  A review of old inconsistencies of Classical Electrodynamics (CED) and of
some new ideas that solve them is presented. Problems with causality violating
solutions of the wave equation and of the electron equation of motion, and
problems with the non-integrable singularity of its self-field energy tensor
are well known. The correct interpretation of the two (advanced and retarded)
Lienard-Wiechert solutions are in terms of creation and annihilation of
particles in classical physics. They are both retarded solutions. Previous work
on the short distance limit of CED of a spinless point electron are based on a
faulty assumption which causes the well known inconsistencies of the theory: a
diverging self-energy (the non-integrable singularity of its self-field energy
tensor) and a causality-violating third order equation of motion (the
Lorentz-Dirac equation). The correct assumption fixes these problems without
any change in the Maxwell's equations and let exposed, in the zero-distance
limit, the discrete nature of light: the flux of energy from a point charge is
discrete in time. CED cannot have a true equation of motion but only an
effective one, as a consequence of the intrinsic meaning of the Faraday-Maxwell
concept of field that does not correspond to the classical description of
photon exchange, but only to the smearing of its effects in the space around
the charge. This, in varied degrees, is transferred to QED and to other field
theories that are based on the same concept of fields as space-smeared
interactions.
