February 23, 2017 Thursday
Bedtime Story
The Nazi Minister Asks David Hilbert a Question
This is what happens when political ideologies take over education
and universities.
It is a monumental tragedy that keeps on repeating in all cultures
and at all times.
There is nothing common between mathematics/sciences and religion/political
ideologies.
Once in 1934 while attending a banquet, David Hilbert was made to
sit next to Bernhard Rust, the new Minister of Science, Education and National
Culture of the Third Reich.
It was this minister who had passed the decree that all students
and teachers ought to greet each other with that famous Nazi salute.
Rust made it clear his goal; to make all the Germans aware of
their so called “Aryan” ethnicity and cleanse all the universities of Jews.
Most tribes or societies show this tendency of generating social
uniformity and racial conformity which can to some extent be explained by the
gene-centric view of evolution from which follows the concept of kin selection
and hence tribalism.
This is what Bernhard Rust, the minister of Science and Education
had to say about non-Aryan science and “Jewish physics”:
“The problems of science do not present themselves in the same way
to all men (which is very true but in ways other than he intended to mean).
The Negro or the Jew will view the same world in a different light
from the German investigator”.
So Hilbert being one of the top men of Göttingen was made to sit
with this Nazi Minister of Science and Education at the banquet.
Sitting next to him, Bernhard Rust asked Hilbert the question:
“Did the Mathematical Institute really suffer so much from the
departure of the Jews?”
To it, Hilbert replied:
“Suffered? It does not exist any longer, does it!”
This is what tribalism and nationalism can do to a society; eviscerate
it!
Hilbert passed away in 1943, very fortunate not to have witnessed
the grotesque evil and savagery that was already being unleashed in its chilling
fury.
Such a great man and thinker and less than a dozen people came for
his funeral.
I wonder how many will come for mine (assuming there will be one).
In his gravestone the elegy reads:
Wirmüssenwissen.
Wirwerdenwissen.
In English, this translated to:
We must know.
We will know.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
Mark the words written at the bottom of David Hilbert's tombstone at Gӧttingen:
Wir műssen wissen
Wir wurden wissen
Wir műssen wissen
Wir wurden wissen
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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