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Who should judge?



On Tue, 24 Aug 1999, Ludwik Kowalski wrote:

Somebody must be right and somebody must be wrong but who am I to
decide?

Another aspect to this (if people here can stand to read any more of it!):

In the past I have been in a situation where I saw a gross injustice being
committed, but where no one except me could see it. I trusted the
concensus and distrusted my own perceptions. I did nothing. In the long
run, the nature of the injustice became plain to all observers, and it was
also plain that the perpetrators had been intentionally sowing confusion
and trying to "distort perceptions" with a particular set of dishonest
tactics which were motivated by their great need to do bad things while
pretending to be good people. They used the same tactics on themselves to
maintain their blindness to their own misdeeds. They were profoundly
dishonest, even lying outright to themselves. People were hurt. In
hindsight I wish I had taken proper action, but I did not.

So, does this make me biased? Is Bill Beaty itching to make amends for
ancient events in my life? Or does it make me experienced in such things,
so when the symptoms associated with those kind of events grow to an
unmistakable degree, I know *exactly* what the proper actions should be
this time around? You'll have to read my thought-stream and decide for
yourselves. I know what my own decision is.

So, should I assume that my perceptions are flawed, merely because the
things which appear obvious to me are invisible to everyone around me?
It's a tough question, and its solution requires profound self-honesty and
the willingness to take personal responsibility for actions.

In other words, if John Denker's assertions are right, and the Anderson
Eberhardt paper is deeply flawed, then my attack upon John Denker (yes, it
is an attack, not a "critique") ...is misguided, and it constitutes a
great injustice perpetrated upon John Denker by myself.

What to do? Honesty supplies the answer. Painfully deep self-searching.
Stuff that religions are always going on about (I belong to no religion,
but this just means that I can pick and choose the best philosophical
segments of each.)

My honest conclusion is to do just what I am doing: condemn the actions of
John Denker in no uncertain terms and with as great a detail as I can
muster, and at the same time attempting to shed light on every aspect of
my own motivations and upon my thinking. NOTHING is hidden. *I myself*
try to show you my embarassing flaws so you can more easily judge me. I
don't play that game of constructing a falsely inflated self-image, or
hiding from the pain of possible public embarassment. That contains far
too much dishonesty.

This is an intentionally Feynman-esqe move on my part. We in physics do
have an equivalent to the Jesus of the Christians: Richard Feynman. The
best Feynman epitaph I've ever seen is this one: "An Honest Man." I
attempt to emulate him to the best of my ability, and to not tolerate
dishonesty in myself. It's hard, and I don't succeed entirely by any
means. But when dishonesty threatens innocent people, or threatens to
damage a small bit of science, I "honestly" can find no reason not to make
a deliberate move against it.

Might all of this be ego-motivated on my part? Am I climbing
self-righteously upon my high horse? No. I'm nothing, a mere engineer.
If I make mistakes, I want the same things done to me that I decide to do
to others. Who am I to judge the works of professional scientists, or
render judgement upon their behavior? The answer: I can do this if I can
clearly see their behavior, and if I have some knowledge that I am seeing
things from a sufficiently unbiased viewpoint such that I can take it upon
myself to call a halt to grevious misbehavior.

If John Denker "mends the error of his ways", will I crow about it? No,
I'll wish that the whole shameful event had never occured, and that I had
not been forced into this particular "learning experience."

Suppose that I am wrong in every aspect of all that I am doing here. Will
I apologize to John? Yes, but I doubt that there is any apology great
enough to repair that damage that I have done. Condemning John Denker is
a one-way path for me, and if I am wrong, I'm certain that I'll encounter
some "justice" down the road myself.


((((((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
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