Small Differences Coming out of a Black Box as a Radical Difference

… If you were to talk Finish, I wouldn’t understand a word of what you’re saying. But nevertheless, the more we understand languages, the more we discover that they’re really cast pretty much to the same mold, that the differences among them are pretty narrowly circumscribed. Now narrowly circumscribed and minor differences in quite intricate systems can lead to an output that looks very different. You make small changes in the internal workings of an intricate system, and what comes out may look like a radical difference. But the more we understand, the more it does appear to turn out that those differences are small. And, in fact, we know that this must be the case. I mean, it’s by something almost close to logic, with very few facts.
… [In] languages like, say, English and French, questions are formed by taking the question word and putting it at the beginning of the sentence; in Chinese and Japanese, it sits there. But by now, there’s very strong reason to believe that Chinese and Japanese are doing exactly the same thing. It’s just that it happens in mental computation without any overt expression. One of the ways in which languages differ is what comes up the mouth, what parts of the mental computation actually are manifested. But the mental computations themselves seem remarkably identical. I mean, not remarkably, because they have to be. If they weren’t near identical, we couldn’t learn language in the first place. (p. 732, “After the Fall,” 22 November 1991)

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[Suppose] that the drug pretext were legitimate [in Colombia by the United States]. Suppose that the U.S. really is trying to get rid of drugs in Colombia. Does Colombia then have the right to fumigate tobacco farms in Kentucky? They are producing a lethal substance far more dangerous than cocaine (more Colombians die from tobacco-related illnesses than Americans die from cocaine). Of course, Colombia has no right to do that. (p. 738, “From ‘Communism’ to ‘Terrorism’ and the ‘Drug War,’” 21 February 2002)

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朝日、毎日の調査によると、内閣支持率が急落している。前回11月の調査で37％だった支持率は22％に、また不支持率は41％から64％ということだ。また、首相に「ふさわしい」のは、麻生首相が30％（前回49％）で、民主党の小沢代表が35％（同23％）と、小沢代表が初めて逆転した。一方、毎日新聞の調査は、内閣支持率を21％（10月36％）、不支持率を58％（同41％）。また、首相に「ふさわしい人」は、首相が19％（同40％）で、小沢代表が21％（同18％）だった。

公明党の固い組織票を目当てにして同党と組んでいる自民党を強く支持するわけにはいかないが、自分には「小沢、鳩山、管」というチグハグな組み合わせが、横路氏のように旧社会党出身者から小沢氏のように旧自由党出身者までが構成する、この民主党という政党のご都合主義を象徴しているように見えて仕方がない。しかし、この支持率では選挙は不可能。