Re: The joy of actual numbers, was Democracy

On 08/11/2024 18:44, rbowman wrote:

On Fri, 8 Nov 2024 15:35:34 +0100, D wrote:
 

I've learned nothing travelling which I couldn't have learned at home
with the help of the internet, good books and documentaries.

 "A man must generally get away some hundreds or thousands of miles from
home before he can be said to begin his travels. Why not begin his travels
at home? Would he have to go far or look very closely to discover
novelties? The traveler who, in this sense, pursues his travels at home,
has the advantage at any rate of a long residence in the country to make
his observations correct and profitable. Now the American goes to England,
while the Englishman comes to America, in order to describe the country."
 Henry David Thoreau
 

It's called perspective.
I could not understand the stupidity and arrogance of Americans in the UK, So I spent 3 months travelling around on a greyhound bus back in 1974.
I wrote in my diary
God Bless America!
*Someone* has to.
--
"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
    - Leo Tolstoy