the better world express

That stuff about making a better world, I’m joking, but not really I guess. I really do believe that if we got together and debated our beliefs logically and were open to accepting whatever beliefs were the most logical, the world would be a better place. We would see more clearly and be better able to steer the ship of state, or in the case of a one-worlder such as myself, the planet, so we would steer it better, and in general everybody would be happier.

I would have to say that there is roughly zero chances of this happening, but the closer we get to this ideal the better off we will be.

Mostly I take my context from science where you can say something like the mass of an electron is 9.1 x 10^-31 kilograms. And if somebody doesn’t believe that you can go right back to those English gentlemen scientists through the guys of today with their weird wonderful gadgets and present all the papers and if one were smart enough one could go through them all and examine every assumption and conclusion and if one could find some mistake, then we would have to re-weigh the electron, but if one couldn’t one would have to accept it.

Of course the world of people is a lot more complicated than the world of subatomic particles, but I still think if we applied the same rules to them we could make some progress, we could throw out some theories that are false on their faces and we would be better off never having to debate them again. So I guess I do have an agenda.

The thing about this agenda is you really have to get your facts straight because these are the building blocks that you build your theory from. This is why I get upset with these anecdotal stories from dubious or nonexistent sources, they muddy the clear water of reason. When you are mobilizing your atom smasher to find the top quark you can’t stop your process every time some guy walks in and says some guy told him that he read somewhere that the mass of an electron is really 9.2 x 10^-31, and discuss it with him. Maybe sometimes there are two opinions and the truth is somewhere near the middle, but mostly the truth lies squarely on one side. If an outlandish theory has a reasonable source I am inclined to listen to it, but if it is just something I heard from my beer drinking buddy, much as I like my beer drinking buddy, I am inclined to dismiss it out of hand, after all there is a better world to be built.

Here’s another thing about the minimum wage. Both sides talk about it in terms of whether or not it will help the economy. But what about the fact that the kid of the guy who gets an extra buck or two an hour, will get an extra cookie with her milk? Doesn’t that count for something?