Today, April 6th 2022, is the 30th anniversary of Isaac Asimov's death.
The 25th anniversary in 2017 inspired an article about him; he has also been mentioned in connection with Noel Streatfeild. He was a great supporter of public libraries, and an article about Jean Rhys mentions his beloved underground cities.
Today, we have a few miscellaneous quotations of particular interest and significance to mark the occasion. Some of them come from I, Asimov - Galactic Words of Isaac Asimov by Sreechinth C, who does not always give his sources.
These quotations provide just a small sample of Isaac Asimov's words of wisdom: much more of the same can be found in the huge number of books that he produced.
The importance of reason
Isaac Asimov has something to say about reason and the lack of it:
“I stand four-square for reason, and object to what seems to me to be irrationality, whatever the source. If you are on my side in this, I must warn you that the army of the night has the advantage of overwhelming numbers, and, by its very nature, is immune to reason, so that it is entirely unlikely that you and I can win out.
We will always remain a tiny and probably hopeless minority, but let us never tire of presenting our view, and of fighting the good fight for the right.”
This is all very true and very well expressed. I am on his side in this. I know what we are up against: I too have found that there are many people in the world who will not listen to reason and that rational human beings are like a few small islands of sanity in a huge ocean of unreason.
I like his expression “the army of the night” as it makes me think of the forces of darkness!
The importance of evidence
In his collection of essays The Roving Mind, Isaac Asimov says something that has particular relevance to some of the topics on here:
“I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.”
It certainly is very important to back up insights, intuition and speculation with supporting evidence: making wild allegations and assertions is just not good enough. Information obtained via metaphysical methods may be correct, but facts and figures are needed to convince others.
I wonder whether Asimov would have accepted any of the patterns, connections, 'coincidences' and common elements that are featured on here as evidence for the existence of certain unseen influences.
Remembering and forgetting
As someone who has very good recall, I have often found that family members will not remember, will misremember or not want to know about something that I remember very well. It was very helpful to learn from Isaac Asimov's autobiographical works that he had the same problem.
For example, his mother strongly denied ever having hit him when he remembered very well that she had, and his sister couldn't remember the fights that they used to have.
When he heard people talking about the past and getting it all wrong, missing or inventing important parts of the story, Asimov would correct them, but they wouldn't believe him. When he produced his diary, in which he logged everything meticulously, as evidence, they would say, “I don't care what your diary says.”
I know from experience how very frustrating it can be when people behave like this.
Re-inventing the past
Asimov says in his memoirs I, Asimov that his sister pictured an imaginary idyllic existence between them, as did...
“...other people who have shared memories with me. They wipe out whole continents of fact and construct some fairy tale that never existed and insist that that’s the way it was. Maybe it is more comfortable to create your own past, but I can’t do it. I remember things too well—“
This comes very close to home. I could have written it myself: this is exactly what I have experienced and how I feel about it.
Such whitewashing of the past seems to be very common, unfortunately. I consider respecting the truth and getting to the bottom of things to be of supreme importance. I will not be an enabler for people who recreate history in order to avoid facing up to and taking responsibility for things. I seem to be in a minority though.
They don't want to know!
More wise words from Isaac Asimov:
“The easiest way to solve a problem is to deny it exists.”
This reminds me of what Upton Sinclair said about the difficulty of getting through to people when they have a vested interested in not understanding or accepting something.
I once saw a good cartoon that said it all. Two men were sitting side by side at their desks; one had a sign that said he was offering comforting lies, and the other was offering painful truths. No need to say which man had a queue of customers and who had no takers.
Isaac Asimov had something very similar to say in his introduction to Tales of the Occult:
“Given the choice between a cold truth and a desirable lie, which would any person choose who is not totally wedded to rational reality.”
I have encountered many people who do indeed seem to prefer the comforting lie: they don't want their boats rocked or their bubbles burst; they want to keep their illusions and live on in their fantasy worlds.
Isaac Asimov: humanist and rationalist
Isaac Asimov wrote many essays in which he discusses various aspects of life including religious fundamentalism, UFOs and population growth from the rationalist viewpoint.
It is a pity that he is not around to hear some of the counter-arguments that come to mind when his explanations preclude or dismiss metaphysical interpretations!
This is one of his essay collections:
