Socratic Perplexity, and Resistance to Doublethink+
Theocracy+a Lament=Meander.
” ἓν οἶδα ὅτι
οὐδὲν οἶδα ”-Socrates(attr.)(1)
It’s hard, almost to the point of impossibility, to be
Objective.
We are not only surrounded by Cognitive Dissonance, we are filled with
it(2,3)…it comes from within.
Madison Avenue has learned to use this feature, inherent in the Human Mind, and
present in our Collective Mind(4).
Politics necessarily encompasses this Feature, as well…it being a rarified form
of Salesmanship.
I identified the Distortion quite early…and almost entirely by accident. This
was in the form of a Preacher, who preached one thing, while doing the
opposite. Although I was only 7-8, it stuck with me…I could not ignore it, as I
saw everyone else doing.
I have been resisting Certainty, ever since. All Knowledge is Provisional, even
that of Gravity.(!)
Having this as one’s Foundation has been anything but Easy….and I Understand , therefore, that few
choose to join me on this Island. Dogmatic
Certainty is so much more comforting, in most cases. The sky appears blue, and
it is relatively unimportant to our everyday lives to question this with
thoughts about the Spectroscopy of Nitrogen, etc.
We each carry within us, a number of default prejudices and positions, and ways
of interacting with the World.(3) The World is very complex, and most folks
have neither the Time, nor the Inclination…let alone the Ability…to approach
every Datum with such Rigorous Skepticism. This has, to the best of our
knowledge, always been so…but it has gotten exponentially Worse, these past 35
years.
This Worsening is the intended effect of a Deliberate Policy of obfuscation and
Confusion, undertaken by what I have called the Machine…especially that Faction
within the Machine, who are most unapologetic…the Right. (We are beyond such
simplistic concepts as Party, here… Remember, Republicans were once the Liberal
Party)
In the (provisional) Model I’ve built, Machine is a largely
Unconscious Super-Organism, containing many constituent Super-Organisms, from Countries, to Religions
to Corporations, all accepting sets of Foundational Assumptions about the
World, and having become “PseudoConscious”, for lack of a better word. These
are the closest we’ve come to AI, without even being aware of the accomplishment.
When I think about this, I have, somewhere in mind,
Lovecraft’s Mindless Gods…the Logic of such Creatures are incomprehensible,
outside of their own Logic Systems, with their various Foundational Assumptions
about Reality.
Read that again:” the Logic of such Creatures are
incomprehensible, outside of their own Logic Systems, with their various
Foundational Assumptions about Reality.”
This is our Problem, in Apprehending Reality.(ugh. Font confusion!)
Dig:
” Abstract
The theory of cognitive dissonance (Festinger
1957)
states that inconsistency between beliefs or behaviors creates an aversive
motivational state akin to hunger or thirst. This tension is typically reduced
by changing one of the dissonant elements, or adding new ones, until mental
consonance is achieved. There have been three major revisions relevant to
modern interpretation of dissonance phenomena. Aronson's self-consistency model
(
1968)
proposed that dissonance resulted from behaviors that were discrepant with
one's conception of oneself as a decent and sensible person. Steele's
self-affirmation theory (
1988)
proposed that dissonance emerged from threats to the overarching self- system,
and that dissonance reduction relied on re-establishing the integrity of the
global self-concept. Cooper and Fazio's `New Look' model (
1984)
proposed that dissonance resulted from creating unwanted aversive consequences
and did not require cognitive inconsistency. A recent synthesis discussed by
Cooper (
1999)
and Stone (
1999)
suggests that dissonance is caused by a discrepancy between the outcome of a
behavioral act and the standard to which it is compared. According to this
self-standards model, contextual variables determine the comparison standard,
and it is this standard that determines which dissonance process is most likely
to be operative.”(5)
From this, it appears that one’s relatively Positive Self
Image guards against Dissonance.(mostly)
This is important, in my opinion, because of who is counted,
and counts themselves, in the Machine Supporting Group.
In my Taxonomy, simplified, there are 2 “kinds” of folks…what I call Right
Wing, and Left. This labeling generates much confusion, due to historical
misuse, as well as purposeful muddying tactics, by Machine.
LW, in my Taxonomy, is what falls under the Enlightenment…scrutiny of beliefs
and other automata, and conscious application of Reason….leading to greater and
greater Freedom, and more Knowledge about the Universe.
On the Contrary, RW equals Fear Based Retrenchment, adhering reactively to
comfortable Tradition and Habit, rather than daring to “Disturb the
universe”(Eliot).
These opposing “forces” can be discerned throughout History, and deduced in
Prehistory(Gimbutas, Campbell).
It is the Perennial Human Struggle.
The LW, I think it’s safe to assert, will generally tend towards a more Positive
Self-Assessment, as a result of eschewing Fear…which is a necessary
precondition to the Thinking Outside the Box, so emblematic of this Mindset.
Beginning in the 1940’s, when the current incarnation of the Machine was
born(marriage of “Intelligence”, Industry, Government, Media, in the
Maintenance of Power Relationships, using, in many instances, the new field of
Social Psychology….and , apparently, using Orwell as a Manual, instead of a
Warning(6&7))
Despite my attempt at Perplexity, I find that one must
accept at least some Foundational Assumptions. Gravity is Real, for instance.
The Sky is Blue. When thinking about Philosophy, including Politics and
Economics, while the necessary
Assumptions are fewer and must be more carefully assessed, they do present
themselves, as one moves foreword.
I’ve been Antiauthoritarian, as I’ve said, from very early on…this is a Bias,
and I try mightily to account for it.
However, Authority,”Power”, seems to Exist….ie: it’s
Objectively Real. The problem, is how we think about it…and how much weight we
give to our Assumptions regarding Power and it’s effect on, it’s Operation in,
the World. Remember that a mere 500 years ago, almost everyone on the planet
lived in a Surreal World of Mythological Constructs. Since then, the
Enlightenment has allowed much improvement, but this improvement is by no means
Universal.
Jefferson’s Assertion, that “All men are
created equal…” is not an accomplished fact, rather it is a statement of Hope,
of Potential. The vast Majority of Humans are quite stupid, when you get right
down to it. I’m with Jefferson, and other
Enlightenment figures, that this can be Modified, for the better, by Education,
etc…but we ain’t there, yet.
That said, the Majority of Us are still stuck in various
Mythological Systems…some perfectly Natural, like the various Cognitive Biases;
many constructed from whole cloth, by the various factions of the Machine.
There has been a Deliberate Confusing of Tongues, a Muddying of the Water, this
past almost-Century.
I found that the “Conventional Wisdom” was Contradictory,
Incoherent, and , largely, False. It did not accurately describe the World.
Thus, a better Model was needed.
The Left-Right Thing is a Continuum, rather than a Dichotomy.
Left, leans towards Reason, and Thought, and a careful weighing of available
evidence, but is still subject to the Myths and Assumptions of Conventional
Wisdom….at least to some degree.
The Right, on the other hand, leans towards Habit, Instinct, and the Gut.
The Former is a relative Minority in any given Population.
The Machine, itself, Leans Rightward…necessarily. That Logic is inherent.
Change is Disruptive, and the most effective way to ward off Change is to keep
the Masses in perpetual Ignorance.
This is a Balancing Act, because the World is Changing, despite the wishes of
the Machine and it’s Constituencies. Balancing How Change is allowed to
Manifest, and controlling the results of sundry Exploration, is the business of
the Machine.
Almost every person, above the Bum…and every Group, …believes that it is in
Control, to some degree….of their own, personal lives; of the actions of their Business…
The Administrators of the various Constituencies of Machine believe, more than
most, in their own Agency.
The Reality is that No One is in Control.
One must Surf the Wavefront of Events, Riding the Crest of
History.
No One’s in Charge.
This is both Liberating, and Terrifying.
From, “Heretics of Dune”:
”By your belief in granular singularities, you deny all movement-evolutionary
or devolutionary. Belief fixes a granular universe and causes that universe to
persist. Nothing can be allowed to change because that way your non-moving
universe vanishes. But it moves of itself when you do not move. It evolves
beyond you and is no longer accessible to you.”(8)
In other words, float above Events, and accept the Chaos of Change, that is the
defining Feature of Universe.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
(five days later…)
Necessary interruption. Mom-Sitting, due to Slug’s absence, and the lingering
effects of the Prowler-Problem.(jimmied the door, see (9)
There’s no Reverse.
Onward!
More from Dune Universe:
”Enter no conflict against fanatics unless you can defuse them. Oppose a
religion with another religion only if your proofs (miracles) are irrefutable
or if you can mesh in a way that the fanatics accept you as god-inspired. This
has long been the barrier to science assuming a mantle of divine revelation.
Science is so obviously man-made. Fanatics…must know where you stand, but more
important, must recognize who whispers in your ear.-Missionaria Protectiva” –
Chapterhouse Dune.
So many little Gems in these Tomes.
(at least the original six…the son has done well, but he
ain’t his daddy)
How does one “Defuse” the American Religious Right?
I think this is a very timely question.
The Violent Parasitical Elite are one thing….a tiny minority. They are Nothing,
without great hordes of True Believers, Secular, and no.
That part of the True Believers who really are True Believers is what concerns
me, here. The Secular Faction is
Materialist and Opportunistic, quite cowardly when in extremis.
The American Jihadis(Xian) have God smiling on them!
Given the correct stimulation, and they will make a corpse of the World.
The Elite are playing with Fire.
After three decades of poking and prodding, is it too far gone to simply Defuse
it?
I take Douthat’s admonitions of restraint, of resistance to
Generalizing Hysteria, seriously (10).
However, there are Patterns.
While I haven’t systematically Infiltrated (Jane Goodall) the Fundy-Web, I have
Lurked, extensively.
There are worrying trends, out there.
It is obvious, on the one hand, that Good Ross is correct, Secularism and
assorted Godlessness,is on the rise….Americans are less and less “Churched”,
with every passing year, despite all the hollering and seeming omnipresence of
“Apostles”, and Preachers and “Prophets”(by their own words, no less)…saying
the darnedest things.
But this Unchurching is a slow process.
Looming Crises, from Resource Depletion, to EconomicEnd-Points, to all manner
of potential Flashpoints, including more Blowback….not to mention large
“issues” with the Biosphere…all of these play into the hands of the most
dangerous Lunatics in the Faith-Based Community.
Thanks to Lil George, the Federal Bureaucracy(damn!) is shot through with
Fundamentalists…(11)
Ironic that the long sought after “Fifth Column” would be
of their own making. (12)
Our Military, as well…if the numerous reports are to be believed.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Oh, well.
Rambling.
Started with one thing, ended on another.
A perpetual Lament…for being unemployed, and cripple, and even often
bedridden…World Intrudes, and I am Scattered. I want nothing more than to read
Deleuze, etc and Think…and, Milagro!, discuss such esoterica…but I am continually
Flung into Mundane Concerns: Political Philosophy, and all that goes with
it…including the Still-Ongoing History of Humanity(Fukyama is a Fool,lol)(14)
The even more mundane concerns, too…from the above mentioned Mom-Sitting, to
Soccer, to the Imperatives of Bringing in Wood(the Pain!)…a Distraction.
The lack of a Book-Budget…and the current Bunch at the Library(implying,”don’t
bother us”…no more,de facto, interlibrary loan:”I forgot”, coupled with ,”why
do you want that book?”…sigh.)
Hopelessly attempting to Re-Engage the tiny community of
left-leaners, out here, in what is admittedly, a Hopeless Endeavor…
I recede. Retreat.
I fully use the excuse of Handicapped…to stay in the truck, at soccer.
No one there I really want to engage with…”How are You?”
“What have you been up to?”
Ha!
Like they want to know!
I’m so frikkin Tired of the Eyes Glazing…the Uncomprehending Stare.
The World as High School.
Is it Different someplace else?
Are there Others, of my Species, hiding in their Caves, perhaps just over the Hill?
8. I recommend the six original Dune Books, for an
unconventional Understanding of Geopolitics, Macropsychology and Economics.
11 I’m thinking, specifically, of the Justice Department,
now full of folks from Regent and Liberty
and bob Jones.
14 Fukyama has since recanted, and renounced his association
with Neoconservatism….if I remember correctly. I don’t care enough to go there,
again.lol.
