16-11-2008, 10:34 PM
So do I, Nathaniel.
FYI, I have asked this question often in print and on three separate occasions from the Lancer podium -- twice as the central theme of papers, of which one was a keynote address (I opened for David Lifton -- in the showbiz sense).
The response was stunned and stunning silence.
In my essay, "In the Blossom of Our Sins," I asked -- over fifteen years ago and in utter frustration:
"Are our individual and collective identities symbiotically linked to the roles we play as Kennedy Assassination Researchers/Investigators/Gadflies to the degree that the termination of those roles, a certain consequence of our ultimate victory, is perceived to be tantamount to the termination of the self? As sufferers of such a fear, we would be in exalted company.
"Writing in The End of Science of what he perceives to be scientists’ fear of reaching for absolute answers, John Horgan notes: ' … after one arrives at The Answer, what then? There is a kind of horror in thinking that our sense of wonder might be extinguished, once and for all time, by our knowledge. What, then, would be the purpose of existence? There would be none … Many scientists harbor a profound ambivalence concerning the notion of absolute truth. Like Roger Penrose, who could not decide whether his belief in a final theory was optimistic or pessimistic. Or Steven Weinberg, who equated comprehensibility with pointlessness. Or David Bohm, who was compelled both to clarify reality and obscure it. Or Edmund Wilson, who lusted after a final theory of human nature and was chilled by the thought that it might be attained. Or Freeman Dyson, who insisted that anxiety and doubt are essential to existence … '
"And if not death of the self, then what of that of the nation, a necrotic body politic that – as we witness in, among other tableaus, Zapruder film frame 313 – long ago suffered the demise of its moral authority to govern and command allegiance? ...
"[W]ill we ever complete our work? Do we dare to complete it? Could we have achieved our goal years ago? Have we given sufficient consideration to ... a series of [non-violent] actions that [perhaps would] be described by targeted groups as 'terrorist' in nature? Acts of war?"
Thank you. Next speaker, please.
FYI, I have asked this question often in print and on three separate occasions from the Lancer podium -- twice as the central theme of papers, of which one was a keynote address (I opened for David Lifton -- in the showbiz sense).
The response was stunned and stunning silence.
In my essay, "In the Blossom of Our Sins," I asked -- over fifteen years ago and in utter frustration:
"Are our individual and collective identities symbiotically linked to the roles we play as Kennedy Assassination Researchers/Investigators/Gadflies to the degree that the termination of those roles, a certain consequence of our ultimate victory, is perceived to be tantamount to the termination of the self? As sufferers of such a fear, we would be in exalted company.
"Writing in The End of Science of what he perceives to be scientists’ fear of reaching for absolute answers, John Horgan notes: ' … after one arrives at The Answer, what then? There is a kind of horror in thinking that our sense of wonder might be extinguished, once and for all time, by our knowledge. What, then, would be the purpose of existence? There would be none … Many scientists harbor a profound ambivalence concerning the notion of absolute truth. Like Roger Penrose, who could not decide whether his belief in a final theory was optimistic or pessimistic. Or Steven Weinberg, who equated comprehensibility with pointlessness. Or David Bohm, who was compelled both to clarify reality and obscure it. Or Edmund Wilson, who lusted after a final theory of human nature and was chilled by the thought that it might be attained. Or Freeman Dyson, who insisted that anxiety and doubt are essential to existence … '
"And if not death of the self, then what of that of the nation, a necrotic body politic that – as we witness in, among other tableaus, Zapruder film frame 313 – long ago suffered the demise of its moral authority to govern and command allegiance? ...
"[W]ill we ever complete our work? Do we dare to complete it? Could we have achieved our goal years ago? Have we given sufficient consideration to ... a series of [non-violent] actions that [perhaps would] be described by targeted groups as 'terrorist' in nature? Acts of war?"
Thank you. Next speaker, please.
Charles Drago
Co-Founder, Deep Politics Forum
If an individual, through either his own volition or events over which he had no control, found himself taking up residence in a country undefined by flags or physical borders, he could be assured of one immediate and abiding consequence: He was on his own, and solitude and loneliness would probably be his companions unto the grave.
-- James Lee Burke, Rain Gods
You can't blame the innocent, they are always guiltless. All you can do is control them or eliminate them. Innocence is a kind of insanity.
-- Graham Greene
Co-Founder, Deep Politics Forum
If an individual, through either his own volition or events over which he had no control, found himself taking up residence in a country undefined by flags or physical borders, he could be assured of one immediate and abiding consequence: He was on his own, and solitude and loneliness would probably be his companions unto the grave.
-- James Lee Burke, Rain Gods
You can't blame the innocent, they are always guiltless. All you can do is control them or eliminate them. Innocence is a kind of insanity.
-- Graham Greene