Sagan was a true believer, plus it was classic hubris. I don’t think it even occurred to him that his nuclear winter colleagues might object to his misrepresenting their opinions in print. That was career suicide.
My Dad taught at a small Ohio college where Sagan was invited to speak in the 80′s or 90′s. Dad said how some students there were quite disappointed in how Sagan demanded, shall I say, star treatment, with a limousine, etc.
I wish that more of our wide-eyed college students would more quickly see how our Ruling Class Emperors wear no clothes. I guess that when they’re force-fed Darwin, Marx and Howard Zinn as gospel truth throughout school, its to be expected that they won’t see the Emperor very clearly for a while.
Yes, Sagan was a primma donna who did not suffer fools. Yes, he had an insufferably big ego (I never once heard him make light of the myriad “billion-billion-billion” parodies of his manner). Still, he did have an excellent command of the sciences of astrophysics and what their implications are for human self-perception, metaphysics and epistemology. And he did have plenty of entertaining personal stories from his own life that illustrated his assertions brilliantly. One that stands out most was how, as a kid, he went to the city library and asked for a book about “stars”. The librarian returned with a Hollywood historical digest. You could just picture Carl as an 8-year-old doing a Facepalm.
He was a punk of the first order. A buddy went to HS with him and said Carl was lucky to have gotten out in one piece. My trademarked description from 40 years ago is that he was the establishment’s Official ‘Free Thinker’. Later, he became Bloviator in Chief. Today he would be right in the middle if the AGW carp. Gore’s twin with science credentials.
My favorite is the 90 y/o who said;
” I have had about all of myself I can stand.”
What a pity he eventually decided politics was more important than science.
Rob,
Sagan was a true believer, plus it was classic hubris. I don’t think it even occurred to him that his nuclear winter colleagues might object to his misrepresenting their opinions in print. That was career suicide.
My Dad taught at a small Ohio college where Sagan was invited to speak in the 80′s or 90′s. Dad said how some students there were quite disappointed in how Sagan demanded, shall I say, star treatment, with a limousine, etc.
I wish that more of our wide-eyed college students would more quickly see how our Ruling Class Emperors wear no clothes. I guess that when they’re force-fed Darwin, Marx and Howard Zinn as gospel truth throughout school, its to be expected that they won’t see the Emperor very clearly for a while.
Yes, Sagan was a primma donna who did not suffer fools. Yes, he had an insufferably big ego (I never once heard him make light of the myriad “billion-billion-billion” parodies of his manner). Still, he did have an excellent command of the sciences of astrophysics and what their implications are for human self-perception, metaphysics and epistemology. And he did have plenty of entertaining personal stories from his own life that illustrated his assertions brilliantly. One that stands out most was how, as a kid, he went to the city library and asked for a book about “stars”. The librarian returned with a Hollywood historical digest. You could just picture Carl as an 8-year-old doing a Facepalm.
He is still appreciated and missed.
He was a punk of the first order. A buddy went to HS with him and said Carl was lucky to have gotten out in one piece. My trademarked description from 40 years ago is that he was the establishment’s Official ‘Free Thinker’. Later, he became Bloviator in Chief. Today he would be right in the middle if the AGW carp. Gore’s twin with science credentials.