Benjamin Robbins Curtis Quotes
There are many causes why a people politically ignorant cannot be roused to action. Perfect political ignorance must be accompanied by indifference to the general interests of society, and thus one of the most powerful motives which can act on the human mind is totally destroyed.
Curtis, Benjamin Robbins. A Memoir of Benjamin Robbins Curtis, LL.D. Edited by Benjamin R. Curtis, Little, Brown, and Company, 1879.
In the pre-computer era, “geek” referred to a circus sideshow person who usually had some remarkable skill or unusual deformity. In the computer era, a geek is a very skilled computer programmer who is very immersed in the technology and not terribly interested in politics or typical popular culture. However as any technology becomes ubiquitous and affects the lives of most citizens and the economy, politics is bound to intrude. Politicians are particularly ignorant of science and technology and if the geeks do not get involved in politics, their tools, systems, capabilities, freedoms and restrictions will be determined without their input, understanding, and pressure.
Benjamin Robbins Curtis was an American attorney and United States Supreme Court Justice. Curtis was the first and only Whig justice of the Supreme Court. He was also the first Supreme Court justice to have a formal legal degree and is the only justice to have resigned from the court over a matter of principle. He successfully acted as chief counsel for the Impeachment of U.S. President Andrew Johnson during the first presidential impeachment trial and is notable as one of the two dissenters in the Dred Scott decision.
