This file is an introduction
to the site. The real TOUR starts a short urvey 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 s .
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 withinbetween
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 Nederlog
(mostly Dutch, some English).
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 Nederlog
(mostly Dutch, some English) in .
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.)
