The “aim” of Western Thought has always been to gain credibility — of attaining to Eternal Truths and Universalities. In a dinner conversation, the quickest way to denigrate someone’s opinion or viewpoint is to merely say, “Yes, but what you have said is merely subjective; it has no objective basis in fact”. In a previous epoch, John Adams is attributed to having said that objective facts “are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” He was making the distinction between the subjective world and the objective universe, and placing greater weight upon the latter. In modernity, such a statement has lost some of its luster, if not its very essence of relevance, because we live in a post-factual world where objective facts do not hold such an esteemed status, anymore. And yet…. Even in this world, there are somehow the remnants of elevated claims to greater significance, if something is “objectively” factual, as opposed to subjectively stated. There is always the implication and inference that when something is deemed “subjective”, and purely so, that it is somehow concocted, imagined, “made-up” — like the child who believes that he/she is a master chef of world renown, when in fact the kitchen set-up in front of him/her is a toy kitchenette made of plastic and wood. For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition and who need to file...
It’s over now, but something has to be said. It’s over. The strange saga of Lieutenant Governor Dale Caldwell that was kept from the public until NJ Globe’s David Wildstein broke the story. For mo...