In Praise of Facts, by Robert Gore
Thus, this anti-epistemology that has permeated the academy is not a laughing matter. It cripples young minds just as they should be launching their first independent forays into reality. Unfortunately, it can not and has not stayed confined to the academy. In the empirical loop, facts are primary; in the anti-empirical loop, perceptions and beliefs reign supreme. The unremarkable observation that beliefs can create facts—people believe Brand A soap cleans better, so they buy more of it than other soaps—has mutated into the mindset that facts either don’t exist or are irrelevant, only perception and belief matter. That precept is inherently collectivist, because the perceptions and beliefs that matter are those of groups. Patron saint of this movement is Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays (1891-1995), who has been called the father of public relations.
This is an excerpt. For the complete article, please click the above link.
This is an excerpt. For the complete article, please click the above link.
Thanks for bringing this report to light here in the Gulch, Robert. Neither side of this discussion is without fault and both have an interest in their own propaganda being spread to infect the minds of listeners. I am glad to hear both views and judge for myself.
Thanks also for pointing out the historical connection of Edward Bernays. It is a vitally important connection for the understanding of how all regimes manipulate the minds of people. For more on the topic, readers should see the BBC 4-part special, The Century of the Self.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3Rz...
imo, one thing missing in your discussion of the "financial crisis" of 2008-2017 is the evidence that the banking cartel and governments are not merely ignorant or merely covering their asses for that ignorance. It's clear to any rational observer that they are "sophisticated" participants in this area (to use a term that they apply to some of their customers that they looted in the crisis.) The banking cartel understands completely that the entire financial system they began in 1913 with the Federal Reserve Act, is completely based upon their manipulation of bank credit (loans made by banks using fiat created from nothing) to expand and contract the money supply. The banking cartel has been using this tool to enrich themselves, to manipulate the economy, and to create favored companies and destroy smaller, often more productive competitors for 104 years. They know that the entire system is based upon manipulation of credit, and the cartel wields this weapon every minute of every day. It is the keystone of the financial system and the cartel guards this power with a murderous vengeance. The "crisis" was created by the banking cartel with full knowledge and certainty of the result.
However, what many miss is that during the late 60's and 70's, the Marxist Socialists recognized that the class boundaries of their hopes and works were going to cause failure of their drive. Along came a French intellectual, Jaques Derrida, and his work and influence on the social, intellectual, and political applications of post-modernity/modernism and deconstruction, which opened up new thought for Marxism--establishment in institutional education, institutional gov't, and the gains available with identity politics--neo-Marxism. Combined with the effects of Bernays teachings and the manipulated debt basis of finances and economical markets, we're now faced with the inevitability of a perfect storm from at least three separate directions--social/political deconstruction, political/financial control, and financial greed--three separate motivations from three separate movers all arriving at a common temporal location. The result-- chaos and the end of order on any level other than individual.
I understand that there's a great deal more to this thought train than offered here, it's an area I've been exploring for awhile and intend to explore a great deal more. But it is obvious, to me at least, that the inability and outright refusal by the vast majority of our current and past population to think for themselves in the actual, factual reality of life and refusal to teach themselves to reason past their emotional responses and immediate desires (particularly those created in them through the manipulations of others) leaves the rest of us with no choices other than trying our best to survive in the morass created for us
Jaques Derrida "On multiple occasions, Derrida referred to himself as a historian.[48][49] Derrida questioned assumptions of the Western philosophical tradition and also more broadly Western culture.[50] By questioning the dominant discourses, and trying to modify them, he attempted to democratize the university scene and to politicize it.[51] Derrida called his challenge to the assumptions of Western culture "deconstruction".[50] On some occasions, Derrida referred to deconstruction as a radicalization of a certain spirit of Marxism" (Wikipedia, also see Post-modernism)
This is a world made in their own image. How one expects to exist when they reject the existence of the reality of it, is beyond me.
I just can't imagine how the quantum world of existence will respond, once its total rejection is observed...
It rightfully should be quite "Spooky" at any distance.
Nice job, as usual, Robert.
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/ar...
Great article Robert. As usual I scurry to find the correct meaning terms used and discover an interesting poem and poignant reality of what happens after the fall of the great empire. No one remembers what happened or why and people are poorer for not learning to live with and identify reality.
By the way Robert, excellent essay.