Like Antonio Gramsci found himself confined to Mussolini's dungeons, having to jot down short lines of thought in small notebooks, I at times find myself confined to the kitchen table, by a laptop, forced by an uncontrollable impulse to comment on something I have seen or read, to write a few short lines about some subject.

I recently started reading Monthly Review Press’ edition of Antonio A. Santucci’s Antonio Gramsci. As I had just been lecturing a group of engineering students on the topic of scientific method, and common errors of thought that can create obstacles in scientific thinking, I did not get further than Joseph A. Buttigieg’s foreword, before stumbeling upon a connection I had to comment.

In describing Gramsci’s criticism of Bukharin’s rather dogmatic and deterministic understanding of history, Buttigieg quotes Gramsci writing “There are those who believe that science must absolutely mean ‘system’, and therefore they construct all kinds of systems that have only the mechanical outward appearance of a system” (Q7, §29)

A badly photographed guest appearance:

Another badly manipulated guest appearance:
*
*Understanding this joke requires basic knowledge of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, and old Superman-villains.

(I have seen that this particular pun been used by other people as well, but when I originally thought of it (and actually originally drew it), I was not aware of this. So for all I know - the idea could originally be mine!)

(This joke has actually been put online once before, but `twas a long time ago, and nobody read it, and it was long before the BDSW franchise. As it fits right into the franchise - here we go.)