"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.)
