Zvezda

[Octavio]

Way to go, Russian space science!

As a scientist, I wish that this momentum of international teamwork would expand to all areas of social endeavor.

Octavio

[Nonson]

What exactly do you have in mind? I don't really see the glossly image in that the project(?)was so far behind schedule that it ought to be a crime. And the filthy lucre wasted by all those genu-wine geniuses. God save us from short-sighted visionaries. Peace

[Sato]

Any achievement in Russia requiring some modicum of civil society, coherent planning, mental discipline, is to be applauded, especially if in contribution to such a focus of worldwide interest and effort.

The adventure transcends the corruptions, meannesses, political or economic disarrays that might elicit cynicism.

Regarding science and human values, try reading J Bronowski, or remember some of his points. One aspect of Japanese society I appreciate is the universal respect shown to science and engineering by the general public. There is a moral leavening effect in this respect.

S

[Nonson]

Dear Sato, yours is an interesting attempt at rebuff. However, you hung me up on your and/or operators. Your recommend on reading material was a past joy of mine, one that I apparently must revisit. Peace.

[Octavio]

Thanks, Sato, for your comment. Yes, I concur about respect for engineering in Japan. There is even an "Engineers' Day" in Japan. Fundamentally, in Russia too there is honor shown to science and learning in the ethos of the people. Management goals there should include bringing such intellectual impulses toward the center of policy formulation. Difficult task, considering how hard it is to manage Russia.

Octavio

[Nonson]

In addition to Octavio's comments, is Russia's a useable past?

[Sato]

Many aspects to the query.

Read Chekhov. This is a very sensitive writer, a physician who leads his readers into the intimate phenomenology of his characters' suffering. In his characters can be found the query at hand taken into many dimensions.

In my thought, with the help of Chekhov, I find a Russia that has dreamed and is still dreaming of an almost Platonic form of a Russia that has never been, and never will be. It is not that Russia could not be actualized in a positive way, but Russia seems to contain an imperative to leap over her own knees (a ballet metaphor?). Perhaps this stems in part from the almost impossible task of grasping an empire spanning so much longitude, and from clinging onto the edge of northern ice floes.

The 'Brothers K' by FD also comes to mind. These brothers are really each an incomplete fragment of a shattered personality. As the story unfolds, the most mentally disturbed of the four descends into complete nihilistic depravity, because the others, especially Ivan (the 'Rational' part of the schizoid division),let him fall. In Russians there is a great sense of Pathos and drama, but too much of this is unbalanced and destructive.

So does any nation have a useful history? I think the stable institutions we now have in the world are due in great part to the advances made BEFORE the end of the European Enlightenment, BEFORE nationalism got the upper hand. We are, in matters of social philosophy, living off stored capital to a great degree.

I haven't more time just now.

S