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Memorial Day Science Quote
By Michael White | May 25th 2009 12:51 PM | 8 comments | Print | E-mail | Track Comments
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About Michael White

Welcome to Adaptive Complexity, where I write about genomics, systems biology, evolution, and the connection between science and literature, government, and society.

I'm a biochemist


... Full Bio

I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.

- John Adams, letter to Abigail Adams, May 12, 1780





Comments

logicman's picture
John Adams - that name rings a bell.

I often wonder why the American version of the meaning of 'liberty' is so satisfying to this Britisher.
Perhaps, as a child, I was over-influenced by the poetic image of a stuffed alligator.

Patrick Lockerby | 05/25/09 | 14:44 PM
adaptivecomplexity's picture
You lost me with the stuffed alligator. What's the British meaning of liberty? When I think of a distinctly American definition of liberty, I think of what could be called the Joe the Plumber definition of liberty, where any government regulation of anything at all, the economy, food quality, the environment, is an infringement of liberty, and therefore communist.

Michael White | 05/25/09 | 17:14 PM
logicman's picture
You lost me with the stuffed alligator. What's the British meaning of liberty?

I was thinking of America's struggle for liberty and the written Constitution - I love the original wording!

Too many Brits equate liberty with democracy, and then equate that with the right to swap sleaze for scandal every four years or so.  Cynic?  Moi?

I thought you'd 'get' the alligator reference from the link I gave: The Battle of New Orleans.
As a Brit I am supposed to take exception to the idea of British soldiers running away.  If memory serves, there was quite a flurry of 'letters to the editor' when Lonnie Donegan recorded the song in the 1950s.  :)

Patrick Lockerby | 05/25/09 | 17:33 PM
Hank's picture
Col. Jackson made his whole career on that fight.  The order of battle shows the Brits got trounced (and a draw was pretty good, for a fledgling USA against a world power) but not that they ran through briars or brambles or whatever the heck he was singing about.

Hank Campbell | 05/25/09 | 20:22 PM
adaptivecomplexity's picture
Jackson was lucky he made his career with that fight - since the peace treaty had been signed nearly two weeks before. Had the British campaign continued in the Gulf, Jackson would have had a tough slog ahead of him.

Michael White | 05/25/09 | 22:33 PM
adaptivecomplexity's picture
Of course we never, ever swap sleaze for scandal every four years over here!

Michael White | 05/25/09 | 22:36 PM
rholley's picture
To anyone who knows even a little Chinese history, that is a recipe for degeneration or collapse.  There is an account (which if my memory serves me well is from the Art of War by Sun Zi) from the time when China was still made up of several kingdoms.  One king heard that his neighbour had introduced ivory chopsticks into his court.  This was his signal for attack, because it meant that his victim was now sufficiently effete.

Robert H Olley | 05/25/09 | 15:17 PM
adaptivecomplexity's picture
So what you get then is a cycle - the study of statuary, "tapestry and porcelain" is an invitation to be attacked by one's neighbors, and you start back at the beginning.

Michael White | 05/25/09 | 17:06 PM

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