The Frustation of Intellectual Life

One of the conundrums of having read quite a bit is that almost everything in my head, every idea, is unoriginal. I heard or read it somewhere else from some other person who probably got it from someone else as well. That is exactly why group-think and group psychology develop. It is easier to think about what others have thought and to think that way than it is to synthesize others' ideas into your own. This is why, for most, reading is so much more pleasant than writing. The opening of the gift is so much grander than figuring out what use you have for it.

I saw Daniel Pipes and William F. Buckley on CSPAN 3 the othwe night from a speech in 2001. Pipes said that every Social Scientist....historian or whatever, secretly or openly wishes to be a natural scientist. They wish to examine things coldly without morality, but social sciences must, in my opinion, incorporate morality.

John.