The Poet's Eye-Lies, Damn Lies and Lie Detectors
Posted: August 28th, 2004, 12:25 pm
Glasses which can tell you if someone's lying? What the hell?
Have we lost our minds?
"Lies, damn lies, and statistics".... wow.... I wonder if I could win a
bar bet with this one. I would have sworn Mark Twain first said this. Benjamin Disraeli? Now that's a surprise.
This man, Disraeli, was an interesting figure in 19th century British
politics. He aligned himself with the conservatives, but his views
seemed to stray hither and yon. He advocated that the aristocracy
should use their power to help the poor. He favored protectionism.
When he finally became Prime Minister late in his life, with a clear
majority for the Tories in the House of Commons, he passed several
social reforms.... the Public Health Act, the Pure Food and Drugs Act,
the Education Act, the Factory Act among them, along with new laws to
improve the legal positions of trade unions. But he was also imperialistic
in his views, and he got on very well with Queen Victoria, who agreed with
his suggestion that she should accept the title of 'Empress of India'...
The Public Health Act? The Education Act? This from a so-called
'conservative'? Sounds pretty socialistic to me. I wonder why 'socialism'
is so villified by many conservatives and even moderates today....
just something I've always wondered about.