[LINK] IPA, astroturfing and fantsy themes

[Jan Whitaker]

At 02:03 AM 17/02/2012, Frank O'Connor wrote:

>So, they can be sold a bunch of crap by those engaging in the 
>politics of self interest, with very little effort on the part of 
>the crappers ... sorry, I meant the 'vendors of the alternate theories'.
>
>Sad fact of life ... but there it is.

Add to that a reliance on anecdote and subjective personal experience 
and we have a right mess. I was talking with a friend yesterday about 
this tendency to base views on the easiest means: no thinking or 
analysis plus the latest sound bite. Most people live in a fog and 
are so oblivious to how the world works and the meta-structures, that 
it's a wonder society works at all.

Unrelated aside: I'm reading a book by Robert Winston (the British 
doctor with the black curly hair and mustache) titled Human Instinct 
(2002). It's an evolutionary perspective on human behaviours which 
includes consideration of gender relationships, kinships, and big 
issues like violence, competition and co-operation. I won't go into 
detail here, but can recommend it as a broad discussion of how we 
humans 'work', pretty much from a biologically determined level, even 
in how we interact with each other, even politicians!

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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