editors, Pornography : Private Right or Public Menace?
Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D., Drugs : Should We Legalize, Decriminalize, or Deregulate?
John Donnelly, Suicide : Right or Wrong?
Robert M. Baird and M. Katherine Baird, Editors, Homosexuality : Debating the Issues
Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, Editors, Punishment and the Death Penalty : The Current Debate
Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, Editors, Animal Experimentation : The Moral Issues
Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, Editors, Morality and the Law
Kristina Borjesson, Into the Buzzsaw : Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press
Douglas E. Noll, JD, MA, Elusive Peace: How Modern Diplomatic Strategies Could Better Resolve World Conflicts
Al J. Venter, The Road to Nuclear Armament: The Third World Threat
Steven K. O’Hern, The Intelligence Wars: Lessons from Baghdad
Ann Fagan Ginger, Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11 : Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute
Lewis S. Feuer, Imperialism and the Anti-Imperialist Mind
Eliezer J. Sternberg, Are You a Machine? : The Brain, the Mind, and What It Means to Be Human
Josias Semujanga, Origins of the Rwandan Genocide

OBSERVATION: In order to function as a thinking and productive human being it is necessary to grasp and understand information. Without access to data, we are left in the blind. Without the ability to imagine, interact, and communicate we are also left blind. It is only by actively participating in the life of ideas where we contact, process, and interpret information that we have any opportunity to exist beyond the mundane.

Zinn, Howard, Terrorism and War, Seven Stories Press, 2002.

page 22 “In war the evil of the means is certain and the achievement of the end, however important, is always uncertain. That is, war always sets off a chain of events that are unpredictable. For instance, in World War II, you could not be certain that you would defeat fascism. You might be fairly certain that you would defeat Hitler and Mussolini; but you could not be certain that you would be doing away with all the elements of fascism, with militarism, racism, imperialism, and violence. In fact, after 50 million deaths, that did not happen. Considering those issues, and thinking about the prospects for the human race given the horrific technology of war, persuaded me that there could no longer really be a war that we could call just. I decided that whatever problems we faced, whatever tyranny we faced, whatever world situation we faced, whatever act of aggression we faced, we had to come up with a solution other than the mass killing of human beings.”

OBSERVATION: In order to make any reasonable assessment of information it is necessary to be literate. Literacy means several things, and especially requires the ability to read and comprehend facts, data, ideas, etc. While the internet, mass media, publicity and marketing drive a large percentage of available data, it is important to read beyond these content delivery systems. Books, whether in the form of ebooks, or print, and the ability to select, and discern value in content is paramount to any developed understanding of complex issues. Teachers, and the value they provide the world, access to genuine data, the ability to understand, cross-reference, and make conclusions about issues and ideas provides positive action. The statistics regarding illiteracy in the world, and the resultant damage caused by illiteracy are both issues underlying many of the social ills facing the human population. It is necessary for all of us to take the time to learn, to apply Kohlberg, and his ideas about behavior above simple self interest in order to make the world a healthier place to live.

Buy a book today: read it, comprehend it, pass it along!

Harold Bloom, How To Read and Why, Scribners, 2000.

“Because my ideal reader, for half a century has been Dr. Samuel Johnson, I turn next to my favorite passage in his Preface to Shakespeare: This, therefore, is the praise of Shakespeare, that his drama is the mirror of life; that he who has mazed into his imagination in following the phantoms which other writers raise up before him may here be cured of his delirious ecstasies by reading human sentiments in human language, by scenes from which a hermit may estimate the transactions of the world and a confessor predict the progress of the passions….Let me extend Johnson by also urging us to recognize the phantoms that the deep reading of Shakespeare will exorcise. One such phantom is the death of the Author; another is the assertion that the self is a fiction; yet another is the opinion that literary and dramatic characters are so many marks upon a page. A fourth phantom, and the most pernicious, is that language does the thinking for us…..I urge you to find what truly comes near to you, that can be used for weighing and considering. Read deeply, not to believe, not to accept, not to contradict, but to learn to share in that one nature that writes and reads.”

OBSERVATION: Certain individuals help us understand the process of profound understanding, they help us see with the mind, perceiving realms beyond the commonplace, unmasking the mysteries hiding behind various surfaces.

Edward O. Wilson, CONSILIENCE, The Unity of Knowledge,
Alfred Knopf, 1998.