Dear Friends,
This Sunday we are discussing: Is there really freedom in a democracy?
As you can imagine this is quite an emotional topic and a
topic-of-the-age. And to prove it we have three essays from: Ruel, James
and me. I am not including the essays here because the email would be
too long, but you can get them via this link:
Is there really freedom in democracy?
https://www.philomadrid.com/2019/01/is-there-really-freedom-in-democracy.html
Enjoy the essays,
Best Lawrence
tel: 606081813
philomadrid@gmail.com <mailto:philomadrid@gmail.com>
Blog: http://philomadrid.blogspot.com.es/
MeetUp https://www.meetup.com/PhiloMadrid-philosophy-group/
Gran Clavel (Café-Bar): Gran vía 11, esquina C/ Clavel,
28013—Madrid
#philosophy #freedom #democracy #politics #choice
from Lawrence, SUNDAY PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: Is there really
freedom in a democracy?
PhiloMadrid - Pub Philosophy Meetings in Madrid
31 January 2019
Is there really freedom in a democracy?
The Essays for: Is there really freedom in
a democracy?
----Essay
by Ruel----
Hello
Lawrence,
Below
is the link to the essay I wrote for Sunday's PhiloMadrid's topic:
Best,
Ruel
----Essay
by James----
IS
THERE REALLY FREEDOM IN A DEMOCRACY
Is
there freedom in democracy? The first thing that we should ask ourselves is
what exactly is freedom and what is democracy.
The Oxford online Dictionary says that “Freedom: is the power or right
to act, speak or think as one wants”. While democracy is described as “A system
of Government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state,
typically through representatives”. However consulting the dictionary only
gives us a theoretical definition which may often be interpreted in a different
way by citizens and representatives alike. On the one hand a large portion of
the population think that they have a license to do as they please, while on
the other hand many politicians, political parties, public institutions and
private business corporations see too much freedom as detrimental to their own
interests and whenever possible try to control the individuals liberties. However, nowadays it is not acceptable for
the powers that be to use coercion to achieve this goal so instead persuasion
and conditioning are alternative methods.
As
far as freedom in a democracy is concerned, it is true that anyone eligible to vote
has a say in selecting their representatives. However it is extremely important
to have an educated electorate in order for the system to function properly. If
the population are not well informed then they are not using their right
effectively and the results will lead to disaster. We only have to look at the
problem with BREXIT and the election of Trump. Furthermore, in the run up to an
election we are bombarded with propaganda from the different political parties
in a bid to condition our decision. Very often the electoral manifestos are
influenced by private business which invests in the political parties
campaigns. This comes at a price of course, take the case of the United States
where the amounts of money donated to the parties is astronomical. In the last
Presidential Elections, Bernie
Sanders, the independent candidate that lost questioned the influence of Wall
Street on politics. Many
of the lawyers who donated to the Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's
campaign represented big corporations and banks.
Consequently, even though we may think that we
have voted for the candidate we deemed fit for that office, it is does not
necessarily mean that he really has ours interest at heart. Without doubt,
sometimes the politicians have other more important interests. Returning to
Donald Trump whose campaign was supported by the NRA (National Rifle
Association), after the latest mass shootings and the many fatalities that
occurred he still took the side of the NRA. In order to try to bring attention
away from a gun control debate, Trump focused on the problem of mental health. But
this is nothing new, for many years the NRA have supported the campaigns of
other ex-Presidents.
Incidentally, apart form the freedom to vote in
either elections - to select our representative - or in referendums I cannot
think of any other areas where citizens can participate actively to influence the
decision-making of their governments. Evidently this is not a very democratic system!
What can be done to change this? According to Noam Chomsky citizens should
organize ourselves into groups and challenge the present way of doing thing. So
as to improve the functioning of the system and to ensure a real democracy
where the population participates in its decision-making and hence a true sense
of freedom. In fact, with the technology available today it would be easy to
develop a system to allow the people - rather than their representatives - to
decide on many issues.
Chomsky believes that Government policy can also
be influenced by public institutions and private business. He is quoted as
saying “those who control the economy also have control over State
policy”. As a result a situation has
developed in recent years in many countries where the public institutions are
gradually being privatised. Moreover private business has moved into and
controls institutions such as health, education and even transport. In these
sectors, labour conditions have declined. Workers have lost many benefits that
were obtain with great effort and sacrifice over previous decades. Such is the
situation nowadays that in many jobs, workers do not protest about their
conditions for fear of losing their positions. This reversal in labour laws and
conditions needs to be dealt with and the lower levels of Maslow's hierarchy of
needs should at least be catered for.
In
the definition of democracy above, there is a reference to “the eligible
members of a state”. This evidently suggests that certain spheres of the
community are excluded. Obviously the
term alludes to prisoners, school-going-children and adolescents, people with
mental illnesses, the member of the community with special needs, the Gypsy
community, immigrants and of course the homeless. Paul-Michel Foucault referred
to these, as other spaces or Heterotopia (1).
He has also addressed the relationship between power and knowledge, and
how they are used as a form of social control through societal
institutions. He is quoted as saying “Schools
serve the same social functions as prisons and mental institutions- to define,
classify, control, and regulate people”.
Clearly he has a point because generally speaking, people educated in
certain centres such as religious schools often acquire a conservative
viewpoint while on the contrary those who attend non-denominational schools
obtain a more liberal or progressivist indoctrination.
On
the contrary, there are certain situations or even crises where a Government
may understandably decide to curtail our freedom. An example of this is
whenever they need to declare a state of emergency because of a natural disaster or because of an imminent
terrorist attack. Furthermore situations can arise that may even demand a
curfew to avoid the looting of a city. Other examples of when freedom may have
to be suspended would be in the case of a war - with conscription or
military service -, imprisonment for a crime, or committal to a Mental
Institution.
In
conclusion, there are democracies of different calibre throughout the world.
Some of them having more or less Freedom but a common denominator to them all
is that the population has been conditioned to accept the idea that freedom
must be limited. We are told that too much freedom is counterproductive for
society and would lead to anarchy and social unrest. (2) “The smart way to keep people passive and
obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion”.
The Postmodernism movement is quite critical
about abuses in the use of power and in the curbing the individuals rights.
Governments and Members of Parliament have their essence in political parties
which can be susceptible to the influence of economic powers such as the
financial institutions and large business corporations - multinationals -
. In recent times we have seen evidence
of this in the countless cases of corrupt that has been covered by the media.
Furthermore we have seen the privatisation of many public institutions such as
hospitals, schools and public transport. Clearly, all of these influences by
private enterprise restrict our freedom in different ways.
(1) “Of Other Spaces, Utopias and Heterotopias” work by
Paul-Michel Foucault, the French philosopher.
(2) Quote from Noam Chomsky
Regards,
James
----Essay by Lawrence----
Is there really freedom in
a democracy?
No, but the problem is not with
democracy.
There are a number of issues with
freedom that makes the subject as useful as a contradiction. For our purposes we
are concerned with two types of freedom, philosophical freedom and political
freedom: I assume that the democracy part of the question is political
democracy.
A rough and ready definition of
freedom for our topic includes freedom of action and free will. Freedom of
action implies no constraints to act whereas free will is the idea of choice.
The distinction can be subtle, the common idea of free will includes the idea
of responsibility; we are still held responsible for our actions even if we are
as determined as anything. Freedom of action might be limited by external
causes thus limiting the scope of our choice. So the issue for us is what are
the constraints on our philosophical and political ideas of freedom that makes
this concept of freedom much weaker than our everyday use of freedom?
At the basis of our everyday use
of freedom, political or otherwise, is that we feel we can choose amongst
options and that we do this at will.
Our idea of freedom today is a
product of past philosophical thinking that today we would be more careful and
circumspect before we express this thinking in public. A quick glance of the
concept of freedom we see the hand of dualism at play. Freedom is something
that belongs to our sense of “being” rather than our sense of being some
mechanical instrument. Maybe our past view of freedom is that gravity might
affect our body, but it does not affect our “mind” or “soul” and hence our
freedom. In other words, we are immune from the effects of the material world.
But just because we feel we can
choose A from B it does not follow that we are free to choose A from B. Many of
us are also aware that just because we feel we are free to choose something it
does not mean it is the best choice make or the right choice to be had. So, are
we mixing up freedom to choose with ability to select?
A key reason why our idea of
freedom is false, or certainly not 100% sound, is that we are limited by our
epistemological state of mind (brain) about the choices we are making. We are
basically limited in what we can know and be informed about a situation or
opportunity. Of course, one of the limitations is that we do not have access on
how things will pan out, or develop, before they do happen. It is ironic,
however, that we can predict the movements of celestial bodies but not whether
Kant would have been punctual for his lectures on a given day.
Indeed, I would argue that we
make choices because we don’t know all there is to know about a situation. We
might know that our choice is made either from experience or from thinking
things out, but the key point here is that we do not know the status of that
choice because there is nothing to know; if events have not happened then there
are no facts to know about that event. But this is not enough, information
about said events might must reach us first anyway to be able to know anything about
them. In the meantime, never mind that we can only choose from what is
available to us at the time and place we are at the time of choice making.
Another issue about our
epistemological limitations is that we do not know the intentions of others.
This is even difficult about someone we know, let alone someone we don’t even
know they exist. Despite the wonderful maths of actuarial science it is still
difficult to predict the intentions of someone else despite evidence to the
contrary. In a way, our epistemological constraints have a similar effect on
our freedom to act as much as a ball and chain tied to our ankles.
At the physical level, maybe we
are in a better position to predict future physical event: I can safely predict
that I will never be judged a Mr Universe, unless the organisers have a short
circuit in their brain and start selecting men for their philosophical prowess,
and even then I doubt it.
The advantage of the physical
world is that many times we know immediately our limitations due to the cause
and effect principle. But we also have the advantage of knowing what we can do
in the physical world: I can walk to the bus stop within four minutes from my
front door even if I have to wait at the traffic lights. Predicting when the
bus will arrive is another matter.
Our view of democracy, however,
also depends on our idea of this philosophical freedom we have inherited from
the past. The idea of choice on who to vote for gives us a sense of freedom
which is probably unjustified. But there is another side to our idea of a
democratic political system which is that we are not oppressed or punished for
our opinions and ideas. Compare my thinking that the Queen of England has
unflattering hairstyle and the President of North Korea equally having
unflattering hairstyle. The Queen of Britain probably doesn’t care what I
think!
Political freedom is a negative
reaction to the use of fear by those in power rather than by any other
conceptual creation. Indeed, fear is used as a political weapon to influence
our choices. Vote A if you want a really good health care service, Vote B if
you want to become financially independent.
Sure, in a democracy we expect to
have a wide range of options on how to run government and political society;
but we are still constrained by how things will develop in real life. Our sense
that we are free to choose the party we support is not indicative that there is
real freedom in democracy.
Look at the 2017 election in the
UK where the two main parties were offering the same flagship policy: Brexit.
Thus 74% of the United Kingdom (eligible to vote or not) did not have a choice
about the future of the country. And if you think that is bad, 48.2%
(vs 46.1%) of Americans eligible to vote voted for Clinton but still got Trump.
(vs 46.1%) of Americans eligible to vote voted for Clinton but still got Trump.
But there is an antidote, even if
not a perfect one, to this chimera we call freedom: one criterion is called
knowledge, the more we know about things (to use modern parlance) the more we
narrow the gap between having a false beliefs and choosing a possible
favourable outcome. In other words, we first need to have the freedom to know
things and the right skills to learn before we can even begin to think about
choices.
Another, criterion is that of
having the means to know things and learn about things. But true freedom in
politics, is not work, nor study, but having a choice of what to eat tomorrow
without having to dig the ground ourselves. Political freedom is first and
foremost not being afraid from where the next meal is coming from. Poverty is
the ball and chain of freedom; we are free when we can really choose what to
eat. In effect if, according to Napoleon or Fredrick the Great, an army marches
on its stomach, so do the citizens of a democracy.
Best Lawrence
23 January 2019
from Lawrence, PhiloMadrid NO meeting this Sunday 27th
Dear Friends,
Just to let you know that this Sunday, 27th, we won't be having a
meeting. Our next meeting will be on the 3rd February and the subject
is: Is there really freedom in a democracy? Essays before 31st January.
In the meantime a reminder of some news:
A friend of mine, Ana is a researcher in immunology and cancer research
and has a project endorsed by the Sociedad Española de Inmunología (SEI)
for crowd funding.
You can link to the official page here, in Spanish:
Papel de PSGL-1 en la patogénesis de la Leucemia Linfocítica Crónica y
su evaluación como marcador y diana terapéutica de la enfermedad.
https://www.inmunologia.org/colabora/fitxa-colabora.php?UpRu5Am=GJFK
"My project is to try and understand why B cells get malignant in the
CLL. CLL is one of the more frequent leukemias developed in adult people.
In healthy people, only 5-10% of B cells express PSGL-1, but we have
found that most B lymphocytes from people with Chronic Linfocitic
Leukemia express this protein PSGL-1. We think that this protein
contributes to the malignancy of B lymphocytes, helping them to
proliferate, to invade different tissues and to kill T cells and, in
addition, impairing them to produce antibodies against microbes. Our
project can help us know the molecular mechanisms altered in the CLL B
cells and hence to find new molecular targets for more effective disease
treatment."
Link http://www.philomadrid.com/2019/01/crowd-funding-project-leukemias.html
In the meantime a reminder:
David Butler will be organising guided tours to the British
Cemetery until Easter. You can find more details here:
Cementerio Británico, visitas guiadas
http://philomadrid.blogspot.com/2019/01/cementerio-britanico-visitas-guiadas.html
Best Lawrence
tel: 606081813
philomadrid@gmail.com
Blog: http://philomadrid.blogspot.com.es/
MeetUp https://www.meetup.com/PhiloMadrid-philosophy-group/
Gran Clavel (Café-Bar): Gran vía 11, esquina C/ Clavel, 28013—Madrid
#philosophy #meeting
from Lawrence, PhiloMadrid NO meeting this Sunday 27th
Just to let you know that this Sunday, 27th, we won't be having a
meeting. Our next meeting will be on the 3rd February and the subject
is: Is there really freedom in a democracy? Essays before 31st January.
In the meantime a reminder of some news:
A friend of mine, Ana is a researcher in immunology and cancer research
and has a project endorsed by the Sociedad Española de Inmunología (SEI)
for crowd funding.
You can link to the official page here, in Spanish:
Papel de PSGL-1 en la patogénesis de la Leucemia Linfocítica Crónica y
su evaluación como marcador y diana terapéutica de la enfermedad.
https://www.inmunologia.org/colabora/fitxa-colabora.php?UpRu5Am=GJFK
"My project is to try and understand why B cells get malignant in the
CLL. CLL is one of the more frequent leukemias developed in adult people.
In healthy people, only 5-10% of B cells express PSGL-1, but we have
found that most B lymphocytes from people with Chronic Linfocitic
Leukemia express this protein PSGL-1. We think that this protein
contributes to the malignancy of B lymphocytes, helping them to
proliferate, to invade different tissues and to kill T cells and, in
addition, impairing them to produce antibodies against microbes. Our
project can help us know the molecular mechanisms altered in the CLL B
cells and hence to find new molecular targets for more effective disease
treatment."
Link http://www.philomadrid.com/2019/01/crowd-funding-project-leukemias.html
In the meantime a reminder:
David Butler will be organising guided tours to the British
Cemetery until Easter. You can find more details here:
Cementerio Británico, visitas guiadas
http://philomadrid.blogspot.com/2019/01/cementerio-britanico-visitas-guiadas.html
Best Lawrence
tel: 606081813
philomadrid@gmail.com
Blog: http://philomadrid.blogspot.com.es/
MeetUp https://www.meetup.com/PhiloMadrid-philosophy-group/
Gran Clavel (Café-Bar): Gran vía 11, esquina C/ Clavel, 28013—Madrid
#philosophy #meeting
from Lawrence, PhiloMadrid NO meeting this Sunday 27th
18 January 2019
from Lawrence, SUNDAY PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: Making Decisions + News
Dear Friends,
This Sunday we are talking about: Making Decision.
Making decisions is something we do every day, but how important are our
decisions, especially regarding unintended consequences? Ruel and I have
prepared essays on the topic, but first.
A friend of mine, Ana is a researcher in immunology and cancer research
and has a project endorsed by the Sociedad Española de Inmunología (SEI)
for crowd funding.
You can link to the official page here, in Spanish:
Papel de PSGL-1 en la patogénesis de la Leucemia Linfocítica Crónica y
su evaluación como marcador y diana terapéutica de la enfermedad.
https://www.inmunologia.org/colabora/fitxa-colabora.php?UpRu5Am=GJFK
"My project is to try and understand why B cells get malignant in the
CLL. CLL is one of the more frequent leukemias developed in adult people.
In healthy people, only 5-10% of B cells express PSGL-1, but we have
found that most B lymphocytes from people with Chronic Linfocitic
Leukemia express this protein PSGL-1. We think that this protein
contributes to the malignancy of B lymphocytes, helping them to
proliferate, to invade different tissues and to kill T cells and, in
addition, impairing them to produce antibodies against microbes. Our
project can help us know the molecular mechanisms altered in the CLL B
cells and hence to find new molecular targets for more effective disease
treatment."
Link http://www.philomadrid.com/2019/01/crowd-funding-project-leukemias.html
In the meantime a reminder:
David Butler will be organising guided tours to the British
Cemetery until Easter. You can find more details here:
Cementerio Británico, visitas guiadas
http://philomadrid.blogspot.com/2019/01/cementerio-britanico-visitas-guiadas.html
Ruel's essay:
Here's the link to my essay, "Making Decisions", for the PhiloMadrid
topic on Sunday:
https://ruelfpepa.wordpress.com/2019/01/14/making-decisions/
Essay Lawrence
We are all familiar with the paintings in the Altamira Cave, Spain, the
ones with bisons, hunters and other creatures. Scientists might not
agree how old the paintings are, who did them and what they mean, if
any, but we all agree that they are really old. We can safely assume
that the paintings are genuine, and that the drawings are sufficiently
complex not to be random strokes of paint. Some might argue that people
at the time did not have the dexterity to create complex paintings, but
that's a different issue.
So what do the Altamira paintings have to do with philosophy and
decision making?
Please continue with the link because the email is too long to post,
thank you:
https://www.philomadrid.com/2019/01/making-decisions.html
Best Lawrence
tel: 606081813
philomadrid@gmail.com
Blog: http://philomadrid.blogspot.com.es/
MeetUp https://www.meetup.com/PhiloMadrid-philosophy-group/
Gran Clavel (Café-Bar): Gran vía 11, esquina C/ Clavel, 28013—Madrid
#philosophy #decision #acting #rational #consequences
from Lawrence, SUNDAY PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: Making Decision + News
This Sunday we are talking about: Making Decision.
Making decisions is something we do every day, but how important are our
decisions, especially regarding unintended consequences? Ruel and I have
prepared essays on the topic, but first.
A friend of mine, Ana is a researcher in immunology and cancer research
and has a project endorsed by the Sociedad Española de Inmunología (SEI)
for crowd funding.
You can link to the official page here, in Spanish:
Papel de PSGL-1 en la patogénesis de la Leucemia Linfocítica Crónica y
su evaluación como marcador y diana terapéutica de la enfermedad.
https://www.inmunologia.org/colabora/fitxa-colabora.php?UpRu5Am=GJFK
"My project is to try and understand why B cells get malignant in the
CLL. CLL is one of the more frequent leukemias developed in adult people.
In healthy people, only 5-10% of B cells express PSGL-1, but we have
found that most B lymphocytes from people with Chronic Linfocitic
Leukemia express this protein PSGL-1. We think that this protein
contributes to the malignancy of B lymphocytes, helping them to
proliferate, to invade different tissues and to kill T cells and, in
addition, impairing them to produce antibodies against microbes. Our
project can help us know the molecular mechanisms altered in the CLL B
cells and hence to find new molecular targets for more effective disease
treatment."
Link http://www.philomadrid.com/2019/01/crowd-funding-project-leukemias.html
In the meantime a reminder:
David Butler will be organising guided tours to the British
Cemetery until Easter. You can find more details here:
Cementerio Británico, visitas guiadas
http://philomadrid.blogspot.com/2019/01/cementerio-britanico-visitas-guiadas.html
Ruel's essay:
Here's the link to my essay, "Making Decisions", for the PhiloMadrid
topic on Sunday:
https://ruelfpepa.wordpress.com/2019/01/14/making-decisions/
Essay Lawrence
We are all familiar with the paintings in the Altamira Cave, Spain, the
ones with bisons, hunters and other creatures. Scientists might not
agree how old the paintings are, who did them and what they mean, if
any, but we all agree that they are really old. We can safely assume
that the paintings are genuine, and that the drawings are sufficiently
complex not to be random strokes of paint. Some might argue that people
at the time did not have the dexterity to create complex paintings, but
that's a different issue.
So what do the Altamira paintings have to do with philosophy and
decision making?
Please continue with the link because the email is too long to post,
thank you:
https://www.philomadrid.com/2019/01/making-decisions.html
Best Lawrence
tel: 606081813
philomadrid@gmail.com
Blog: http://philomadrid.blogspot.com.es/
MeetUp https://www.meetup.com/PhiloMadrid-philosophy-group/
Gran Clavel (Café-Bar): Gran vía 11, esquina C/ Clavel, 28013—Madrid
#philosophy #decision #acting #rational #consequences
from Lawrence, SUNDAY PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: Making Decision + News
Making Decisions
Making Decisions
We are all familiar with the paintings in the Altamira Cave,
Spain, the ones with bisons, hunters and other creatures. Scientists might not
agree how old the paintings are, who did them and what they mean, if any, but
we all agree that they are really old. We can safely assume that the paintings
are genuine, and that the drawings are sufficiently complex not to be random
strokes of paint. Some might argue that people at the time did not have the
dexterity to create complex paintings, but that’s a different issue.
So what do the Altamira paintings have to do with philosophy
and decision making? Each and every one of those paintings represent a person
making a decision on where to start the painting, and even more important, when
to stop painting. Making a decision to stop painting represents a belief, an
intention and an act to make the intention happen; in other words the painter
is satisfied with the work. And the fact that the paintings have a pattern that
is recognizable of being an animal or a hand or a human being also reflects a
purpose. We can say that the person who painted these images fulfilled his or
her purpose because the decision to stop was made when the paintings met the
necessary and sufficient conditions of the purpose.
Making decisions, I would argue, is a basic human (and
animal) function that goes back, way back into pre history. But can we possibly
say that the decision a cave painter made was a rational decision making
process? Sure, we might argue, anyone can abstract a form and reproduce it with
an acceptable degree of form to pass as a shape of an animal. I would argue
that these paintings represent more than just acceptable degree of form, but
rather a mind set to pass on experiences to others; these painting are no
doodles. The mixture of the paint, the tones and intensities of the pigments
all suggests an endeavour rather than a whimsical fidget with paint.
Surely, an endeavour can only be a rational process full of
value judgments, trial and error, and comparative analysis between experience
and memory on the one hand and skill and dexterity in reproducing such memories
on the other.
So far I haven’t said anything other than make obvious
observations of facts. There is nothing strange or unusual to suggest that each
and every process and stage of an endeavour involves a series of decision
making and associated actions. But can we deduce from these obvious facts what
were the intentions and purposes of doing so many unique figures and shapes
(mostly) of real world things and objects? What these cave painters want to
convey to their society? I exclude the idea that the painters wanted to create
a work of art, any more than Pope Sixtus IV commissioned the Sistine Chapel for
art’s sake. The paint and shapes are the means, the media, to convey ideas and
concepts. I don’t use Ariel font for my essay as a work of art but as a means
to make reading on a PC relatively easy on the eye.
I make no apologies for my bias now and suggest that the
cave people were early “photojournalists” who wanted to “report” what they
witnessed and thence to “inform” others in their society; ie those who saw the
paintings. The fact that they show people hunting (action) fulfils the first
criteria of photojournalism: it is about people. Surely, the painter had direct
experience of the events depicted in the cave, either as a participant, witness
or observer. As I said I betray my bias towards photojournalism, but there can
be no doubt that the painter or painters wanted to educate members of the
tribe. Especially since the scenes and animals depicted could be quite
dangerous thus these paintings communicate to the rest of the tribe “how things
were out there in the field”!
Making decisions is a process including beliefs, be them
true or false, and a rational process to arrive at an acceptable (even if
subjective) intention and then acting on it. But there is and another aspect to
making decisions: do one’s decisions make sense to other observers? Why did he
buy a blue car when he hates blue?
Of course, some of our decisions are made in private and
even for our own private concern, but the issue still remains that if others
had access to these decisions would they be categorised as rational or even
reasonable, in the absence of mitigating circumstances? Basically we do apply
value judgements to other people’s decisions.
It is at this point that our subjective decision making
becomes public interest and maybe even moral judgements and beyond. If our
decisions do not make sense to others the chances are that they won’t trust us.
If our decisions do not make sense people would want to know why such a
decision was made and there are real consequences if there is no answer to the
why. Leaders might not be followed, politicians might be derided and empires
might fall. In modern history Operation Barbarossa brought the downfall of the
third Reich, the failed invasion by France and the UK of the Suez Canal
resulted in the USA becoming the absolute power in the Middle East. And Brexit
is a catastrophe in the making.
This means that although our decisions are made in private
they do have public implications. In effect we can either “think twice, and act
once” or “act in haste, and repent at leisure”
17 January 2019
Crowd funding project: leukemias developed in adult people
Hi Lawrence,
I wanted to
ask you to help me spread, among your friends and people that you know, this web
page for crowd funding for a research project on chronic lymphocytic leukemia
(CLL in English or LLC in Spanish). This project has been selected together
with other nine projects and is endorsed by the Sociedad Española de
Inmunología (SEI). You know that the state budget for research is very small in
Spain and the SEI proposed to resort to crowd funding.
My project
is to try and understand why B cells get malignant in the CLL. CLL is one of
the more frequent leukemia developed in adult people.
In healthy
people, only 5-10% of B cells express PSGL-1, but we have found that most B
lymphocytes from people with Chronic Linfocitic Leukemia express this protein
PSGL-1. We think that this protein contributes to the malignancy of B
lymphocytes, helping them to proliferate, to invade different tissues and to
kill T cells and, in addition, impairing them to produce antibodies against
microbes. Our project can help know the molecular mechanisms altered in the CLL
B cells and hence to find new molecular targets for more effective disease
treatment.
The link to my research project is:
Thank you very much Lawrence!!
Best
Ana