| | When discussing with my friends about what subjects and electives to take next year, I often recall my engineering days. My friends, being artscis, are allowed to choose almost anything that interests them. In elec, I was given a highly restrictive list of artsci courses from which to choose in 2nd year, and subjects like languages and economics were banned.
As a result, upon leaving EE, I found it impossible to deny that entire regions of understanding simply did not appear on my map of life. For most of us engineers, we left the continuing development of these vast areas when we chose the "science stream" at the age of 16 at school. When we emerged five years later from the narrowing stream of specialization in our selected corner of our craft, we had received no nourishment in understanding the changes taking place in the world where we were to work and live.
One cause for my disquiet and dilemma was the number of words bandied about, of which I did not like the sound. I did not like them because I did not know what they meant, so I switched off or pretended to look informed. It was sufficient to name a few: alienation, antinomy, dialectical materialism. It became fashionable to avoid them. It would not be so bad if each word had a fixed meaning or definition. But each has a full range of meanings, depending on who is using the word.
Where to begin to see through today's resulting fog if you are not a historian, a political scientist, or a commie? My engineering friends were none of these. We learned not to use words without a precise meaning which the hearer would understand.
We were involved in the "science of understanding" and not involved with the "science of manipulation." This is not because we opted out -- it was because we were never given the chance to begin. |
| | Posted 12/21/2006 8:50 AM - 4 views - 2 comments
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