WHAT ARE BLOGS GOOD FOR ANYWAY?…. Fer serfs

WHAT ARE BLOGS GOOD FOR ANYWAY?…. Fer serfs blogs mean that powerful coteries can no longer choose what information gets out…

Guess it’s still about Plato up on the hill, philosopher king, shaman really, of the reality – behind – the – appearance – perceived – through – the -intuition – of – the – chosen – few -, saying: ‘Listen, you serfs, WE will tell yer what yer need ter know! And Socrates, down in the agora, apostle of individualism and open society, critical of sophistry, shibboliths and unconsidered positions ) and arguing how little we know, and yet everyone can learn, even serfs!

Concerning information getting out  ‘A Letter from Galileo ter Andrea Sarti.’H/t Bertolt  Brecht’s  play,  ‘Life of Galileo.’

My Andrea my dear friend,

As I am an old man and think often of the past, I write secretly this letter to you concerning past events and our final meeting, for we will not meet again. I hope you may receive this letter for I wish to say more concerning our last conversation.

You have been as dear to me as a son, Andrea, and more, for you have been my student, then companion, in the great adventure we embarked on together, a scientific revolution no less, and worthy of personal sacrifice. I well remember the personal sacrifice you made, Andrea, as a small boy sent to purchase the lens for our new telescope, leaving your winter coat as payment. You had a right to expect, later, that i would do as much. I understood your reluctance to meet with me this year in my house imprisonment. I understood your disappointment by my betrayal of our highest principles to maintain the truth of the science we had learned, testing Copernicus’  theory through observation by means of the telescope. You recognised that I should have stood firm when shown the Inquisitions’s instruments of torture, but I was weak. I failed to set the example of integrity to scientific endeavour, that our scientific revolution required. I have held it back when I should have been its public supporter by example. And so the people wonder who they can trust, where lies the reality concerning Ptolemy’s  and Copernicus’ theories.

You and I, Andrea, will never forget our first sight of the universe as no one  before us had ever seen it. We saw what the Church wishes to conceal from the common people, not a universe of Christian dogma, with God’s eye fixed firmly on his people, obedient in their poverty, to his will and to His Church, but a small planet revolving round the sun!

When I entrusted you, with my Discoursi written at night, in secret, you were ready to forgive me.  “Oh,’ you said, ‘now I know why you were prepared to sacrifice your honour, my dear Galileo. You were planning to write this work documenting your discoveries and offer it to the world.’ Do not believe so, dear friend, for this was not so, and even had this been my plan, in pursuing scientific investigation, where ‘truth’ is your beacon, the ends cannot justify the means.

And so, dear partner in science, I bid you good-bye. Though I have failed the great revolution in science of which I was a part, you and others must not. Though I have held back its progress, yet it cannot be stopped. You and others will carry on this great intellectual enterprise.

Galileo.