As Knol got closed on 30 April, there was a big drop in page views and visitors numbers. Drop was strongly noticeable in June. Improving in July. Presently, the last seven day average is 3600. Another 20% rise will take it to older levels.
This question was framed by me in response to an article published in The Economic Times dated 13 November 2012 (Page 24). The article was titled "Listen to Losers...Keep Winning." It was further explained that those who lose do matter even in a winner-takes-all world. Their election campaigns did influence history and do influence history.
The article was written by Jaithirth Rao, who once headed Citibank India. Jaithirth Rao quoted Amartya Sen to start his thesis. But Lord Keynes is also credited for the statement "Every King is a slave of a dead economist." Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh reiterated the same recently. The idea connected to Amartya Sen is that according to Indian Tradition, the disputant may lose an argument at a particular point in time, but if it held for some time, meaning the argument did extend for some time, the argument remains suspended in mid-air (meaning in the minds of some observers or the audience) and is very often revisited years, decades and centuries later.
Close contests in a democracy may give all the power to the winning candidate or the party. But the policies and strategy advocated by the losing party also have substantial support. That is what a close contest reveals. In a democracy, the winning party should not ignore the losing argument. Ignoring it could result in an arrogance that ultimately leads to hubris and failure. Jaithirth made this interesting observation and gave the warning. The winning party has to analyze the policies and strategy advocated by the losing side to find pieces that have relevance and popular support to incorporate into future policy of the government.
I think the discussion applies to any debate in any system. Many times, meetings are called for and opinions are solicited but the people in power carry their agenda through. They may call the proceedings the legitimising routine. People who have the understanding and put up a different proposal should not lose heart for resultant failure. Whenever a thought is well expressed, it remains suspended in mid-air (If somebody gave a counterargument or even brushed it aside, it entered the minds of some people).
Related article on voting for a dissenting candidate
Going green: Third party candidates and the power of dissent
November 6, 2012 by Michael Stafford, Former Republic Party (USA) Officer http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/11/06/3626712.htm
Came across the article today through a Google search - 2 Nov 2013
Tutoring services are growing all over the globe, from Ireland to Hong Kong and even in suburban strip malls in California and New Jersey. Sometimes called shadow education systems, they mirror the mainstream system, offering after-hours classes in every subject—for a fee. But nowhere have they achieved the market penetration and sophistication of hagwons in South Korea, where private tutors now outnumber schoolteachers. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324635904578639780253571520.html
Mumbai has a similar tutoring system now. Students go to public schools in the morning and go to tuition schools in the night.
Erik Ericson developed 8-stage model of human development or growth. In the seventh stage people strive for generativity. They want to something significant for the next generations. If they succeed they will happy and growth normally. If they fail, there is unhappiness and depression which leads to stagnation phase.
God made all animals that walk on the earth (the sixth day), on the same day. He created man separately in His own image with the intent that man would have dominion over every other living thing on Earth (Genesis, 1:26-28)
All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of bidrs. (I Corinthians, 15:39)
When we look at living creatures from an outward point of view, one of the first things that strike us is that they are bundles of habits. - William James, American Psychologist and Philosopher
Great men may mould history, but it is good men who make the earth wholesome. - Emerson
So much of the knowledge in our minds is based on lies and superstitions that come from thousands of years ago. Humans create stories long before we are born, and we inherit those stories, we adopt them, and we live in those stories. - Don Miguel Ruiz, the Mexican spiritual author, The Voice of Knowledge, 2004
Where is the life we lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? - T.S. Eliot
Unless man increases in wisdom as much as in knowledge, increase of knowledge will only be increase of sorrow. - Bertrand Russell, Impact of Science on Society (1952)
Plan your research in for time chunks: this morning, today, this week, this month, next few months, this year, next three years. Have a clear idea for what you want to achieve in these time periods and try to stick to this as much as you can.
Make a start. Once you have an idea for a piece of writing, create a file and folder for it on your computer and write down anything, however rough and however brief. It can always be polished and developed later or even discarded if you decide eventually not to go ahead with the idea.
Organise your writing into different computer files and folders: articles in progress, submitted articles, accepted articles, conference papers, blog posts, book proposals, grant applications etc.
Organise your PDF journal article collection under topics in folders on your computer.
If you are feeling unenthusiastic or have hit a wall on a topic – leave that piece of writing for a while and work on another piece of writing.
Use your writing in as many different ways as you can – conference papers, articles/chapters, books, blog posts. Turn the small (unrefereed) pieces into bigger (refereed) pieces whenever you can and vice versa. What starts out as a blog post can be later developed into an article. Conversely some of the main arguments of an article can be used in one or more blog posts.
A lone species-the human, fornow- has grasped th earth's future in its hands, casting on it a resonsibility never before borne by any other species. - Martine Rees
Humankind, with the devices it has on hand, is potentially the maker of its own demise the the demise of the cosmos. Martin Rees in the Book, Our Final Century (2004)
Martin Rees - Earth in its final century
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"An unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates
"Is man a tiny boad in a tempest, raised one moment on the foaming crest of a billow and dashed down into a yawning chasm the next, rolled to and fro at the mercy of his own good and bad actions, a powerless, helpless wreck, in an ever-raging, ever-rushing uncompromising current cause and effect, a little moth placed under wheel of causation, which rolls on crushing everything in its way, and waits not for the widow's tears or the orphan's cry? - Swamy Vivekananda
"Is man a mere condition to be overcome- for the good of the world?" - Friedrich Nietzsche
Suffering is the central fact of human life and it is its denial that causes more suffering - Buddha
We have to recognize that there is a metastasized cancer in the body of man. If humankind is to survive, we have to deal with that metastasized cancer. We have to cut out the parts that need to be cut out, in a surgical way. We have to heal the parts that can't be cut out. - William Tiller, Stanford professor and author of Science and Human Transformation
The savage brutal competition which drives us to tear each other's flesh, and which makes man an embodiment of merciless malevolence - William Lane, Creed of Humanity
If God is laid aside, then all our hopes, big and small, rest on nothing. - Pope Benedict XIV
Without sacrifice nothing can be achieved in life - Russian Philosopher P.D. Ouspensky
We must let the spiritual being play on the physical body as the master mucisian plays on a wondrous lute or harp. - Theosophist and author Gottfried de Purucker (Man in Evolution, 1941)
We cannot find our soul with our mind; we must harness our heart. - Gary Zukav (The Seat of the Soul, 1989)
As a species we have forgotten how to love. But love alone is not the key. The key is knowledge of heart intelligence. - Elaine Matthews (Heartbeat of Intelligence, 2002)
In the quest for ultimate meaning, the transcendalist route is much easier to follow. That is why, even as empiricism is winning the mind, transcendentalism continues to win the heart. - Edward Wilson, in book Consilience, 1998.
Man in Context, Chapter 1 of the book, Man's Fate and God's Choice by Bhimeswara Challa