A bit of an exaggerated comment. Plenty of medicine -- far from all of it, possibly a minority -- works and helps people. Unless you think we know no more than we did 1000 years ago. Emergency medicine being a good example.
Much philosophy is rubbish and fits your description (I have a doctorate in the subject) but the best enlightens and helps you think critically -- something badly needed and rarely taught in schools.
I'm baffled by the assertion that science doesn't understand life. Life is complex and science is a process, not a set of answers. We understand vastly more than we used to.
Much of our problem with rubbish research and rubbish science and rubbish medicine is due to them feeding at the public trough funded by taxation.
"Much of our problem with rubbish research and rubbish science and rubbish medicine is due to them feeding at the public trough funded by taxation."
Yes. And yes again. And once more yes just for the sake of it.
I'm ME Chem Eng, lots of science over the years, and for 30 years I've been finding out so much of what we learnt is nonsense. First tell was as a young graduate...an older snr manager engineer where I was working told me to forget everything I'd learnt. Great advice, though the maths has come in handy. And some is useful. Engineers know that. But the theory and philosophy...needs 'fact checking.'
I believe I get the sentiment of your comment. But nevertheless it is still misguided, due to the inherent inclination - the very function -of the mind to simplify REALITY in order to analyse it. But no matter how much analysing has been done by no matter how many minds for how long the issue with synthesising still remains. And no man's mind or group thereof - forget about LLM - can accomplish that.
" We understand vastly more than we used to."
That's the mantra of THE SYNAGOGUE OF MAKE BELIEVE in general and the faction thereof I call scientism in particular. PRIDE AND HUBRIS of the mind are standing in the way of true understanding - to stand under GOD ALMIGHTY'S WISDOM MIGHT GRACE AND PURPOSE. HE CANNOT BE BEATEN BY THE SERVANT AS HE IS THE MASTER THAT CREATED EVERYTHING INCL. THE SERVANT.
We build models and we test them. To the extent to which the theories they embody survive testing and yield results, that is science, not scientism. Scientism is the inappropriate application of the methods of a science to an area where it doesn't apply. Although the principles of scientific discovery are universal, their application differs depending on the domain. I would say that it is scientism to apply the approach of physics to economics. People are not particles.
You seem to be rejecting all knowledge. Do you believe that God is a great deceiver who fools us and prevents us from knowledge of reality in order to feel superior? I don't understand what you're saying about about the servant and the master. Anyway, when someone goes ALL CAPS it's usually a sign to end the conversation. Be well.
Nor anything else for that matter! But surely you already know this and just didn't want to share it with the stupid ALL CAPS folks.
"You seem to be rejecting all knowledge."
Asking questions is more akin to a "philosopher" but of course SCIENTISM is just a rare outlier in an otherwise profoundly honest, erudite, truth seeking occupation. You seem to have been asleep for the last 24+/4+ years to this very day. The blind leading the blind and both will end up in the pit was never more applicable than today.
THE SYNAGOGUE OF MAKE BELIEVE truly doesn't understand LIFE. It takes what it sees puts it in a more or less coherent theory, by obfuscating the loose ends it tight up to make the theory look coherent, and voila here we go PLATO'S MENTAL PRISON CAVE redux on STEROIDS!
"THE SYNAGOGUE OF MAKE BELIEVE truly doesn't understand LIFE."
I write:
"SCIENCE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND LIFE!"
Max More argues:
"We understand vastly more than we used to."
THAT might be true for more & more courageous INDIVIDUALS - that find themselves forced to be operating OUTSIDE of "science" - as "science" has been infiltrated, captured, suppressed & secretly militarized, similar to "government", "media", "justice" & everything else of public interest.
I answer to Max More:
Few exceptions (“exceptions confirm the rule”) like "Emergency medicine" will always escape my focus on concentrating simplicity - for better perceiving & understanding that deeply rooted tragedy of western collapse - because NO FAKE DOGMA will ever be able to eliminate that basic driver & human impulse for SURVIVAL . . . !
Here a random article from today - on HOW "SCIENCE" in America is a STEALTH MILITARY MIRAGE - sold by "Hollywood" to an unsuspecting public, carefully kept in the dark by MK-ULTRA-deception & drugs:
It doesn't matter whether they are opportunists looking to extract money from you or morons who actually think the world is going to end, the fact is that you are the one who suffers.In the end the only way to overcome crap is violence and all the wishful thinking in the world will not change that fact.
They are willing to use violence against you and get the 'government' to provide it if they can.
They cannot be changed by rationality and only a greater profit for them or a severe pain will end these farces.
If some 200 lb 6'3" male in a dress hurts my wife or daughter then I will use force, if necessary deadly force to protect them.
Once you understand that everything is motivated by violence or the threat of violence, then life becomes much simpler.
If every 'trans' athlete had been confronted and beaten by the girls relatives, there would not be a problem.
There will continue to be a problem until this happens.
The longer you leave it the more difficult it becomes.
Not just difficult but more bloody. There's a great book about the germans in the 1930s called "They Thought They Were Free".
The author interviewed one guy who said that we need to remember the ancient wisdom of seeing the principle in the first act. Because we have not done this, and have collectively slept while allowing the enemies of Reality and Reason to take over the institutions of power it is going to be a long bloody conflict to remove them. I am, however, comforted in the sure knowledge that the self-styled Progressives betray their unreal unreason in their chosen name for themselves; they believe in straight lines, and that when reality resists their insanity all they need to do is push harder.
I believe in cycles, that history is more like a pendulum, albeit one with a very long arc, and so I think we are already seeing the panic as "progress" merely slows as resistance increases. When it begins to reverse direction back towards the centre? THEN we will see some fear, panic, and even more violent persistence on their part. It will not be easy, or comfortable, or painless, but it is certainly coming and another generation will re-learn what we have mostly forgotten.
That's an interesting comparison, between the Progressives' model of the straight line angling upwards, and the more conservative model of cycles and pendulums. I'm inclined to think that history is more of a Mandelbrot-style trajectory, neither straight nor cyclical, determinate but not predictable, echoing but not repeating. I'm not sure if that's more or less pessimistic than your perspective.
I think that's probably more accurate. My model is a gross simplification, more for rhetorical purposes in combat with progressives than for any other reason.
I do think some things are both determinate and predictable.
E.G. look at a map of world religions. Compare & contrast & correlate with maps of longevity, wealth, standard of living, education, crime, etc.
It doesn't need to be violence either. If every female confronted by a transperson simply refused to compete and went home then the nonsense would soon stop. I can't imagine some transperson's female team mates putting up with no one ever playing against them. That so many females go along with trans nonsense because it benefits them, or compete against trans then complain about unfairness, is galling. Just say no and walk away.
So you are suggesting that all women give up all sports and competition and go back to cooking and embroidery.
Depart the field and allow some 0.0001% to dictate what is and what is not allowable.
Violence and/or the threat of violence is the only law. Always has been and always will be. Until you understand that, you are at the mercy of those who do and who are willing to bully you into their wishes for their profit.
No, and I would never suggest that. I was looking for women to take a stand and sabotage the nonsense. Pull the rug from under it. I will always advocate for women's, especially young women's, agency. I used to teach and am very aware of the distinct pressures placed on young women. Passive resistance, refusing to play according to the dictates of the 0.0001% is what I'm suggesting.
Passive resistance means girls and women not playing sport!
Giving up and giving in.
Never having a girls or women's scholarship.
Gandhi did not advocate 'passive' resistance but when faced with overwhelming force, to make them use it against you and show that force was their only answer.
Gandhi also explains that someone who cannot use violence to defend themselves or their family is a helpless coward and a "worm."
In his own words from the text Between Cowardice And Violence
"...He who cannot protect himself or his nearest and dearest or their honour by non-violently facing death may and ought to do so by violently dealing with the oppressor. He who can do neither of the two is a burden. He has no business to be the head of a family. He must either hide himself, or must rest content to live for ever in helplessness and be prepared to crawl like a worm at the bidding of a bully ...[When violence] is offered in self-defense or for the defense of the defenseless, it is an act of bravery far better than cowardly submission."
“There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all”
Mario Savio
"Teach your children to be brave. This century of ours has been marked most conspicuously by cowardice of the people everywhere. It was by our cowardice that we were betrayed into the hands of corrupt men who promised to make life "safe' for us and devoid of hazard, and robbed the adventurousness by which the spirits of men are strengthened. It was by our poltroonery that we lost our liberties. It was by our fears that we almost died. A brave people never become slaves." --
Here in Brasil we have catastrophic flooding in the South, caused by CLIMATE CHANGE! The more catastrophic the threat, THE HARDER IT IS TO PREDICT! That´s why climate change is so serious. We can model the threat, but we can´t predict it! Science!
Am I the only one who thinks that "belief" and "cynicism" are inexact labels for what we're describing? There have got to be single words that better explain the concepts without requiring a footnoted definition for each.
Perhaps Sincerity is more obvious than Cynicism as a label. I think that it captures the same thing, just labeling the other end of the axis if you will. Belief seems pretty spot on.
Getting into more granular - more precise at first sight - definitions is not going to get you very far, at least not into the direction I believe you intend to, but further into PLATO'S MENTAL PRISON CAVE .... as it assumes definitions is all that is needed. But what about the question - Who is going to be the judge? If this sounds cryptic then you are spot on, because the conundrum doesn't lie in definitions. Common sense is the best earthly analogy that anyone searching for the truth still can understand as of today.
Answer to the title of this post: NO! Our 'rulers' are disingenuous and promote whatever fad or fashion is fouling the political winds of the moment. As the old saying goes: every man has his price and I dare say politicians sell themselves quite cheaply. Politics is just a version of the oldest profession!
Another way to describe the HIGH CYNICISM + HIGH BELIEF quadrant is people who share a certain meta-belief/delusion. It is the belief that those in high status positions can change reality with their words. If they say something contrary to what they said yesterday, reality has moved, not they themselves.
In other words: these people are literally and dangerously insane.
Solution 3: be more cynical -- but for liberty and sanity.
Belief in global warming is locked in. (Global warming might even be a real problem in the longer term) Don't waste your ammo getting believers to believe otherwise. Attack the stupid solutions. And provide better solutions. Promote the Green Old Deals.
Our Civic Religion, like all religions is esoteric. It is made of concentric circles of initiation. Those on the outside believe what the religion openly teaches, eg Climate Change, but their core belief is in the religion itself, Science or Liberalism. As one progresses in the religion one holds the external beliefs more loosely but the core beliefs more tightly and becomes much more pragmatic, or as Briggs has put it for us, cynical. And then of course you reach the Inner Ring, where the Secret Gnosis, the Envirosinian mysteries if you will are open. And you understand that it is all Antinaturalism, Transhumanism, and Misanthropy. Thus at the heart of every religion are those who no longer believe and simply make use of the system. We then have demonstrated the truth of Lactantius' words, 'No religion is genuine which is not in accordance with the truth.'
The exception to this, of course, is the Holy Gospel.(not unfortunately the Church Militant in any of its forms) As Kierkegaard stated it so well, growth in Christianity is not an increase in knowledge or access to things that the Neophyte is excluded from, but an ' deepening of inwardness'. The Saint believes the same things that yesterday's convert believes but they have become more integrated into his life. You might say that what is merely light to the convert's eyes has become warmth throughout the saint's body. But it is the same light in both cases. Unlike Religion where the Apostle has a different creed from the neophyte, in the Gospel the Apostle's Creed is truly the sum and substance of the Apostle's beliefs.
The good ol' "historical solution" has always delivered the goods. Only downside is it has to be repeated at intervals ... like flossing your teeth or mowing the grass.
“The Historical Solution”. That has an ominous ring to it, which I appreciate. Let us hope that those like you, wielding the pen, can bring about such a solution without too much turmoil. The alternative is, indeed, ominous.
"Certainly. Who does the erosion of criminal penalties for violent and gun crimes benefit? It obviously benefits some criminals but those are NOT the people advocating for them.
People tend to become invested in emotionally salient ideas (in my view). They adopt them to gain acceptance and status and avoid social penalties, but this adoption demands that they actually BELIEVE them, at least on some level.
In both cases I think we see flawed visions of human nature which are very difficult to correct because they're not built upon logic or experience, and everyone who questions them is labelled regressive or a bigot. When even considering alternatives makes believers feel guilty it's very hard to discuss them. It's the same mechanism religions use to enforce conformity, and the beliefs are actually pretty similar in their quality and reasoning. If you can make a certain population believe that any investigation or criticism of the concept of the patriarchy is itself sexist then you have fortified that concept in the minds of that group and social desirability bias and conformism and fear of stigma does the rest. What exactly is the patriarchy? How does it work? What are some feasible alternatives? These are questions that are NEVER explored among feminists because the point of 'patriarchy' as a concept is not to serve as an explanatory model for society or a blueprint for reform. It's to enforce conformity and advertise virtue. Their ideas are doing exactly what they're meant to. Unfortunately they're not meant to promote orderly or productive societies."
I'm not sure the bottom left quadrant actually exists. Their belief/lack doesn't matter as it is completely secondary to following power. I would place them directly on the negative y-axis. They only have one variable, cynicism, which is maxed out.
WILLIAM M. BRIGGS asks:
"Do our rulers, Experts, elites and celebrities really believe what they say they believe about “gender”, “climate change”, “racism” and so forth?"
.
The answer is NO!
.
Our rulers, Experts, elites and celebrities are mostly in deep CONFUSION about life itself!
.
In engineering you might learn how to build bridges that function, airplanes that fly ad roofs that keep out the water . . .
.
In Medicine you learn how to cheat & profit.
.
In Philosophy you learn how to become confused and replace understanding with indoctrination.
.
The reason for me is simple: SCIENCE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND LIFE!
They kill it first - and when it's dead - they try to understand the molecules & atoms.
.
As they never find any answer that way - they always need more money for research - and so they specialize in selling organized stupidity!
A bit of an exaggerated comment. Plenty of medicine -- far from all of it, possibly a minority -- works and helps people. Unless you think we know no more than we did 1000 years ago. Emergency medicine being a good example.
Much philosophy is rubbish and fits your description (I have a doctorate in the subject) but the best enlightens and helps you think critically -- something badly needed and rarely taught in schools.
I'm baffled by the assertion that science doesn't understand life. Life is complex and science is a process, not a set of answers. We understand vastly more than we used to.
Much of our problem with rubbish research and rubbish science and rubbish medicine is due to them feeding at the public trough funded by taxation.
"Much of our problem with rubbish research and rubbish science and rubbish medicine is due to them feeding at the public trough funded by taxation."
Yes. And yes again. And once more yes just for the sake of it.
I'm ME Chem Eng, lots of science over the years, and for 30 years I've been finding out so much of what we learnt is nonsense. First tell was as a young graduate...an older snr manager engineer where I was working told me to forget everything I'd learnt. Great advice, though the maths has come in handy. And some is useful. Engineers know that. But the theory and philosophy...needs 'fact checking.'
I believe I get the sentiment of your comment. But nevertheless it is still misguided, due to the inherent inclination - the very function -of the mind to simplify REALITY in order to analyse it. But no matter how much analysing has been done by no matter how many minds for how long the issue with synthesising still remains. And no man's mind or group thereof - forget about LLM - can accomplish that.
" We understand vastly more than we used to."
That's the mantra of THE SYNAGOGUE OF MAKE BELIEVE in general and the faction thereof I call scientism in particular. PRIDE AND HUBRIS of the mind are standing in the way of true understanding - to stand under GOD ALMIGHTY'S WISDOM MIGHT GRACE AND PURPOSE. HE CANNOT BE BEATEN BY THE SERVANT AS HE IS THE MASTER THAT CREATED EVERYTHING INCL. THE SERVANT.
We build models and we test them. To the extent to which the theories they embody survive testing and yield results, that is science, not scientism. Scientism is the inappropriate application of the methods of a science to an area where it doesn't apply. Although the principles of scientific discovery are universal, their application differs depending on the domain. I would say that it is scientism to apply the approach of physics to economics. People are not particles.
You seem to be rejecting all knowledge. Do you believe that God is a great deceiver who fools us and prevents us from knowledge of reality in order to feel superior? I don't understand what you're saying about about the servant and the master. Anyway, when someone goes ALL CAPS it's usually a sign to end the conversation. Be well.
" People are not particles."
Nor anything else for that matter! But surely you already know this and just didn't want to share it with the stupid ALL CAPS folks.
"You seem to be rejecting all knowledge."
Asking questions is more akin to a "philosopher" but of course SCIENTISM is just a rare outlier in an otherwise profoundly honest, erudite, truth seeking occupation. You seem to have been asleep for the last 24+/4+ years to this very day. The blind leading the blind and both will end up in the pit was never more applicable than today.
I exist - knowledge!
THE SYNAGOGUE OF MAKE BELIEVE truly doesn't understand LIFE. It takes what it sees puts it in a more or less coherent theory, by obfuscating the loose ends it tight up to make the theory look coherent, and voila here we go PLATO'S MENTAL PRISON CAVE redux on STEROIDS!
It's MADNESS all over the place.
One Existence writes:
"THE SYNAGOGUE OF MAKE BELIEVE truly doesn't understand LIFE."
I write:
"SCIENCE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND LIFE!"
Max More argues:
"We understand vastly more than we used to."
THAT might be true for more & more courageous INDIVIDUALS - that find themselves forced to be operating OUTSIDE of "science" - as "science" has been infiltrated, captured, suppressed & secretly militarized, similar to "government", "media", "justice" & everything else of public interest.
I answer to Max More:
Few exceptions (“exceptions confirm the rule”) like "Emergency medicine" will always escape my focus on concentrating simplicity - for better perceiving & understanding that deeply rooted tragedy of western collapse - because NO FAKE DOGMA will ever be able to eliminate that basic driver & human impulse for SURVIVAL . . . !
Here a random article from today - on HOW "SCIENCE" in America is a STEALTH MILITARY MIRAGE - sold by "Hollywood" to an unsuspecting public, carefully kept in the dark by MK-ULTRA-deception & drugs:
https://dailynewsfromaolf.substack.com/p/fbi-file-on-jeff-bezos-grandfather?publication_id=1300612&post_id=144447286&isFreemail=true&r=far4j&triedRedirect=true
It doesn't matter whether they are opportunists looking to extract money from you or morons who actually think the world is going to end, the fact is that you are the one who suffers.In the end the only way to overcome crap is violence and all the wishful thinking in the world will not change that fact.
They are willing to use violence against you and get the 'government' to provide it if they can.
They cannot be changed by rationality and only a greater profit for them or a severe pain will end these farces.
If some 200 lb 6'3" male in a dress hurts my wife or daughter then I will use force, if necessary deadly force to protect them.
Once you understand that everything is motivated by violence or the threat of violence, then life becomes much simpler.
If every 'trans' athlete had been confronted and beaten by the girls relatives, there would not be a problem.
There will continue to be a problem until this happens.
The longer you leave it the more difficult it becomes.
Not just difficult but more bloody. There's a great book about the germans in the 1930s called "They Thought They Were Free".
The author interviewed one guy who said that we need to remember the ancient wisdom of seeing the principle in the first act. Because we have not done this, and have collectively slept while allowing the enemies of Reality and Reason to take over the institutions of power it is going to be a long bloody conflict to remove them. I am, however, comforted in the sure knowledge that the self-styled Progressives betray their unreal unreason in their chosen name for themselves; they believe in straight lines, and that when reality resists their insanity all they need to do is push harder.
I believe in cycles, that history is more like a pendulum, albeit one with a very long arc, and so I think we are already seeing the panic as "progress" merely slows as resistance increases. When it begins to reverse direction back towards the centre? THEN we will see some fear, panic, and even more violent persistence on their part. It will not be easy, or comfortable, or painless, but it is certainly coming and another generation will re-learn what we have mostly forgotten.
That's an interesting comparison, between the Progressives' model of the straight line angling upwards, and the more conservative model of cycles and pendulums. I'm inclined to think that history is more of a Mandelbrot-style trajectory, neither straight nor cyclical, determinate but not predictable, echoing but not repeating. I'm not sure if that's more or less pessimistic than your perspective.
I think that's probably more accurate. My model is a gross simplification, more for rhetorical purposes in combat with progressives than for any other reason.
I do think some things are both determinate and predictable.
E.G. look at a map of world religions. Compare & contrast & correlate with maps of longevity, wealth, standard of living, education, crime, etc.
It doesn't need to be violence either. If every female confronted by a transperson simply refused to compete and went home then the nonsense would soon stop. I can't imagine some transperson's female team mates putting up with no one ever playing against them. That so many females go along with trans nonsense because it benefits them, or compete against trans then complain about unfairness, is galling. Just say no and walk away.
So you are suggesting that all women give up all sports and competition and go back to cooking and embroidery.
Depart the field and allow some 0.0001% to dictate what is and what is not allowable.
Violence and/or the threat of violence is the only law. Always has been and always will be. Until you understand that, you are at the mercy of those who do and who are willing to bully you into their wishes for their profit.
No, and I would never suggest that. I was looking for women to take a stand and sabotage the nonsense. Pull the rug from under it. I will always advocate for women's, especially young women's, agency. I used to teach and am very aware of the distinct pressures placed on young women. Passive resistance, refusing to play according to the dictates of the 0.0001% is what I'm suggesting.
Passive resistance means girls and women not playing sport!
Giving up and giving in.
Never having a girls or women's scholarship.
Gandhi did not advocate 'passive' resistance but when faced with overwhelming force, to make them use it against you and show that force was their only answer.
Gandhi also explains that someone who cannot use violence to defend themselves or their family is a helpless coward and a "worm."
In his own words from the text Between Cowardice And Violence
"...He who cannot protect himself or his nearest and dearest or their honour by non-violently facing death may and ought to do so by violently dealing with the oppressor. He who can do neither of the two is a burden. He has no business to be the head of a family. He must either hide himself, or must rest content to live for ever in helplessness and be prepared to crawl like a worm at the bidding of a bully ...[When violence] is offered in self-defense or for the defense of the defenseless, it is an act of bravery far better than cowardly submission."
“There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all”
Mario Savio
"Teach your children to be brave. This century of ours has been marked most conspicuously by cowardice of the people everywhere. It was by our cowardice that we were betrayed into the hands of corrupt men who promised to make life "safe' for us and devoid of hazard, and robbed the adventurousness by which the spirits of men are strengthened. It was by our poltroonery that we lost our liberties. It was by our fears that we almost died. A brave people never become slaves." --
Taylor Caldwell,"The Devil's Advocate"(1952)
Here in Brasil we have catastrophic flooding in the South, caused by CLIMATE CHANGE! The more catastrophic the threat, THE HARDER IT IS TO PREDICT! That´s why climate change is so serious. We can model the threat, but we can´t predict it! Science!
Now, I'm not your ruler (you might be lucky!), but my usual saying is:
«Belief is not a reliable method, and possibly not a method altogether.»
Perhaps that puts me in the expert quadrant (LOL!).
Am I the only one who thinks that "belief" and "cynicism" are inexact labels for what we're describing? There have got to be single words that better explain the concepts without requiring a footnoted definition for each.
"Cynicism" - "Self-interest"? "Manipulation"? "Opportunism"?
"Belief" - "Delusion" (since we're specifying *false-to-facts* belief)? "Ideology"?
Perhaps Sincerity is more obvious than Cynicism as a label. I think that it captures the same thing, just labeling the other end of the axis if you will. Belief seems pretty spot on.
Getting into more granular - more precise at first sight - definitions is not going to get you very far, at least not into the direction I believe you intend to, but further into PLATO'S MENTAL PRISON CAVE .... as it assumes definitions is all that is needed. But what about the question - Who is going to be the judge? If this sounds cryptic then you are spot on, because the conundrum doesn't lie in definitions. Common sense is the best earthly analogy that anyone searching for the truth still can understand as of today.
GOD ALMIGHTY IS THE EXPLANATION!
Devon Stack's metaphor casting Western society as a beehive and our rulers as beekeepers purposefully introducing killer bees sure resonates.
Answer to the title of this post: NO! Our 'rulers' are disingenuous and promote whatever fad or fashion is fouling the political winds of the moment. As the old saying goes: every man has his price and I dare say politicians sell themselves quite cheaply. Politics is just a version of the oldest profession!
Another way to describe the HIGH CYNICISM + HIGH BELIEF quadrant is people who share a certain meta-belief/delusion. It is the belief that those in high status positions can change reality with their words. If they say something contrary to what they said yesterday, reality has moved, not they themselves.
In other words: these people are literally and dangerously insane.
Solution 3: be more cynical -- but for liberty and sanity.
Belief in global warming is locked in. (Global warming might even be a real problem in the longer term) Don't waste your ammo getting believers to believe otherwise. Attack the stupid solutions. And provide better solutions. Promote the Green Old Deals.
https://rulesforreactionaries.substack.com/p/a-green-old-deal
https://rulesforreactionaries.substack.com/p/the-other-green-old-deal
Yep, there are two possible Green Old Deals: the Dukes of Hazzard version or the Walt Disney version.
Bravo Briggs!
"evidence does not phase or influence them"
Shouldn't it be "faze"?
Great article, btw
Our Civic Religion, like all religions is esoteric. It is made of concentric circles of initiation. Those on the outside believe what the religion openly teaches, eg Climate Change, but their core belief is in the religion itself, Science or Liberalism. As one progresses in the religion one holds the external beliefs more loosely but the core beliefs more tightly and becomes much more pragmatic, or as Briggs has put it for us, cynical. And then of course you reach the Inner Ring, where the Secret Gnosis, the Envirosinian mysteries if you will are open. And you understand that it is all Antinaturalism, Transhumanism, and Misanthropy. Thus at the heart of every religion are those who no longer believe and simply make use of the system. We then have demonstrated the truth of Lactantius' words, 'No religion is genuine which is not in accordance with the truth.'
The exception to this, of course, is the Holy Gospel.(not unfortunately the Church Militant in any of its forms) As Kierkegaard stated it so well, growth in Christianity is not an increase in knowledge or access to things that the Neophyte is excluded from, but an ' deepening of inwardness'. The Saint believes the same things that yesterday's convert believes but they have become more integrated into his life. You might say that what is merely light to the convert's eyes has become warmth throughout the saint's body. But it is the same light in both cases. Unlike Religion where the Apostle has a different creed from the neophyte, in the Gospel the Apostle's Creed is truly the sum and substance of the Apostle's beliefs.
The good ol' "historical solution" has always delivered the goods. Only downside is it has to be repeated at intervals ... like flossing your teeth or mowing the grass.
“The Historical Solution”. That has an ominous ring to it, which I appreciate. Let us hope that those like you, wielding the pen, can bring about such a solution without too much turmoil. The alternative is, indeed, ominous.
I just wrote this note in reply to a comment on this: https://jmpolemic.substack.com/p/the-reformers-part-2?r=1neg52
"Certainly. Who does the erosion of criminal penalties for violent and gun crimes benefit? It obviously benefits some criminals but those are NOT the people advocating for them.
People tend to become invested in emotionally salient ideas (in my view). They adopt them to gain acceptance and status and avoid social penalties, but this adoption demands that they actually BELIEVE them, at least on some level.
In both cases I think we see flawed visions of human nature which are very difficult to correct because they're not built upon logic or experience, and everyone who questions them is labelled regressive or a bigot. When even considering alternatives makes believers feel guilty it's very hard to discuss them. It's the same mechanism religions use to enforce conformity, and the beliefs are actually pretty similar in their quality and reasoning. If you can make a certain population believe that any investigation or criticism of the concept of the patriarchy is itself sexist then you have fortified that concept in the minds of that group and social desirability bias and conformism and fear of stigma does the rest. What exactly is the patriarchy? How does it work? What are some feasible alternatives? These are questions that are NEVER explored among feminists because the point of 'patriarchy' as a concept is not to serve as an explanatory model for society or a blueprint for reform. It's to enforce conformity and advertise virtue. Their ideas are doing exactly what they're meant to. Unfortunately they're not meant to promote orderly or productive societies."
I'm not sure the bottom left quadrant actually exists. Their belief/lack doesn't matter as it is completely secondary to following power. I would place them directly on the negative y-axis. They only have one variable, cynicism, which is maxed out.