tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post2917790745056808070..comments2024-03-27T11:16:36.951-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: The Deep Structure of Political Deep StructureGagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-25314398281111121232009-10-19T21:53:09.840-07:002009-10-19T21:53:09.840-07:00FRIEDRICH VON HAYEK
The higher we climb up the lad...FRIEDRICH VON HAYEK<br />The higher we climb up the ladder of intelligence, the more we talk with intellectuals, the more likely we are to encounter socialist convictions. Initial surprise at finding that intelligent people tend to be socialist diminishes when one realizes that, of course, intelligent people will tend to overvalue intelligence. <br />Departments of psychology and sociology, of education, and the characteristic intellectuals whom they produce, are pale reproductions of Rousseau and Marx, Freud and Keynes, transmitted through intellects whose desires have outrun their understanding. <br /><br />BRUCE CHARLTON evolutionary psychologist, editor Medical Hypohteses <br />An increasing relative level of IQ brings with it a tendency to over-use general intelligence in problem-solving, and to over-ride those instinctive and spontaneous forms of evolved behavior which could be termed common sense. Since evolved common sense usually produces the right answers in the social domain, this implies that, when it comes to solving social problems, the most intelligent people are more likely than those of average intelligence to have novel but silly ideas, and therefore to believe and behave maladaptively. <br />This random silliness of the most intelligent people may be amplified to generate systematic wrongness when intellectuals are also advertising their own high intelligence in the context of a modern IQ meritocracy. The stratified context of communicating almost exclusively with others of similar intelligence generates opinions and behaviours among the highest IQ people which are then not just lacking in common sense but also perverse. <br />Yet, whatever else, to be a clever silly is a somewhat tragic state; because it entails being.... unable to engage directly and spontaneously with what most humans have traditionally regarded as social reality; disbarred from the common experience of humankind and instead cut-adrift on the surface of a glittering but shallow ocean of novelties: none of which can ever truly convince or satisfy. It is to be alienated from the world; and to find no stable meaning of life that is solidly underpinned by emotional conviction. Little wonder, perhaps, that clever sillies choose sub-replacement reproduction.xlbrlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01931950075332608449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-43163053693378456472009-10-16T15:04:24.230-07:002009-10-16T15:04:24.230-07:00Upon consideration I realize I made an error in my...Upon consideration I realize I made an error in my last post. James, son of Joseph, was not the same as James the Apostle.<br /><br />Joseph's first wife, Salome, had given him seven children before she died: sons James, Jude, Simon and Joses; and daughters Salome, Esther, and one other whose name is uncertain. Tradition says that Joseph's daughter Salome was the mother of the Apostles James and John. So James and John were technically Jesus' step-nephews.<br /><br />Joseph himself was a builder and carpenter by trade, which is why Jesus was a carpenter.Bulletproof Monknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-4706084131071358702009-10-16T09:03:58.408-07:002009-10-16T09:03:58.408-07:00That's interesting, BPM. Also explains why Jes...That's interesting, BPM. Also explains why Jesus could be said to have brothers, if I read that correctly; it never occurred to me Joseph might already have kids.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-90693656499174175902009-10-16T06:18:53.119-07:002009-10-16T06:18:53.119-07:00Yes, I was mainly being rhetorical, but your point...Yes, I was mainly being rhetorical, but your point is well taken. After all, Aurobindo was educated at Cambridge, and even Petey didn't <i>only</i> work on a farm.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-50914149475085239552009-10-16T04:11:43.460-07:002009-10-16T04:11:43.460-07:00A bit of digression but I feel I must correct Bob ...A bit of digression but I feel I must correct Bob regarding Jesus living abroad. Scripture indicates the infant Jesus, along with Mary and Joseph, fled to Egypt prior to Herod's slaughter of the innocents. According to Matthew, Joseph was warned by God in a dream.<br /><br />Orthodox and Coptic tradition has much to say on the places the Holy family visited and some of the events that transpired, and there are a number of icons depicting the period. For example, Joseph was at the time a venerable 80 years, but willingly heeded the call to duty to protect those under his charge. His younger son James (later Apostle and leader of the Jerusalem community) accompanied them. The travelers journeyed from Palestine into lower Egypt, down along the Nile and well into upper Egypt, whereupon Herod the Great died (in 4BC) and the family could return to live in Nazareth. In all they were abroad about three years.<br /><br />In a number of towns they visited, as they entered the town idols and statues are purported to have collapsed before them. There are other stories about some miracles that occurred in certain places, that are today still popular pilgrimage sites. Most of these traditional stories are from the Coptic tradition.<br /><br />My favorite is an apocryphal account in the "Egyptian Synaxarion." While trying to pass quietly by night through a desert area infested with thieves, the family encountered two robbers on the road, named Dismas and Gestas. A large band of robbers was also sleeping nearby. Dismas, upon seeing the infant, marvelled saying "If God were to take human flesh, He would not be more beautiful than this child!" Then Dismas beseeched Gestas to let the family go by quietly, and not make a noise to rouse the others. Gestas was not inclned to let them pass so Dismas offered him 40 drachmas and his belt as collateral. Mary, full of gratitude for this kindness, said to Dismas, "My child will reward thee richly for having spared Him this day. The Lord God will receive thee to His right hand and grant thee pardon of thy sins." More than thirty years later, at the Crucifixion, tradition holds that it was these same two thieves who were crucified on either side of Jesus. Dismas was to Christ's right hand and Gestas to His left. Dismas, while on the cross, repented of his whole life and said, "This Man has done nothing amiss" [Lk 23:41]. As Scripture indicates, it was Dismas who was that same day with Christ in Paradise [Lk 23:43].Bulletproof Monknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-61068012171677697472009-10-15T18:25:15.414-07:002009-10-15T18:25:15.414-07:00NB said "Recently I have been educating mysel...NB said "Recently I have been educating myself on the fractional reserve system and this has shaken up many previous beliefs for perfectly good reasons, not least new evidence. Same with "purist" free-market ideology."<br /><br />Beliefs like 'you can bank on that'?<br /><br />This article from 1992, by Richard Salsman warned about the <a href="http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/banking-without-the-too-big-to-fail-doctrine/" rel="nofollow">'Too big to fail'</a> notions, and that publicly financing insurance (FDIC) for banks fractional reserve systems, tends to encourage banks to lessen the fractions they keep in reserves, and also leads depositors (you and me) into thinking their money is safe, nothing to worry about (eh... might want to google the current soundness of the FDIC), and leads to notions of 'too big to fail' - and so widespread failures result.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-52022136578057100482009-10-15T18:01:01.427-07:002009-10-15T18:01:01.427-07:00AP thinks Obama was born in Kenya. Well, they did ...AP thinks Obama was born in Kenya. Well, they did back when that was an advantage. Wonder how long this page will last before it's "disappeared"...<br /><br /><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20040627142700/eastandard.net/headlines/news26060403.htm" rel="nofollow">Kenyan-born Obama all set for US Senate</a>Stephen Macdonaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13474300559219020772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-87046703763790773992009-10-15T17:51:55.789-07:002009-10-15T17:51:55.789-07:00Spengler made a superb call when he compared Obama...Spengler made a superb call when he compared Obama to Stanton Carlyle, the main character of <i>Nightmare Alley</i>.<br />But the reference doesn't work if you haven't seen the film or read the novel, written by William Lindsey Gresham. <br /><br />Carlyle is a sociopath, devoid of compassion. He starts as a carny, and hustles his way to fame and fortune with a phony mentalist (psychic)act. He exploits everyone around him, until he over reaches very badly, and comes to a horrible, if well deserved, end.<br />Obama, like Stanton Carlyle, does seem to be a hustler way way out of his league in this gig.<br />In that way he is very much like the main character in Nightmare Alley.<br /><br />as a sideline: Both the book, and the film are excellent. The 1946 novel is a morality play laid out in 22 chapters corresponding to the cards in the major arcana of the Rider Tarot. The movie, with Tyrone Powers, and Joan Blondel is a great piece of film noir. I happened to catch it on late nite TV back in the seventies, and was very taken with the film. I found, read, and then lost a paperback copy of the novel, and then found a first printing of the original. The liner notes start:"This is not a nice book..."<br /><br />wv: woomin<br /><br />JWMJWMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05564732483476859555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-14018129129405115472009-10-15T17:50:03.939-07:002009-10-15T17:50:03.939-07:00Seemingly intelligent, reasonable people of the le...Seemingly intelligent, reasonable people of the leftist persuasion are... I can't even come up with a word for it.<br /><br />Today on NPR they interviewed a well-spoken scientist who has written a book decrying modern "attacks on science". Darwinism goes without saying. His other big theme: global warming. Ok... how crazy/dishonest/psychotic do you have to be to maintain with a straight face that "the science is settled" and that there is literally no room for debate whatsoever? How can this happen? There are plenty of things I believe as a classical liberal that I question from time to time. Recently I have been educating myself on the fractional reserve system and this has shaken up many previous beliefs for perfectly good reasons, not least new evidence. Same with "purist" free-market ideology. Hellooo! People do not act like textbook "rational" actors in the real world. Doesn't mean we abandon economic freedom of course, but it also means we should be careful with the cartoonish simplifications occaisionally tossed about on our side of the fence, most notoriously in some segments of the talk-radioverse.<br /><br />But I don't <i>think</i> I have very many 7,000 lb elephants sitting in the room with me which I somehow simply ignore or even deny exist at all. The severe theoretical weaknesses and widespread dissent on this global warming issue make it really, really hard not to question the sanity of those who persist in this bizarre parody of actual science. <br /><br />Leftists seem to be objectively crazy in some hard-to-define way.Stephen Macdonaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13474300559219020772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-74089890815094346652009-10-15T12:34:50.589-07:002009-10-15T12:34:50.589-07:00Van,
de Tocqueville's words help me feel the ...Van,<br /><br />de Tocqueville's words help me feel the slime.hoarheyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03545412454309271593noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-8814002495318028932009-10-15T11:35:26.688-07:002009-10-15T11:35:26.688-07:00Bob said: "I very much enjoyed my logic class...Bob said: "I very much enjoyed my logic class, more for its negative than positive capabilities. That is, armed with knowledge of various logical fallacies, it is easy to pick apart most opinions."<br /><br />That is true the knowledge of the various logical fallacies does help when discussing issues with someone. It also helps me to clarify my thinking on issues.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04973448750714819716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-55389979668532357452009-10-15T11:13:58.113-07:002009-10-15T11:13:58.113-07:00Pardon a little horn blowing solo, but while de To...Pardon a little horn blowing solo, but while de Tocqueville said it better, it is exactly what I was trying to get at <a href="http://blogodidact.blogspot.com/2009/10/louis-lamour-laconic-law-from-cicero-to.html" rel="nofollow">here:</a><br /><br />"...<i>and it is central to what L'amour's 'simple' Western tale deliberates upon - Choices.<br /><br />People's simple, day to day, situational, moment to moment, choices. And what someone does in seeking to compel another to act as They see fit, is that they are substituting your ability to make a choice, with the choice they they have pre-selected for you.<br /><br />Your life is made, formed, deformed, reformed - for better or for worse - through an unending succession of choices which you make. Choices are that point where You lean out from the confines of your skin, and intersect with reality, by making a choice to act in one way or another. As govt power grows bigger and stronger, able to remove more and more actions from your ability to choose them (whether for, against or other doesn't matter), there is less of You in your life.<br /><br />The more choices that are made for you, or removed from your ability to make any choice at all - the less Life you have to actually Live. The more choices you have available to you, which we call Liberty, the more You are involved in living your life. The more choices that are removed or restricted from you, or made by someone else for you, which we call Tyranny, the less you are present and living in your own life.<br /><br />If You aren't actively living your own life... who is? Is that life that is lived according to the disembodied, predetermined choices selected by distant legislators and functionaries... Life? <br /><br />Zombies and Westerns are far less fictional than we like to think.</i> "<br /><br />Again with the Zombies... well... JWM says they're relevant again.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-45577932063415426832009-10-15T11:03:55.290-07:002009-10-15T11:03:55.290-07:00Lance said "... a mandatory logic class. It s...Lance said "... a mandatory logic class. It seems like such a contrived system to make a case for anything that you wanted to use it for. "<br /><br />What most modern books and classes on logic nearly all either drop, or hugely de-emphasize, was what Aristotle cautioned must be so, that the premises <i>must</i> reflect not only the facts as you know them, but must have a basis in reality beyond the syllogism; it is utterly useless without that. <br /><br />But nearly all modern logic, attempts to examine the 'pure logic' of how the particular premises relate to each other alone. Which is... Purely ILL-logical.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-63276465439715134862009-10-15T10:55:38.695-07:002009-10-15T10:55:38.695-07:00"After having thus successively taken each me..."After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd." --French historian Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)<br /><br /><br />Time to wake the fuck up America.hoarheyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03545412454309271593noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-16552551874329217712009-10-15T10:52:57.747-07:002009-10-15T10:52:57.747-07:00"This relates to Sowell's main thesis of ..."This relates to Sowell's main thesis of the "unconstrained vision" of the left and the "constrained vision" of the right. The French revolution is the quintessential example of the unconstrained vision in action -- the idea that we can eliminate all of man's tacit cultural assumptions and "superstitions," and replace them with the cold light of logic. "<br /><br />Which I'd amend slightly to "...and replace them with the cold light of logic<b>chopping</b>. "<br /><br />What leftist thought <i>requires</i>, is isolated, dis-integrated, propositions, examined and considered without reference to it's wider, and essential context. That not only enables, but demands, the inclusion of arbitrary assertions and equivocations, the setting which enables you to 'argue' with a straight face, that reality should be what you'd prefer it to be.<br /><br />And of course, a <b>BIG</b> thumbs up on Sowell's "A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles", an <i>excellent</i> examination the process of thinking.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-76536159312862259042009-10-15T10:44:20.249-07:002009-10-15T10:44:20.249-07:00"To reopen everything for negotiation is trul..."To reopen everything for negotiation is truly to open a pandora's box. "<br /><br />Which was precisely what Descartes and J.S. Mill claimed to have done and advised people do, to discard all 'preconceptions' and refrain from using them until you've proved them yourself. It sounds deceptively sensible, but it is, an insane quest. Theodore Dalrymple has a brief, and excellent examination of this idiocy, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Praise-Prejudice-Necessity-Preconceived-Encounters/dp/1594032025" rel="nofollow">In Praise of Prejudice: The Necessity of Preconceived Ideas</a>.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-88542844674166842022009-10-15T10:10:14.777-07:002009-10-15T10:10:14.777-07:00re: #1. The tomb is empty.re: #1. The tomb is empty.mushroomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651027035577798096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-62909245855366518942009-10-15T10:07:29.859-07:002009-10-15T10:07:29.859-07:00You know, what I miss are those great pulpy sci-fi...You know, what I miss are those great pulpy sci-fi stories about how some purely theoretical inventor creates a device that causes somebody to say, "But what if it fell into the wrong hands?"<br /><br />That can't even begin to make sense to the scientistic -- unless they are thinking about Pat Robertson, John Hagee, Glen Beck or Rush. <br /><br />Apparently, wv is advertising a special -- perhaps in Las Wages -- <i>nofeewed</i> -- no indication on exclusions.mushroomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651027035577798096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-49375998130980877262009-10-15T10:03:12.454-07:002009-10-15T10:03:12.454-07:00"To suggest that one may arrive at truth thro..."To suggest that one may arrive at truth through logic alone is a conviction so childlike that it hardly bears refuting."<br /><br />No, it is a lesson that is never actually won, a conviction that grows like our vanity and bears constant attention, possesses its own gravity, and only needs us to loosen our grip to gain momentum.<br />Aristotle got that ball rolling, and when it is interrupted it is only briefly.xlbrlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01931950075332608449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-18155041417647289012009-10-15T09:55:18.673-07:002009-10-15T09:55:18.673-07:00I very much enjoyed my logic class, more for its n...I very much enjoyed my logic class, more for its negative than positive capabilities. That is, armed with knowledge of various logical fallacies, it is easy to pick apart most opinions. But on the other hand, it is impossible to build a functional world view from logic alone.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-36711370369210091352009-10-15T09:47:59.968-07:002009-10-15T09:47:59.968-07:00During my philosophy program at school it drove me...During my philosophy program at school it drove me nuts to have to take a mandatory logic class. It seems like such a contrived system to make a case for anything that you wanted to use it for. Bah!!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04973448750714819716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-60207888874046038272009-10-15T09:40:38.986-07:002009-10-15T09:40:38.986-07:00For me, W. was at his best when he threw that pitc...For me, W. was at his best when he threw that pitch to start the 2001 World Series. Perfect strike. And then, when he dodged those shoes.<br /><br />Obama has a great move to the basket. I wonder if that's how he got that peace prize?Contra Rebelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09069882767235492654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-28315877108758427682009-10-15T09:06:49.948-07:002009-10-15T09:06:49.948-07:00Yes - he really is kind of a cipher. Maybe I'm...Yes - he really is kind of a cipher. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it's just as easy for the right to project into him all kinds of personality disorders as it is for the left to project into him all sorts of saintly attributes. His real self so rarely comes out, it's impossible to know it when you see it.<br /><br />I still think those little moments when he flipped off his opponents were quite telling, though. Also "I won." But all I know for certain from those is that he's kind of a dick. Ingracious in victory, whiny when he's losing. I always hated that kid.<br /><br />As far as his friends and acquaintances go, they say a lot, too, but a lot of what they say depends on what the relationships actually were, and there just isn't any way to know that.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-87427590038531150952009-10-15T08:57:57.443-07:002009-10-15T08:57:57.443-07:00“To suggest that one may arrive at truth through l...“To suggest that one may arrive at truth through logic alone is a conviction so childlike that it hardly bears refuting. If that were the case, the progress of science would not require great leaps of creative imagination and synthesis -- of genius and vision. Rather, a computer -- or computer programmer -- could do it.”<br /><br />Is there even a such thing as pure logic? …without a discriminating mind to evaluate and make decisions? I don’t think a computer program can design a computer program that’s any better than the first one. I mean, there needs to be someone to <i>check</i> the logic.<br /><br />In other words, anyone who thinks they are using pure logic is just kidding themselves.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10589423819039764711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-61288270416187592842009-10-15T08:53:24.887-07:002009-10-15T08:53:24.887-07:00One problem is that Obama is so secretive, that it...One problem is that Obama is so secretive, that it's very difficult to know what's actually going on in his interior world. He definitely has a highly developed false self -- which one usually sees with pathological narcissists -- but it is unclear how much of this is conscious and known to him, as opposed to an unconscious defensive structure.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.com