Roger Pye wrote: > > The fact is that the freedom of speech enjoyed in some countries is > either completely missing in others or being degraded. Ditto Abraham > Lincoln type democracy.
Hi Roger, In the rest of your post you point out what I think is the key fact---whatever you write and send out onto the internet gets reviewed. Password protection will not keep Big Brother from seeing it, although it might keep your Nosy Neighbor out....as well as honestly curious seekers. So, I guess where we are at is creating an illusion of security, which would then create an illusion of comfort, followed by an outpouring of genuine good counsel, previously held back out of fear. Does that sound reasonable? Maybe....;-) I can't let the crack about 'Abe Lincoln democracy' go uncommented. Democracy was under serious attack in Lincoln's time, from many quarters including Lincoln himself. The threat perceived in the North of slavery being imposed everywhere in the Union, and of being extended to white people, was pitted against the threat perceived in the South of the complete extinction of their 'peculiar institution' and the way of life it supported. The collapse of the Missouri Compromise, the bloody battles in Kansas, and the Dred Scott decision paved the way to the election of Lincoln and the secession of South Carolina, followed by other states as armed measures were prepared. In the bitter, bloody conflict which ensued, civil rights did indeed suffer under Lincoln, as political opponents were arrested and habeas corpus suspended. In fact, it might be said that what Bush is doing is a form of 'Abe Lincoln democracy' rather than its opposite. However, I do not endorse the perversity of those defenders of the 'peculiar institution' who could decry the 'tyranny' of Lincoln whilst insisting on their own 'right' to keep 4 million Africans in slavery, and, if they had won the day, to impose African slavery throughout the United States and its territories. For that is what the Confederacy stood for; that was its cornerstone concept. These issues are still quite alive in American politics, of course. See the Trent Lott comments, which cost him his Senate majority leader status; see the film 'The Gangs of New York'; go into Georgia and South Carolina and whisper the name 'William Tecumseh Sherman' to a white audience, and you will still be able to elicit some howling... So 'Abe Lincoln democracy' is not a term without controversy....FYI. *************** I have reviewed my contributions to this list over the last year. Counting my last post but not this one, I have made 76 posts to BDNOW!, most of which have been of a technical nature. Nonetheless I am considered a 'lurker' by the list owner. Interesting, isn't it? Probably at least part of the problem is that my introduction to biodynamics came first through Rodale and Pfeiffer, and only second through Secrets of the Soil and beyond; I am probably canalized to be sure, looking at ascertainable and independently verifiable data as a proper jumping off place, rather than believing entirely in what seems to me to be a rather loose, 'quasi-magical' version of the story.... I like getting the arithmetic right and knowing what scientists outside the 'biodynamic' circle are saying....it seems to me these were the sorts of things Steiner set Pfeiffer on his path to do, which resonates with what Greg Willis has said in his recent post... I think if we want 'BDNOW!' we'd best have either the mentor system Allan talks about, or else a program where people can get irrefutable physical evidence of the kind Willis discusses, so that we can put 'Steiner remedies' on a scientific basis that even skeptics must accept. Doc Ingham has done some work of this type, but much more should be done. It should be thought of as crucial to the whole task, to find a way to initiate people in the validity of the remedies so that it can be repeated and demonstrated in classrooms, workshops and field trials globally. If that can't be done, then perhaps the rest of the world is right to dismiss Steiner along with Thun as mere perpetrators of myth. As far as losing a job because of one's expressed views, here's a tale to impress anyone: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/id118.htm I am sorry Allan had a bad experience in the job market. But, to cave in to fear is not really the answer. I hope his foot is feeling better, Frank Teuton
