rattus rattus’ blog

You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of uncertainty about different things, but I am not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don’t know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we’re here… I don’t have to know an answer. I don’t feel frightened not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can tell. It doesn’t frighten me.

Richard P. Feynman, from a transcript of BBC television program Horizon in 1981. To be found in Jeffrey Robbins (ed.): The Pleasure of Finding things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman. Allen Lane 2000. Also in: James Gleick: Genius: Life & Science of Richard Feynman. Pantheon 1992.

the truth remains a whore, and whores are honest even if some may be conniving, but such is the nature of truth. in other words, truth is illusive.

— cairo otaibi, 2006-08-02

I work on the theory
that you can find what you want
when you don’t want it
by looking where it wouldn’t be
if you did want it.

— Andy Capp cartoon by Reg Smythe

Here is one more quote about public opinion:

Die öffentliche Meinung ist der Lärm, der entsteht, wenn die Bretter aneinanderschlagen, die die Leute vor dem Kopf haben.

— Volkmar Muthesius

Wenn wir uns als Teil der “Leute” sehen, so können wir das Zitat auch als eine grobe Variante des Lügner-Paradoxons sehen, abgesehen davon, dass Sehen mit einem Brett vor dem Kopf möglicherweise schwierig ist. Aber so sehe ich das eben.

[According to my available sources there is no English phrase or saying that literally translates German “ein Brett vor dem Kopf haben”, meaning “having a board before your head”. Can anyone help with a translation of the above quote?]

One should respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways.

What if this actually were public opinion? Or is it? Respect respect. I do not know whether I would want my opinion to become public. Or, as Bertrand Russell is quoted:

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.

A conversation of Calvin with his cartoon fellow Hobbes from 1995-08-05.

Calvin:

When a person pauses in mid-sentence to choose a word, that’s the best time to jump in and change the subject!
It’s like an interception in football! You grab the other guy’s idea and run the opposite way with it!
The more sentences you complete, the higher is your score! The idea is to block the other guy’s thoughts and express your own! That’s how you win!

Hobbes:

Conversations aren’t contests!

Calvin:

OK. A point for you, but I’m still ahead.

[*] [WP]

silence came quietly and unexpectedly

silence was desired
silence was welcome

you.
again you.
once more, you.

i do not exist

it is silent

the pain gives way to silence

compassion

infinite compassion

you.
again you.
once more, you.

where do we begin?

we never started
we never ended

silence.
infinite silence.

the you
the me
the silence

“the silence” by Cairo Otaibi

Cartoon by hugh macleod

The annoying thing about people like you is the expectation to be taken seriously by people like me.

When I read you and I I am always wondering who is addressed. The author, the writer, the reader, me, you, or the story’s fictional characters? And what if I read a text to someone? Or, when I quote some text?

Maybe, I should just try to annoy myself less.