Re: Nuclear issues and role of public opinion thread -Tolstoy's insights

[SAFarberMSPH@CS.COM]

Regarding the comment by Ruth Weiner below, the point about the intractability of closely held beliefs and the resultant mental gridlock that results was commented upon by Tolstoy, before the atom was first knowingly split by humankind and long before the National Environmental Policy Act was a glimmer in an anti-nuke's eye:


Leo Tolstoy On Firmly Held Beliefs and Resultant Mental Gridlock


"I know that most men --- not only those considered clever, but even those who really are clever and capable of understanding the most difficult scientific, mathematical or philosophic problems, can seldom discern even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as obliges them to admit the falsity of conclusions they have formed, perhaps with great difficulty --- conclusions of which they are proud, which they have taught to others, and on which they have built their lives."


Leo Tolstoy [1896] --- Source: "What Is Art?" --- Leo Tolstoy, Translated by Aylmer Maude, in Tolstoy's Collected Works, Charles Scribner's Sons, (1902), Volume 19, p. 468


The above observation from the pen of Tolstoy could I suppose be used by both sides of any debate but it presents the dilemma faced by those promoting a technology against opposition with near-religious fervor in their antagonistic beliefs.


Stewart Farber, MS Public Health

Consulting Scientist

[203] 367-0791

email: SAFarberMSPH@cs.com

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In a message dated 1/29/02 10:45:49 AM Pacific Standard Time, RuthWeiner@aol.com writes:



> an attorney friend.  He contends that policy decisions -- and opinions, if you will -- become divorced from any rationale that may have spawned them.  He contended further that his anti-nuke colleagues really don't concern themselves with facts once they have made up their minds to support a particular policy.