Saint Augustine Quotes

1st Earl of Beaconsfield

Whithead’s view which seems intuitively right to most citizens, tends to be the one that the majority espouses but the minority opposes. At the time, the Republicans controlled the White House and there were a number of polarizing issues, where the Republicans could not obtain consensus and then decided. However, then the Democrats gained control of the White House and Congress the next year, it was the Democrats who claimed that they had to decide. The Republicans, now in the majority, argued that significant changes in America should not be made by narrow majorities and major issues should be tabled if there was no substantial majority. That was the position that the Democrats had espoused when they were in the minority.

1st Baron Lytton of Knebworth. This non democratic nature of science causes politicians in a democracy difficulty in many situations. In Southern communities where there are a high percentage of Fundamentalist Christians over 60 percent of the citizens are convinced that The Theory of Evolution is not only in error but is a negative force in society and should not be taught in schools. Yet virtually all the biological scientists—a small minority of the population tell the politicians the contrary, and that Evolution is one of the most important aspects of their science. Many politicians have trouble coping with this type of problem—go with the few or the many.

This is a very material quotation with regard to Congress creating science-related policies and legislation. The members of Congress know the least about scientific matters than almost anything else that they have to legislate about. So typically they rely on scientific experts. Scientists are witnesses at Congressional hearings and often the political, polarized staff arrange to have scientists who disagree in something. They both have PhDs in the field, but one may be a great scientists and the other, a lightweight. This is where Alverez’s point becomes so critical. The Congress and staff have to learn how to differentiate between a “second rater” or a “Fermi” one of the great physicists of all time.

The President told McNamara that if the administration does not send the troops the Generals want, they will be blamed for any military failures that occur. If they do send all the troops that the Joint Chiefs wanted, they would be going far beyond the limits that the Defense Secretary recommended and the President would have preferred. JBJ felt he really had no political choice. He authorized the wanted troops further escalating the war. See his special assistant’s question about that decision in {617151}.