MOTION MOUNTAIN

318 9 concepts, lies and patterns of nature
Ref. 291
Ref. 290
“ManchesuchenSicherheit,woMutgefragtist,
undsuchenFreiheit,wodasRichtige keine
Wahlläßt.*
BertHellinger”
Most of the material in this chapter is necessary in the adventure to get to the top of Motion
Mountain. But we need more. Like any enterprise, curiosity also requires courage,
and complete curiosity, as aimed for in our quest, requires complete courage. In fact, it
iseasytogetdiscouragedonthisjourney.Thequestisoftendismissedbyothersasuseless,uninteresting,childish,confusing,damaging,crazyor,above
all, evil. For example,
between the death of Socrates in 399 bce and Paul Thierry, Baron d’Holbach, in the
eighteenth century, no book was published with the statement ‘gods do not exist’, because
of the threatsto thelife of anyone whodared to make the point. Even today, this
type of attitude still abounds, as the newspapers show.
Through the constant elimination of uncertainty, both curiosity and scientific activity
are implicitly opposed to any idea, person or organization that tries to avoid the comparisonofstatementswithobservations.These
‘avoiders’ demand to live with superstitions
and beliefs. But superstitions and beliefs produce unnecessary fear. And fear is the basis
of all unjust authorities. One gets into a vicious circle: avoiding comparison with observation
produces fear – fear keeps unjust authority in place – unjust authority avoids
comparison with observation – etc.
Through the constant drive towards certainty, curiosity and science are fundamentally
opposedtounjust authority,aconnectionthatmadelife difficult forpeoplesuchas
AnaxagorasinancientGreece,HypatiaintheChristianRomanempire,GalileoGalileiin
theformer church state, Antoine Lavoisier in revolutionary France and Albert Einstein
(and many others) in nazi Germany. In the second half of the twentieth century, victims
were Robert Oppenheimer, Melba Phillips and Chandler Davis in the United States, and
Andrei Sakharov in the Soviet Union. Each of them tell a horrible but instructive story, as
have, more recently, Fang Lizhi, Xu Liangying, Liu Gang and Wang Juntao in China, Kim
Song-ManinSouthCorea,OtanazarAripov in Uzbekistan, Ramadanal-Hadial-Hushin
Libya,BoBoHtuninBurma,SamiKilaniandSalmanSalmaninPalestine,AbdusSalam
inPakistan,aswellasmanyhundredsofothers.Inmanyauthoritariansocietiestheantagonismbetweencuriosityandinjusticehashinderedoreven
completely suppressed the
development of physics and other sciences, with extremely negative economic, social and
cultural consequences.
When embarking on the adventure to understand motion, we need to be conscious of
what we are doing. In fact, external obstacles can be avoided or at least largely reduced by
keeping the project to oneself. Other difficulties still remain, this time of personal nature.
Many have tried to embark on this adventure with some hidden or explicit intention,
usually of an ideological nature, and then have got entangled by it before reaching the
end. Some have not been prepared to accept the humility required for such an endeavour.
Others were not prepared for the openness required, which can shatter deeply held beliefs.Still
otherswerenotreadytoturntowardstheunclear,thedarkandtheunknown,
confrontingthematevery occasion.
* ‘Somelookforsecuritywherecourageisrequiredandlookforfreedomwheretherightwaydoesn’tleave
anychoice.’
Motion Mountain – The Adventure of Physics copyright © Christoph Schiller June 1990–November 2015 free pdf file available at www.motionmountain.net