Obama's speech seemed pretty good to me. There were references to
science and technology that I find encouraging:
"We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield
technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost."
He praised "tolerance and curiosity" -- values at the heart of the
scientific method.
In his book, he said he supports science and believes in evolution.
Writing that a few years ago took guts, given the size of the
anti-science contingent in politics.
He called for more alternative energy which I think we all agree
would be a good idea if it is implemented well. We shall have to see
whether he does a good job. (And by the way, as I have mentioned
here, Bush did an excellent job on wind energy when he was governor
of Texas. It is a mystery to me why he did not do the same as president.)
Finally, this:
"Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions -- who
suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their
memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has
already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is
joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage."
That's the sort of thing I wrote in my book:
"People who believe there is no likelihood of dramatic progress have
no sense of history. Everyone living in the first world today, even a
wretched person on welfare, is well off by the standards of 1600. By
the standards of ancient and primitive people, we are all fabulously
wealthy and we enjoy godlike powers. . . ."
- Jed
