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Science of History

Yesterday we had a real dust up over late afternoon tea. Four highly opinionated and voluble talkers carrying on over current events. We all four basically agree that national politics have taken a turn for the worse under the present Republican regime and a low opinion of ethics and morals in  politics in general. We also cover at least three and possibly four generations.

I suspect that similar discussions are going on all over the country, possibly the world. Here’s a taste of the contentiousness of our discussion: a debate over what percentage of the populace are talking about policy and ethics would take our group at least a half hour and we would never agree on anything. My contention that discussions are going on all over would be voted down three to one. If we voted.

Why am I bothering to write about this? Because, while thinking over our spirited and enjoyable conversation this morning, I realized something that may be important: History is not and never will be a science.

I was raised on the scientific method: Observe. Hypothesize. Test with experiments. Publish results. Other scientists retest. Form consensus. Repeat the cycle for the next few centuries and see what comes of it. Electric teakettles, TikTok, quantum mechanics, ball bearing drawer slides, computer networks, ivermectin, and mRNA vaccines for cancer are a few results of the scientific method.

Science relies on progress based on reproducibility of results. There  are no historical experiments. Only the real event and hazy human records and memories.

No scientist can rerun the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, although we have two jelly-jar drinking glasses with the Space Needle on printed on them in our dish cabinet on Vine Maple Farm.

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The Worst Trump Legacy

Today, November 11, 2025, commemorates the eleventh hour of the eleventh month of the eighteenth year of the twentieth century, 11 am, November 11, 1918, when the First World War effectively ended with a cease fire. Perhaps the twentieth century’s finest hour.
I believe our lives should be driven by a search for kindness, mercy, and justice in all things. The armistice commemorated today is an example. I often fail in the search. I have pursued unyielding retribution when I wish had shown mercy, and I have put my own needs and desires ahead of others. So have we all.
But we have always had public examples of mercy and justice. Sometimes appearances have been better than actuality, but examples have been plentiful. I mention a few of my heroes: Martin Luther King, John McCain, Jimmy Carter, Walter Brueggeman. I haven’t agreed completely with the policies of many U.S. presidents, but until Donald Trump, I have seen in every president some desire for mercy and justice.
Donald Trump has done many things I don’t like: habitual lies, arbitrary ICE arrests, incompetent cabinet appointments, blatantly corrupt crypto deals, holding universities and law firms hostage, deriding and defunding science, interrupting SNAP food payments… The list goes on and I’m sure I have left out some of his most egregious actions.
But the example set by his character is the worst consequence of his election to the presidency.
Many people are easily influenced by examples. Trump is a terrible example, but since he entered the national political spotlight, I have seen more and more people accept bad conduct.
Unkindness is more acceptable today than it was a decade ago. Ostentatious wealth floods the news. Legal vengeance replacing justice is the norm. Pardons to cronies are expected.
And easily swayed people are following these examples.
This the worst Trump legacy.

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The News– Continued

I participated in building the computer network we all know today and almost everyone but me calls the Internet, with or without the initial capital. However, my opinion forming habits are from the late twentieth century, which means I grew up intellectually on newspapers, periodicals, broadcasts, libraries, and classes, not computer networks. Those habits linger, but the first source of information and opinion for most people now, even septuagenarian cave dwellers such as myself, has become the computer network.

Fifty years ago, I ordered books from Blackwell’s of Oxford and was happy to get the books in a month. Today, I am upset when a computer takes more than two seconds to respond. This accelerated information cadence has changed the way everyone thinks.

The old way was question-search-ponder-respond. New question. Today it is question-response-new question-new response-new question-new-response… No more forced pondering while waiting for a response, which could take months.

Unfortunately for us today, the pondering step is the most difficult and creative step. And the most valuable because pondering accesses inner resources, not inflow from the outside. Pondering comes from us, not others. Consequently, public discourse is easier and more voluminous than ever before, but the fire of its humanity is dampened. Thoughtless blurts retweeted ad nauseum wash in tidal waves through the forum.

Today, the assassination of Charlie Kirk is pounding back and forth in the echo chamber. Any assassination is deplorable. The end of the life of a popular, eloquent and forceful personality attracts immediate and intense attention, but, today, little pondering.

The U.S. has seen many assassinations: Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, Martin Luther King come to mind.

How Kirk’s death will be judged by future generations is unknowable, but current technology means the public has read about his death more, but pondered it less, today than any of these previous deaths in the short weeks after their occurrence.

Socrates was executed 2500 years ago for corrupting the youth of Athens. The justice of his death and its effect on public discourse is still discussed in classrooms. How will Charlie Kirk’s effect on the youth of today be discussed even ten years from now?