RSSCongrats to Germany – Focus on a real hero
Mar 11
Germany has dedicated this year to Albert Einstein.
Here is a great article called Idealist and realist about Einsteins more hamanitarian aspects.
Why don’t more kids around the world have posters of Einstein in their rooms instead of Eminem or Christina something…?
One thing that makes me feel better is a portion of Stephen Hawkings forward to the second edition of his book “A Brief History of Time.” It was something like “I do feel better about the state of the world knowing that my book on Physics sold more copies than Madonnas book on sex.”
I don’t know if that would be true anymore. Which would sell better today, a good new book by Hawkings or a photo essay of Paris Hilton making an ass of herself around the country for TV?
Mar 12, 2005 @ 21:13:56
Einstein? Didn’t he die 50 years ago? Name one kid with a picture of anyone that old on their wall.
The problem is that he was the last academic celebrity. All breakthrough research happens behind the closed doors of corporate R&D, shrouded in NDAs. Name the person who invented the cell phone. Who invented contact lenses? Who are the frontrunners in the race to cure cancer? Name anyone nominated for a nobel prize in the last 40 years (besides the peace prize, that’s too easy). All the intellectual heros and role models have sold out. None of them are worth celebrity status.
Besides, intellectuals usually eschew the spotlight. Their modesty and humility are matched only by their lack of hygiene and social skills. How hot is that research scientist going to look after 30 years in a windowless lab?
Mar 13, 2005 @ 00:08:03
Some kids put pictures of Marilyn Monroe on their walls, although she wasn’t quite so old as Einstein.
I see your point that research is more hidden these days. Einstein didn’t really want to be a celebrity, though. There was an element that we valued those kinds of contributions to society more then than we do now. Perhaps we still value them, but people (especially kids) are afraid to admit it for fear of not being “cool.”
For some reason we appreciate people with no talents or gifts but who are willing to let a camera stay on them 24 hours a day, but we don’t appreciate those who may be able to cure cancer.