The Conceptual Thoughts Series
Relativity in Everyday Life
Energy equals mass times velocity squared: why is something that seems so simple so difficult to understand? How does it account for everything every day?
Consider this excerpt: "What it seems to come down to is that there really is no certainty as to what this all means, why we are given this ability, and whether it contributes anything of value to whatever it is we are experiencing. Let me excerpt and embolden the important part of that sentence so what it is that I am trying to convey gets across more clearly: "there really is no certainty.""
Consider this excerpt: "What it seems to come down to is that there really is no certainty as to what this all means, why we are given this ability, and whether it contributes anything of value to whatever it is we are experiencing. Let me excerpt and embolden the important part of that sentence so what it is that I am trying to convey gets across more clearly: "there really is no certainty.""
And this one: "You cannot understand it fully, and that is what you must accept to understand it better. It is all about thinking about how things work, and considering all possibilities until they no longer apply."
The second volume in the "Conceptual Thoughts" series is a look at the concept of infinity. Tom places more emphasis on the creative possibilities that infinity offers us than on the mathematical aspects of infinity. He does it through descriptions and stories after offering his "succinct definition" of infinity: "In addition to having no beginning and no ending, infinity includes everything that has ever existed, everything that has never existed, everything that will ever exist, and everything that will never exist."
He offers wisdom that does not judge the reader and encourages exploration: "Gaining a better understanding of infinity is in accepting that it is not humanly possible to envision infinity, but that it is humanly possible to understand why it is not humanly possible to do so."
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The author guides the reader easily through the philosophical reasoning and mathematical principles of democracy and the electoral college. It is presented as both an informative and persuasive argument through examples and stories about how these dynamics have applied to presidential elections and other historical events. He supports his contention that eliminating the electoral college is virtually impossible by explaining how the process works and what would be required to amend the Constitution.
Ultimately, the argument is that it is an issue that the progressive wing of the Democratic party should use to distinguish itself by explaining why eliminating the electoral college is not practical. The author also contends that retaining the electoral college will benefit the progressive movement because elections would be easier to manipulate without it.
The author has a heavy bias toward the progressive agenda of Bernie Sanders that has been adopted by Justice Democrats. However, the argument is an easy read with difficult concepts explained in ways they are easy to understand. This is written to persuade progressive Democrats to understand the issue, understand the options, and to move forward with a better strategy to win in 2020 than to try to rush through a constitutional amendment. However, anyone wanting to better understand the electoral college, the concepts behind it, and the amendment process will certainly come away with that!
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The wisest people in the history of the world have generally told us to have higher regard for principles than we have for things. I expect hackles will be raised over the topics I am about to lay on the table for discussion. It is my intention to cut through the callousness and calcification to examine the soul of what America stands for. If America truly stands for liberty and justice for all, and it is truly the land of the free and the home of the brave, we have some serious topics to examine regarding reparations to some of the greatest citizens this country has ever known and who were not adequately recognized or rewarded for their immense contributions because they were black.
Those rewards and recognitions are only part of what their descendants are due today both in the forms of direct payments to people, and then also by allowing them the autonomy to decide how to best use funds derived from taxes on the incomes and the estates of the nation's wealthiest people to improve the opportunities for black people in black communities as they see fit to improve those opportunities.
Each generation has had the choice to deal with these issues, and each generation has pushed it onto the next generation to pay with additional interest due. I am already making this appeal to my children's generation to deal with. I apologize that too many white people in my generation saw this as a non-issue or a resolved issue by pretending it doesn't exist or doing anything about it.
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