Posted By crates on March 29, 2008

     I just finished a biography of Einstein, Einstein, His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson.  I really liked the book which showed aspects of his life of which I was unfamiliar.

    I was very impressed with Einstein’s child-like qualities, his idealism, his kindness and his wry, self-deprecating humor.  Of course I knew he was a genius, but the book rounded his life out, presenting it in context with his family, his early life, his marriages and his close interactions with colleagues.  He was intensely individualistic, and could not abide any restraints upon his personal freedom.  Later in his life he modified slightly his pacifist views (after Nazi Germany began its aggression)  and became involved in politics, advocating a world government and Socialism.  He was adamantly against all forms of totalitarianism that subjected the individual to the whims of the state.

    Sometimes I get the feeling that there are people in our society today that, like some totalitarian states, demand “correct action” from the citizens.  I try to tell myself that this need that people have for behavioral correctness is a good thing, that they are not so jaded and blase that they don’t believe that there are ethical ways of acting, and that there are standards of behavior that a person should follow.

    However, the problem that can arise from this mode of thinking is that people often proceed from the idea that certain standards of behavior should be followed, to the idea that other people must follow these standards of behavior that is so dear to their ideas of what is right.  And if such people are in positions of power then…why then,  it’s just another form of totalitarianism

Categories: Books, People
Tags: Einstein, Political Correctness