How about "Reality is that which doesn't go away when you stop believing in it"? Not sure of the source.
Coincidentally my (grown/moved out/married) son and I have been discussing this topic by email this week. What started it was running across a story on Dr. Sanity about a reporter fired by the Altanta Progressive News for believing there is such a thing as reality:
"At a very fundamental, core level, Springston did not share our vision for a news publication with a progressive perspective. He held on to the notion that there was an objective reality that could be reported objectively, despite the fact that that was not our editorial policy at Atlanta Progressive News. It just wasn’t the right fit." (APN comments).
Maybe I'm just an old engineer, but that belief that they espouse, that there is no such thing as objective reality, is one of the horses the coming apocalypse is riding on. We don't need to balance a budget, we need to spend our way out of it, despite reality screaming it doesn't work. We need to get guns off the street, despite the reality screaming every time you take guns from honest people, crime and death goes up.
For some reason I keep imagining "We'd have gotten away with it too if not for those kids and their pesky reality"
Note:
All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost;
references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>
JS-Kit/Echo comments for article at http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2010/03/quote-of-day-reality-edition.html (8 comments)
Tentative mapping of comments to original article, corrections solicited.
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice there is.
When I was working for the FedGov, I had a co-worker say that often to describe the situation.
Needless to say, it fit the description of the situation perfectly, and has stuck with me since.
Given that the only purpose of a theory is to model reality, in what sense is a theory that doesn't correspond to reality "beautiful"?
Um, Communism? (Just as one example) Or "Anthropogenic Global Warming"? (For another.)
How about "Reality is that which doesn't go away when you stop believing in it"? Not sure of the source.
Coincidentally my (grown/moved out/married) son and I have been discussing this topic by email this week. What started it was running across a story on Dr. Sanity about a reporter fired by the Altanta Progressive News for believing there is such a thing as reality:
"At a very fundamental, core level, Springston did not share our vision for a news publication with a progressive perspective. He held on to the notion that there was an objective reality that could be reported objectively, despite the fact that that was not our editorial policy at Atlanta Progressive News. It just wasn’t the right fit." (APN comments).
Maybe I'm just an old engineer, but that belief that they espouse, that there is no such thing as objective reality, is one of the horses the coming apocalypse is riding on. We don't need to balance a budget, we need to spend our way out of it, despite reality screaming it doesn't work. We need to get guns off the street, despite the reality screaming every time you take guns from honest people, crime and death goes up.
As you say, Kevin, "do it again, only harder" :-D
Reality relativists claim the chair isn't there, but they sit in it anyway.
If there is no spoon, then why is there soup?
"Existence exists." -- Ayn Rand
"Existence doesn't care if you like it or not. Think what you like; it's still there." -- Me
For some reason I keep imagining "We'd have gotten away with it too if not for those kids and their pesky reality"
Note: All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost; references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>