Without commenting on, or pre-judging in any way, the actions of any of those involved in the incident referred to above -I would like to compliment the author of the above statement for what seems to me to be the most accurate and succinct description of the event I have yet received.

Indeed, for me, the most worrying aspect of all such incidents is the way they are reported and discussed by intellectuals and the media -generally seeming to prefer sensationalism and propaganda to simple reporting or discussion of what actually happened.

Presumably, nothing can ever be corrected unless there is a reasonable understanding of the situation that needs to be corrected and the ways in which it should be changed -all of which requires accurate information on which to base such an analysis. In a democracy, it is surely the social duty of all concerned to make sure the debate is as honest and open as possible, if the social debate is to transcend partisan power politics and have any social problem solving capability at all.

Of course I am fully aware that any call for "honesty" appears to rely on a belief in "facts" which can be generally agreed to be disputable, both in specific cases and as a general principle.

However, I understand that modern physics decades ago developed conceptual tools to deal with such problems: As I understand it, the "Shroedinger Wave" is a conceptual space representing all the possible results of an experiment -which "collapses" into a specific event at the moment the results are known. Presumably, the parameters of the "wave" are dependent on the description given to the phenomena referred to -so alternative "waves" are probably possible. The behaviour of each of these alternative can be compared both with each other and with the experimental results. This suggests that even without the belief in a single "objective reality" it is possible to examine and understand complex and obscure systems -provided that those involved pursue their craft honestly and openly.

However, outside the obviously (and unfortunately) esoteric disciplines of experimental and theoretical physics -it seems the opposite movement has been taking place in society: After decades of work by individuals and institutions promoting political-social discussions and art-science interactions it appears that these attempts have generally tended to focus on spreading various bits of fashionable or partisan dogma, self-promotional activities and the marketing of (commercialized) "lifestyle" -rather than any useful clarification of the debate regarding either the nature of science, art, culture or society.

Likewise the media: We are told by the apologists that we are living in the "Information Age". Governments even use taxpayers money to build "information super-highways" supposedly to enable the flood of "information" to flow freely. Around the world, locally owned news and entertainment media are often sold to giant international companies in order to "improve" (commercial) information flow. Additionally, Wiki's, Blogs and other commercial information and networking systems such as YouTube and Facebook abound -and are increasingly used by the traditional mainstream information and news media to supplement, or perhaps even replace, their normal practice. All these apparently increase the ease with which "information" can be connected, collated, processed and used -but for what practical purpose -and to which end?

Amongst the plethora of "information" and the cacophony of clamouring voices -where can one read (with such clarity as shown in FMA's statement) the basic "facts" (or parameters) of the various local and international events that are bound up with our lives in various ways? Where are the fora, where the analysis of the situation and the search for remedies can take place, in simple honest and open terms? Where indeed, are the places where the various levels of the complex problems facing us can be clarified and related to each other in public -without self-promoting obfuscations and propaganda based chit-chat? In my experience, the unfortunate answer is that such accurate and intelligent information systems and fora seem almost impossible to find.

So long as this hypocritical and misleading situation continues -then I personally feel that the intellectuals are as guilty as anybody else. If the result is that the wrong people are being arrested and charged for the wrong reasons -then surely it is the duty of intellectuals and media workers everywhere to mend their ways and do their sincere best to provide accurate information and intelligent, relevant, debate aimed more at problem solving than career advancement. Until this happens, then we have no right to blame others if things go wrong.

Trevor Batten
http://www.tebatt.net/