¶ Custom
Index Entry
Custom: Lest One Good Custom Corrupt the World:
Q. “Individuals do not survive, but the species does survive through all the environmental stresses. What are the ethical and moral standards should we use in determining the environment that humanity must choose?”
RBF: "I do not hink of any kind of (social or philosophical) ‘movement.’ We are all born in the presence of the truth. We do have this enormous cultural yearning–but it is so remote from what Universe is trying to do. Human mind is everything: credos and culture are not it.
"Poets, being sensitive, feel the significance of events more than do scientists. Scientists, beginning with Lavoisier and Priestley, have found out about thermodynamics and its second law of entropy bringing about increasing disorder. This is what Tennyson is saying–it all happened in his lifetime. Tennyson accepts the idea of entropy, the operation of inexorability in human affairs. His 'Morte D’Arthur, the Death of King Arthur says–
¶ Citations
- RBF to World Game Workshop; Phila, PA; 22 Jun’77
