1942 POLITICS AND EINSTEIN
Let's start with the big story of
the day.
The election.
Just a few things before I get
back to Einstein.
As I have followed the news on
this- over the past few weeks there has been some question on whether or not
the media have manipulated any of the numbers.
How?
Going in to today’s election- if
the media are correct- Obama will no doubt win.
Why?
They have shown polls that have
the president winning in enough states [battle ground states] that he should
win.
Are any of the polls wrong- or possibly
skewed?
That the question.
It’s hard to say that all
pollsters would have some inside conspiracy to do this.
Actually I don’t believe that
they would [they do have reputations you know].
But- we do have some actual
evidence that some have done this.
It’s hard at times to filter out
the bias- on both sides- but let’s try and take one example of possible
skewing.
Most of the polls we have seen
these past few weeks have shown the sample of people that they use.
For instance- you might have one
say they polled a thousand folk- then they’ll say 39% were Democrats- 31 % Republicans.
Now- some on the right were
saying ‘see- they are cheating’.
Would this be cheating in a poll?
No.
Why not?
Because the pollsters are trying
to get an accurate picture of the electorate- that is- if they ‘think’ that
more Dems will vote- then this would be a fair way to poll.
So- how do they figure out who
the likely voters will be?
They usually look at the last
election [presidential].
But- everyone who watches politics
will tell you that the last election- 2008- had an historic turnout of Dem’s.
Why?
Many were not only voting for a
man they felt would do a good job- but they also felt like they were part of an
historic thing- the possible election of
Americas first Black president.
Everyone [well most] will admit
this- and it’s not wrong to admit this- that many came out to be part of an historic
event- fine.
So- did some of the pollsters do
this- did they use a larger number of Dem’s in the polls?
Yes.
Now- a case can be made that you
would not have the same type of turnout this time.
Why?
Because you don’t have the same historic
significance- it’s not historic to say ‘yeah- we voted for the first Black
president in history- the second time’.
See?
Okay- but the pollsters do have a
reason to have more Dems than Repubs- sometimes.
But- there were some polls that
showed twice as many Dems [as a percentage- that is if you had 7% more Dems
last time- this time they were showing about 14%- something that would be next
to impossible].
So- yes- in this few cases- we do
have some evidence that some pollsters were rigging the system to benefit one
side.
Okay- said all that to say this.
If Romney wins- and big [which I
doubt] then you just saw a good example of media bias- because according to
most of the media- Obama should win.
Lets see what happens in the
morning.
Okay- just a few notes on the Einstein
biography I’m going thru.
The book is an older book- I
picked it up a few months ago at half price books.
But it’s a good book- not written
from a religious perspective at all- the author- Walter Isaacson- is a top
notch writer.
The reason I say ‘not from a
religious perspective’ is because it’s kind of amazing how many times Einstein-
and his companions- either speak about God- or outright quote him!
Yeah- over the years I have heard
views from both sides [Atheists and Theists] who have tried to make Einstein
more like them.
But the actual quotes from him-
and how many times they allude to God- is really more than I thought.
I’m at the point in the book
[about halfway] where you begin seeing the anti Semitism rise up in Germany.
As most of you know- Einstein was
a Jew- who came from Germany.
He lived at the time of the rise
of the Nazi’s- and the anti Jewish ‘ness’ of the times would affect him.
Einstein held teaching positions
at various universities of his day- one was in Berlin.
Some of his contemporaries- men
like Max Planck- were indeed all in for the German nationalism that was riding
a wave at the time.
Einstein on the other hand
resisted the mixing of science with nationalism- he believed more in a global
type citizenship- that the great breakthrough’s they were making at the time-
were for the world- not just for the benefit of one nation.
Einstein would refuse to sign a
declaration signed by many of the thinkers of his day- one that supported
German nationalism.
Instead he was part of a smaller
group who drew up a sort of pacifist declaration- one which would fall by the way
side because of its lack of support.
A few notes.
I find his insight into war-
where it ‘comes from’ to be enlightening.
I’ll give you a quote- it comes
from “a biologically determined feature of the male character” “What drives people
to kill and maim each other so savagely” “I think it is the sexual character of
the male that leads to such wild explosions”.
Einstein saw a sort of genetic
‘defect’ in man- something within him- that was the root cause of war.
In the book of James- in the New
Testament- the brother of our Lord writes ‘from whence come wars and fighting’s
among you- come they not hence- even from your lusts that war in your members’.
Yeah- I think James and Einstein
were on the same page.
Eventually Einstein would oppose
the war- that is- the initial aggression that was sprouting from his homeland.
The book does not go into detail
about the actual war [WW2] at least not yet.
But we know from history that the
Nazi’s would be part of one of the most heinous mindsets the world has ever
known.
Hitler’s idea that a certain race
of people were inherently ‘less human' that others.
Many do not know that some of his
thoughts were formed by the popular idea of Evolution.
The teaching that all humans are
on a scale of the ‘most evolved’ and the ‘least evolved’.
Yes- I have gotten into this in
the past- and don’t want to do it again right now.
Eventually the allies would also
cross a line of war- a line that divided the U.S. and the British for a short
time.
The line of bombing urban
centers- and targeting civilians.
Some of the correspondence that
came out after the war showed that certain American military commanders objected
to the bombing of civilian centers.
They would eventually do as they
were told- but they did make their objections known.
The British were more willing to
engage in the bombing- after all- Germany had already bombed them.
The first city center to go was
Hamburg- a convenient target- right across from the British on the North Sea.
Above Belgium and the Netherlands.
War has a tendency to take all sides further
than their conscience would allow at the start.
There seems to be something within
the nature of man that always leads down a road of more destruction- not less.
One of the greatest minds of our
time- a man who was brilliant- and also struggled with his own passions- saw it
as some type of inner flaw of man.
A sort of ‘sinful nature’.
Yeah- James- the Lords brother
called it ‘the lusts that war in our members’.
On this point they agree.
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