Friday, February 16, 2007

Conservative Physics

My son recently told me about his favorite physicist, Richard Feynman (yes my son actually has a "favorite" physicist which tells you he and I are very different people.)

And this Feynman guy sounded interesting, so I checked out some of his quotes, and found this one which should strike a chord with any conservative:

"There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers."

And here is something he said which pretty much described the Liberal election campaign last year:

"When things are going well, something will go wrong. When things just can't get any worse, they will. Anytime things appear to be going better, you have overlooked something.”

And finally it seems Feynman had a libertarian streak:

"The real question of government versus private enterprise is argued on too philosophical and abstract a basis. Theoretically, planning may be good. But nobody has ever figured out the cause of government stupidity—and until they do (and find the cure), all ideal plans will fall into quicksand."

Hmmm, maybe my son and I have more in common than I thought.

1 comment:

Brian said...

Hmmm, maybe my son and I have more in common than I thought.

Oh dear, don't tell your son that or he'll change favourite physicist's.