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In the twelfth century the basque fishermen of biarritz used to hunt whales with deadly efficiency. when the whales sensibly moved away, the basques chased them further and further, with the consequence that the fishermen of biarritz discovered america before columbus did. this is a matter for local pride but on a larger view it is not quite so stunning, since with the possible exception of the swiss everybody discovered america before columbus did.
-Clive James
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In The Twelfth Century The Basque Fishermen

Clive James
In the twelfth century the basque fishermen of biarritz used to hunt whales with deadly efficiency. when the whales sensibly moved away, the basques chased them further and further, with the consequence that the fishermen of biarritz discovered america before columbus did. this is a matter for local pride but on a larger view it is not quite so stunning, since with the possible exception of the swiss everybody discovered america before columbus did.
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Pride Views Whales

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Given that the nineteenth century was the century of socialism, of liberalism, and of democracy, it does not necessarily follow that the twentieth century must also be a century of socialism, liberalism and democracy: political doctrines pass, but humanity remains, and it may rather be expected that this will be a century of authority ... a century of fascism. for if the nineteenth century was a century of individualism it may be expected that this will be the century of collectivism and hence the century of the state.
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In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. we lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western montana, and our father was a presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. he told us about christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and i did, that all first-class fishermen on the sea of galilee were fly fishermen and that john, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.
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I believe that part of what propels science is the thirst for wonder. it's a very powerful emotion. all children feel it. in a first grade classroom everybody feels it; in a twelfth grade classroom almost nobody feels it, or at least acknowledges it. something happens between first and twelfth grade, and it's not just puberty. not only do the schools and the media not teach much skepticism, there is also little encouragement of this stirring sense of wonder. science and pseudoscience both arouse that feeling. poor popularizations of science establish an ecological niche for pseudoscience.
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The history taught in our schools is scandalous. we grew up believing that columbus actually discovered america. we still celebrate columbus day. columbus was after one thing only - gold.
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Acceptable food rots while we are chased from bins behind restaurants, chased from sleeping on the street, chased from relieving ourselves unless we pay for food or gas, until finally we are so hungry, sleepless, smelly, constipated and beaten-down that we simply die of lack of will to live.
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Whales in mid-ocean, suspended in the waves of the sea great heaven of whales in the waters, old hierarchies. and enormous mother whales lie dreaming suckling their whale-tender young and dreaming with strange whale eyes wide open in the waters of the beginning and the end.
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