There's lots of stories on this theme - like the guy in an airliner who got
to thinking it was impossible that several hundred tons of steel should be
able to fly...oops!
As for Thatcher: politics as pure will? An interesting idea...certainly one
that dear Tony seems to have inherited from her. If you say something is so
for long enough, it becomes so. Just don't forget they don't exist anyway,
so it really doesn't matter...
At 01:34 PM 8/16/01 +0000, you wrote:
>All this existence stuff reminds me of a sci fi story about a guy who
>took Bishop Berkely's philosophy - things only exist because we
>percieve them to, and they stop existing if we don't percieve them
>or beleive they are there - to the ultimate limit.
>He went around convincing himself that things, eg major govt
>buildings, didn't exist, and they popped out of existence. Until
>someone convinced themselves that HE didnt exist.
>Come to think of it, didnt Thatcher do something similar to the UK
>steelworks, dockyards, engineering industry, independence of
>academics, schoolmilk, career ladders, social security, and yes
>society too?
>Hillary Shaw, P/G Geography, University of Leeds
>
>
Graham Gardner
Institute of Geography & Earth Sciences
University of Wales
Aberystwyth
Ceredigion
SY23 3DB
Wales
UK
Tel: 0044 (0)1970 622606
Fax: 0044 (0)1970 622659
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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