How to solve tardiness
System Technology Institute Tuesday, August 03 2005
The essay is adapted from the author`s commencement address at mMcGill University in Montreal. Exactly 23 years ago , in this very building. I was sitting in your seat like Macro Polo, I return without silk, but with piece of sage advice.
First don`t lose your head. I`m speaking here of intellectual fashion,of the alarming regularly with which the chattering classes are swept away by the periodic enthusiasm that was over the culture.
Only a decade ago,for example,the West was siezed with the mass hysteria about imminent nuclear apocalypse. The airwaves,the book store,the U.S congress were filled dire warning to the abyss. Indeed,those who refuse to lose their heads were said to suffer from physological disorder “Phisic numbing” it was called.
Ten years later, with nuclear weapons still capable of destroying the world,many times over not a world about the coming apocalypse. The fever has passed. But not the propensity for fever. With nuclear apocalypse now at fashion, we have ecocatastrophe, overpopulation and resource depletion.
Do not misunderstand. There is still a nuclear problem. There are environmental problems. But there is defference between a problem and panic. The next time you find yourself in midst of
some hysteria, remember that tulip craze that swepr Holland thre centuries ago, an orgy of panicked financial speculation in which land and house and gold where all traded for…. Tunnips. At mania peak, a single semper Augustus tulip cpuld fetch 20 town houses.
In the old Soviet Union, which routinely rewrote and rearrange history to fit its political needs, there was assaying. In Russian, it is impossible to predict the future. So when confronted with the apocalypse du jou, kieep your head.
Look outward, you have been rightly taught Socrates` dictum anexamined life ois not worth living eithier.
Perharps previous ages suffer from lack of self-examination. The Age of Oprah does
The essay is adapted from the author`s commencement address at mMcGill University in Montreal. Exactly 23 years ago , in this very building. I was sitting in your seat like Macro Polo, I return without silk, but with piece of sage advice.
First don`t lose your head. I`m speaking here of intellectual fashion,of the alarming regularly with which the chattering classes are swept away by the periodic enthusiasm that was over the culture.
Only a decade ago,for example,the West was siezed with the mass hysteria about imminent nuclear apocalypse. The airwaves,the book store,the U.S congress were filled dire warning to the abyss. Indeed,those who refuse to lose their heads were said to suffer from physological disorder “Phisic numbing” it was called.
Ten years later, with nuclear weapons still capable of destroying the world,many times over not a world about the coming apocalypse. The fever has passed. But not the propensity for fever. With nuclear apocalypse now at fashion, we have ecocatastrophe, overpopulation and resource depletion.
Do not misunderstand. There is still a nuclear problem. There are environmental problems. But there is defference between a problem and panic. The next time you find yourself in midst of
some hysteria, remember that tulip craze that swepr Holland thre centuries ago, an orgy of panicked financial speculation in which land and house and gold where all traded for…. Tunnips. At mania peak, a single semper Augustus tulip cpuld fetch 20 town houses.
In the old Soviet Union, which routinely rewrote and rearrange history to fit its political needs, there was assaying. In Russian, it is impossible to predict the future. So when confronted with the apocalypse du jou, kieep your head.
Look outward, you have been rightly taught Socrates` dictum anexamined life ois not worth living eithier.
Perharps previous ages suffer from lack of self-examination. The Age of Oprah does