The Ramblings of a Bush Philosopher

"Do to others what you would have them do to you."

anonymous, often called The Golden Rule, in one form or another it is common to most major religions.
This – and the question, "What if everybody behaved that way?" – could practically be called the basis of all ethics.

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."

William Butler Yeats, 1865 to 1939

"Every nation has the government that it deserves."

Joseph de Maistre [Letter on the subject of Russia, Aug. 1811]
Very applicable in the modern world where apathetic and short-sighted voters have allowed democracies to become plutocracies.

"I am a citizen, not of Athens or Greece, but of the World."

Socrates [Plutarch, De Exilio, v]
A remarkably applicable, even essential, attitude for the modern world. What Socrates could see in c. 300BC the G.W. Bush administration of the USA and the Howard government of Australia were incapable of seeing in the 21^st century

"If you think you are too small to make a difference, you've never been in a room with a mosquito."

Annita Roddick (of The Body Shop), from "Business as Unusual"
Consider this before you say that your country (or the world) is a mess but you cannot do anything about it.

"Good people will do good things, and bad people will do bad things. But for good people to do bad things – that takes religion."

Steven Weinberg, Nobel laureate

"In reality (and especially in the case of the United States) one could say that never have so many stayed in school so long to learn so little."

From Social Sciences as Sorcery by Stanislav Andreski, 1972
The people of the USA are perhaps the most educated (as distinct from the best educated) in the world, yet a great many believe a huge amount of religious crap!

"Not to know is bad; not to wish to know is worse."

African proverb

"The essence of science is skepticism. The essence of religion is faith."
"Science is not a set of beliefs, it is a method."

Unknown

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Edmund Burke
The alternative is to leave running the world to politicians and the various business lobbies. The executives in charge of multinational companies have enormous power and very little morality.

"The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder's lack of rational conviction."

Bertrand Russell (1872 to 1970), from Let the People Think, 1941
Again, religion comes to mind.

"It seems to me that science has a much greater likelihood of being true in the main than any philosophy hitherto advanced (I do not, of course, except my own). In science there are many matters about which people are agreed; in philosophy there are none. Therefore, although each proposition in science may be false, yet we shall be wise to build our philosophy upon science, because the risk of error in philosophy is sure to be greater than in science. If we could hope for certainty in philosophy the matter would be otherwise, but so far as I can see such a hope would be chimerical."

Bertrand Russell, Logical Atomism
Russell was probably the pre-eminant philosopher of the Twentieth Century.

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."

Bertrand Russell
Need I mention religion again?

"If a thousand people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."

Chinese proverb
Very relevant to religion. A billion Christians believe that Jesus was the Son of God and that all the Muslims are wrong; a billion Muslims believe that all the Christians are wrong and Mohammed had all the answers. They all believe a foolish thing.

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind"

Mohandas Gandhi
Bombing a nation in return for a terrorist attack is only going to achieve more hatred.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

George Bernard Shaw, 1856 to 1950
I remember once being advised to not worry about that which I cannot change; it seemed good advice at the time. But one must be very sure that one cannot change it; if something needs to be changed and is not being changed, then why should anyone else change it if I am unwilling to try?

"But I have not met anyone who seriously argues that the world could support 12 times the current [human] impact, although an increase of that factor would result from all [current] Third World inhabitants adopting First World living standards."
"In the long run, rich people do not secure their own interests and those of their children if they rule over a collapsing society and merely buy themselves the privilege of being the last to starve or die."

From Collapse by Jared Diamond, 2005

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away."

From Walden by Henry David Thoreau, 1854

"I believe that the proper utilization of time is this, if you can, serve other people, other sentient beings. If not, at least refrain from harming them. I think that is the whole basis of my philosophy."

The Dalai Lama, From "The Art of Happines: A Handbood for Living"
I would go further and say that we should try to serve the biosphere; that is, work for the welfare of all life on earth.

"The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance."

John Philpot Curran, Lord Mayor of Dublin
The reference to God is a bit archaic, but the concept is very true.

"One has to realize that the powerful industrial groups concerned in the manufacture of arms are doing their best in all countries to prevent the peaceful settlement of international disputes ..."
"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
"The only two things that are infinite in size are the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not completely sure about the universe."

Albert Einstein, 1879 to 1955

"Causes shall not be multiplied beyond necessity."

William of Occam, 1285 to 1349
Why hypothesize a god when the hypothesis answers no questions?

"What is morally wrong cannot be economically right."

Gordon Brown, 8^th December 2004. The Pope Paul VI memorial lecture, CAFOD, London.
Why can so few politicians see this?

"If you try you may fail, if you do not try you will certainly achieve nothing."
"Normality is nothing to be proud of."

Me

"Pardon him, Theodotus: he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature."

Cæsar in Cæsar and Cleopatra by George Bernard Shaw, 1898
Religion leads us to such barbaric ideas.

"There are perhaps 5% of the population that simply can't think. There are another 5% who can think, and do. The remaining 90% can think, but don't.

Robert Heinlein, 1907 to 1988

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

Herman Goering, Nazi Reichsmarshall and commander of the Luftwaffe, at the Nuremberg trials.
Pertinant to the way President George W. Bush and Prime Minister John Howard treated their respective peoples.

"Have you allowed all the women to live?" he asked them. "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the Lord's people. Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man."

Moses instructing the captains of Israel in the Bible, Numbers, Chapter 31, verses 15 to 18; and yet many people claim that we can learn ethics from the Bible!

Notes on this index