Occam's razor states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating, or "shaving off," those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory. In short, when given two equally valid explanations for a phenomenon, one should embrace the less complicated formulation. The principle is often expressed in Latin as the lex parsimoniae (law of succinctness).
I like that. Maybe it's because I am a Little Brain, or maybe I am a simple minded hick. Whatever the case, Occam's razor seems to slip nicely in line with the law of conservation of matter and all the other goodies that rule our universe. Occam's razor is what I thought of when I read this by Michael Novak:
Our enemies understand media campaigns, which have a high priority in their strategic plans, and they know the weaknesses and sentimentalities of our society, and how to turn them against our own leadership. They play critics of the war like violins. The only way they can win is through psychological warfare, by way of the media. (Why is the only story out of Iraq each day a bombing that kills six, when there are more murders than that each night in a group of a half-dozen cities or so in the U.S.? Our enemies count on that. They want the drip, drip, drip of American blood, because they think we do not have the moral toughness to stand it.)
Please do read the whole thing.
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