"Most
men are as fit to think as they are fit to fly."
-- Jonathan Swift |
"Presque tous les hommes sont
esclaves, par la raison que les Spartiates donnaient de la servitude
des Perses, faute de savoir prononcer la syllabe non. Savoir
prononcer ce mot et savoir vivre seul sont les deux seuls moyens de
conserver sa liberté et son charactère."
-- Chamfort |
" If we believe absurdities, we shall
commit atrocities."
Voltaire |
"Presque toute
l'Histoire n'est qu'une suite d'horreurs."
-- Chamfort |
"I am
looking for a human
being."
-- Diogenes |
This file is an introduction to the site. The real
TOUR
starts
a short
survey
of this site by providing short descriptions of
the contents of
its main
directories
and links to them.
The tour is all in the left pane, and its first item is
Philosophy.
If you're wholly new to this site, start there
and read the other sections in the left panes of the texts of the TOUR.
For others and the really curious, here is some background to it all:
Sections: 1. INTRODUCTION of an underlying
theme of this site
2. INTRODUCTION to the site
3. THE STRUCTURE,
FORMAT and CONTENTS of this site
3.1. The purpose of this site
3.2. Philosophy
3.3. Logic
3.4. ME/CFS
3.5. Dutch special items
3.5.1.
Multatuli's Ideën
3.5.2.
ME in Amsterdam
3.5.3. Nedernieuws and Nederlog
1. INTRODUCTION of an underlying
theme of this site
The theme of the starting quotes, which is at least in
part the them of this site, is also illustrated by the following quote:
"The banality of
evil: failing to think
Some years ago,
reporting the trial of Eichmann in Jerusalem, I spoke of "the banality
of evil" and meant with this no theory or doctrine but something
quite factual, the phenomenon of evil deeds, committed on a gigantic scale,
which could not be traced to any particularity of wickedness, pathology or
ideological conviction in the doer, whose only personal distinction was
a perhaps extraordinary shallowness. However monstrous the deeds were, the
doer was neither monstrous nor demonic, and the only specific characteristic
one could detect in his past as well in his behavior during the trial and the
preceding police examination was routinely entirely negative: it was not
stupidity but a curious, quite authentic inability to think."
--
Hanna Arendt quoted from: "The many faces of
evil", Ed. A. Oksenberg Rorty, p. 265)
The banality of evil - where "evil" is defined in terms of physical
harm, hurt, that is, in terms of physical pain or destruction of
persons, or of their properties and means of livelihood, and where "banality"
means that this is the ordinary state of things in ordinart human affairs
transacted between ordinary men, even if it may not be so within human
groups, societies, races, faiths or ideologies, then at least it is usually so
between them - is a constant human fact through the centuries of human
history, even if it is sometimes obscured by periods of local peace, and is
normally obscured by man's unwillingness to face it.
Indeed Arendt, who seems mostly quite right about ordinary men, was
mistaken about leaders such as Eichmann: "it
was not stupidity" but it was also not "quite
authentic inability to think" - it was and is the unwillingness to
think for oneself coupled to the willingness of following leaders and
conforming to one's groups standards of behavior, belief and value.
Part of what this site is about is this fact of human nature, that is:
man's totalitarian nature, in vast majority, quite probably as an apish
remnant of surviving in hordes, and propped up and brought to social dominance
by the comparative stupidity and ignorance of most human beings, compared to
some.
This underlying theme has special importance for me because I have been ill
now for 32 years with ME without getting any real help in one of the richest
nations in the world where I live (Holland), and because of my extra-ordinary
family-background (heroes of Dutch anti-fascist resistance through two
generations), my intellectual brilliance, and my personal history in the
University of Amsterdam, from which I was removed for
publicly asking questions:
Since this happened and was published - 1988 - it has turned out I was
right in every respect. Still I get no answer to my complaints from the
authorites, no answer from the University of Amsterdam, no help whatsoever
because of my admitted real and painful invalidity, no right to get a Ph.D. in
spite of the fact that my M.A. is best possible, and over three decades of
continuous discrimination, as if I am in real practice something worse than an
animal in Holland - for animal rights are much cared about in Holland, by vast
majorities of the Dutch, but mine are not, again by vast majorities of the
Dutch, because I am not an ordinary Dutchman like they are, with ordinary
opinions and values, and also with an ordinary disease. Apart from that:
2. INTRODUCTION to the site
This is an extensive site about philosophy,
logic,
computing and
M.E. a.k.a. CFS (mostly English, some Dutch)
and about Multatuli,
the Netherlands in Nedernieuws
and my opinions, irritations and interests
(mostly Dutch, some English) in Nederlog.
This file gives a brief introduction to the contents and motivation of this
site - and the main two underlying themes are that I am an original
philosopher and have
M.E. a.k.a. CFS since 32 years, for which
I cannot get any decent help, not even or especially not in Holland, one of
the richest countries in the world, essentially because this would cost money,
and also because Dutch bureacrats do not like my opinions.
This combination of rare motivations to write from gives this site and its
text occasionally a sharpness and outspokenness that is rare (especially
because I give rational arguments) - and you should realize that virtually all
on this site is written by one ill man, in poverty, in pain, and with no help
since decades though he is admittedly ill.
The tour starts in
Tour
and the files in it can also be reached from the links in the dark blue left
pane. The rest of this file gives some information about
3. THE STRUCTURE,
FORMAT and CONTENTS
of this site:
This site exists since 1996, and has since its beginning moved through
various simple html-formats. At present - writing in October 2009 - the main
directories are as given
you'll find on many pages an initial and ending notification of where you
are on my site and links Help +
Map +
Tour +
Tips
+ Notes +
News
that
collectively explain the structure and contents of this site (especially in
Tour
+
Map).
3.1. The purpose of this site:
In
Help I state the purpose of
this site as follows:
This is an extensive site about
philosophy,
logic,
computing and
M.E. a.k.a. CFS
(mostly English, some Dutch) and about
Multatuli,
the Netherlands in
Nedernieuws
and
my opinions, irritations and interests (mostly Dutch, some English) in
Nederlog.
Let me shed a little light on these items, in the order
in which they occur.
3.2.
Philosophy:
I am a philosopher - a logical, rational one, much
inclined to mathematics and real science - from inclination, and due to much
studying and reading. My own view of philosophy, which I style 'natural philosophy' is given in
the philosophy section and my
Philosophical Dictionary (in the process of being written, but in
October 2009
with over 575 entries totalling nearly 11 MB).
Academically, I hold a (brilliant)
M.A. in psychology (mostly achieved on mathematical, physical and computing
subjects) and a B.A. in philosophy, essentially because I was removed from
the University of Amsterdam shortly before taking my M.A. in philosophy
" because of your outspoken
opinions, in spite of your serious disease" as its Board of Directors put it,
in writing.
Here is the text of the main reason for my third and last removal from the
University of Amsterdam's faculty for philosophy:
For publicly asking questions:
What I protested against was the
prevalent postmodernist relativism and nihilism; the decline of science,
rationality, good education and standards; and the rise - at that time - of
Marxism and feminism as the be-all and end-all of the University of Amsterdam.
3.3.
Logic:
The basis of all rational argument is
logic, that is: an attempt to explain why and how inferences are valid (and
may appear valid while being invalid).
Logic is these days mostly a
mathematical subject, because this provides the best way to explain what it
should explain, but there are also non-mathematical sides to it (vaguely
indicated by the names 'rhetoric' and 'philosophical logic').
Those who are non-mathematical or
look down upon logic, e.g. as an academic affair only fit for impractical
people, should realize that
computing is a direct offshoot of
mathematical logic.
3.4.
ME/CFS:
I fell ill with what seemed to be a
flue and was diagnosed as mono-nucleosis on January 1, 1979. The woman I was living with in a common law marriage
fell ill of the same disease on January 10, 1979. We are still ill in 2004
but not living together anymore.
The disease we had was initially
admitted as mono-nucleosis, but when it failed to disappear after half a year
for both of us was medically redefined as "psycho-somatic" - until
in 1989 it emerged what it really is.
I seem to be one of the few Dutchmen
whose M.E. is officially admitted (in part because I am a psychologist, in
part because I have good doctors, in part because in MY case - living in the
dole, while having brilliant academic degrees - it is admitted I have no
reason to fraudulently claim I am ill and receive health-benefits, to which
indeed I am not entitled and which I don't receive, and in part because I am
really ill, unlike, it seems, many Dutchmen with claimed M.E. and hefty
health-benefits).
The having of such a disease, in a
country like Holland, the inhabitants of which take great pride in their
supposed 'well-fare state', their supposed 'tolerance', and their supposed
support for the weak, the ill and the needy is an educative experience
itself, of which the main moral may be indicated thus (and
above by Arendt and Voltaire):
Even such a one as I am cannot get
any help in Holland apart from a few extra-ordinary individuals who know me
personally, and minimal dole. Over the past 26 years of my illness it has
been my lot to see that every Dutch junk gets a hundred times the help and
support I get, and not to do what I did - finish my studies brilliantly, make
this site etc. - but to keep stealing and maintain their addiction. (If you
shoot heroin in Amsterdam, the city government will give you free methadone,
free heroin, and a personal social worker on the city government's cost, just
to keep you stealing in the streets. If you are like me, and are
intellectually brilliant and honest, you get 32 years of continuous
discrimination and minimal dole in Amsterdam.)
Those who wish to disagree that I am
a physically sick person living in a morally very sick society probably are
not physically ill or are rich, or have positions of power in Holland, and
are corrupt or incompetent - for in Holland over the last 10 years alone,
with the connivance of all politicians, the whole judiciary, and most of the
police, billions of guilders have been earned with ill-legal drugs-dealing protected
and supported ("gedoogd" in euphemistic Dutch) by everyone in power in Holland, most probably either for a share of
the profit or else because of utter incompetence and lack of morals. (See
above quotes for the start of an explanation and
also the - only slightly - satirical
Book
references below - and e.g.
Map for the rest of
this site, that's not all satirical, even if it is if I am writing about
Holland, since the truth about modern Holland is bitter. For a series of
published essays in Dutch about the decline of education, see "Spiegeloogcolumns".)
In any case, I am and have been
risking my life, my health and my social prospects by speaking the truth in
Holland, where doing so is almost as dangerous as everywhere else, and where
this is rarely done, though it has happened
before.
Also, I have never met any Dutchman
who is more like me and unlike other Dutchmen than I am: In my country - a
nation of soccer-players, drugs dealers and of slave-traders in the past -
and in my age, as far as I can see I am wholly unique, and belong to the
endangered species of rational and thinking real human beings, of which so
far there have been
few
in Holland and in history.
3.5. Dutch special items
Most of the site is in English, and this holds in particular for most of
the sections philosophy,
logic,
computing and
M.E. a.k.a. CFS, but some large parts of the
site are in Dutch:
3.5.1.
Multatuli's Ideën
On the site there is a complete edition of
the full text - some 2500 printed pages, in the best edition - of Multatuli's
Ideën, that were originally written between 1860 and 1875.
Multatuli was, by common Dutch consent, the greatest Dutch writer, but he
is, apart from his "Max Havelaar" (also translated in Penguin Classics), not
much read, and his Ideas - as "Ideën"
translates - least of all, nor has it ever been commented upon, as such, or as
I have.
I have written comments on virtually all the ideas, in the same files as
the original ideas, also in excellent Dutch, and have succeeded in doing this
in the years 2001-2006.
Together with the ideas they comment on, this must be a major work of Dutch
literature or - at least - Dutch literary criticism.
This part of my site is much read, indeed it is read most, in terms of
access to directories than the rest of the site, which is heartening for me.
Less heartening for me is that this part of my site, like the rest of it,
falls under the conspiracy of silence that has been thrown both over my site
and my person since 21 years now, that is, since I was removed from the
University of Amsterdam, for asking questions, all of which have turned out to
be justitied by the course of history, and all of which were right according
the Dutch Parliament Investigation into the decline of Dutch education of
2008.
But I still am a non-person in Holland, indeed as Multatuli was, and if you
read his Ideën with my comments - try ideas
107,
136,
220,
276,
374,
447,
1112 and
1211 (if you read
Dutch) - you will understand why: Neither of us has the required moral and
intellectual size that is admissible amongst ordinary Dutchmen as appropriate
for good Dutchman.
3.5.2. ME in Amsterdam
I have ME now since Januari 1, 1979, and my life and chances have been
destroyed by it - not because ME as such is that destructive, but because I
cannot get any help in Holland any Dutchman with any other disease, even any
Dutchman with problems with drugs addiction, yes, even any Euoropean with
problems with drugs addiction, can get as a matter of course in
Amsterdam, where I live, and cannot escape because I am too ill and have too
much pain to do so.
There is and has been no help whatsoever for me, in Amsterdam, in
Holland, for 32 years now, and ME in Amsterdam describes my personal history
with ME in Amsterdam - and also will explain to you, if you read Dutch, why I
am so much hated in Amsterdam.
Warning: This is a bitter
story, and although some of it is written quite well, some of it is very
satirical, in a personal way also, which is much frowned upon in Holland, for
there is hardly a Dutchman upon earth willing to accept the possibility that
he or she might be responsible for his or her actions (commissions or
omissions).
In fact, what the vast majority of Dutchmen
really feel, believe and wish about morals and human beings was very well
expressed by one of their own true military heroes, also an admirable hero of
Durch Resistance (to Fascism and Man's Inhumanity to Men), the Dutch
Lieutenant-Colonel Karremans, in front of Srebrenica, to (not) do a United
Nations mission:
"There are no good men. There are no bad men.
Mladic is my colleague. Please don't shoot the piano player."
In result, some 8000 Yugoslavs (i.e. not
proper Dutchmen with proper Dutch family names) were murdered and
Lieutenant-Colonel Karremans got an excellent pension and since lives very
cosily in Spain.
He was not punished, and indeed at least 95% of the Dutch - judging by the
record of WW II and their own stances in more recent years - would have done,
felt and said as he did, in his position, and know this, and feel proud of it.
3.5.3. Nedernieuws and Nederlog
These are a kind of blogs - but without an opportunity for readers to
comment on line on this site, because I don't have the health to maintain such
a tool, and also don't much believe that it will serve a rational or
reasonable end, for which reasons it isn't there - I have been writing since
2004.
Nearly all of it is in Dutch (though lately I have considered changing this
to English, and have written some English in Nederlog), and some of it is very
sharp, satirical, sarcastic - in brief, all that ordinary Dutchmen much
dislike. (In exoneration, you may think of the fact that all of it was written
in pain, in poverty, and part of it was and is addressed to those responsible
in Amsterdam for not helping me, and in fact for causing me continuous pain
for 21 years now, which I would not have had if the law would have been
maintained in Amsterdam, instead of corrupted, abused and trampled upon by the
corrupt and incompetent City-government.)
