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2014-04-29 Home Front: Culture Wars

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Posted by Uncle Phester 2014-04-29 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11124 views ] Top

#1 Or, a continent-wide Beirut.

Posted by no mo uro 2014-04-29 05:36|| 2014-04-29 05:36|| Front Page Top

#2 So, why on earth, do political leaders, throughout history, make the same mistake over and over?

One - they really don't know history. It's often tired and tedious stuff like memorizing math tables. So, they opt for Cliff notes written first by failed middle class types to rationalize their own feelings and emotions (see-Marx), followed by zealots who buy into the fantasy vision because of their short comings and failures. Thus the never ending cycle of failure trying the same thing instead of reexamining the false premise of their religious beliefs.

Two - a fundamental belief that being 'modern' exempts one and one's society from the record of human behavior. The sense of superiority to those who went before them.

Three - believing that they just need to find the 'right man'. In the concentration and consolidation of power, there never can be a 'right man'. Man is a hierarchical creature by nature. You have to accept the inefficiencies and friction resultant from the decentralization of power. Consequently, republics are rare systems that are sustainable.

Posted by P2Kontheroad 2014-04-29 07:36|| 2014-04-29 07:36|| Front Page Top

#3 Excellent commentary P2K.

About each point:

1. No, they really don't know history. History, math, and authentic science are true intellectualism and almost without exception the left is composed of pseudointellectuals. The few STEM leftists out there are either unimaths good at one thing and nothing else or are publicly funded and afraid of losing income stream.

2. The "Year Zero" myth has been a part of the left's core since the French Revolution. All of human wisdom that came before is useless and government fiat will alter human nature to the point of the "in crowd's" utopian vision.

3. This is postmodernism. The narrative is all that matters. All one need do is cherry pick the facts - or humans - that will support the narrative's continued existence.

Posted by no mo uro 2014-04-29 08:37|| 2014-04-29 08:37|| Front Page Top

#4 History also repeats because human nature does not change. The myth of man's perfectibility.

Posted by SR-71 2014-04-29 09:14|| 2014-04-29 09:14|| Front Page Top

#5 Great comments from NMU & P2K.

I like to consolidate these points as The arrogance of the now.

Everything that comes before now (year Zero is always today) is either ignored or derided as the ravings of the unenlightened. There are few times and fewer people that truly get it. That all we are and have is built on the work of the giants of the past.

Unfortunately, STEMs don't apply their analytic side to history & government and recognize that people are not a single group which conforms to mathematical principles.

Many great scientists have had some really ugly socio/political ideas.

Posted by AlanC 2014-04-29 09:22|| 2014-04-29 09:22|| Front Page Top

#6 I might suggest:

5.5 Government identifies former regimes as oppressive, unfair, and releases imprisoned convicts. Former convicts exacerbate local law enforcement and hasten federal government intervention and control.

Posted by Besoeker 2014-04-29 09:33|| 2014-04-29 09:33|| Front Page Top

#7 Fair enough, Alan C. Biology is, after all, a science of ranges, not exactitude a like calculus or physics.

I did try to address that in my post, though.

Posted by no mo uro 2014-04-29 10:00|| 2014-04-29 10:00|| Front Page Top

#8 NMU, your comments DID include the intimation and I was trying in my poor way to build on that.

As my education is in Political Science (now THERE'S an oxymoron) and my vocation was in software I am always drawn to a quote one of my first bosses liked to use with users.

When it was pointed out to him, that "This system isn't rocket science." His reply was invariably "No, it's much harder than that; it involves people."

People never have and never will conform to the mathematics. Statistics can't be applied to individuals despite the New Communist Man or any other utopian ideal.

Posted by AlanC 2014-04-29 11:16|| 2014-04-29 11:16|| Front Page Top

#9 Well said, Alan.

Posted by Barbara 2014-04-29 13:22|| 2014-04-29 13:22|| Front Page Top

#10 Except, of course, for The Foundation series is by Isaac Asimov.

The premise of the series is a branch of mathematics known as psychohistory, a concept of mathematical sociology (analogous to mathematical physics). Using the laws of mass action, it can predict the future, but only on a large scale; it is error-prone on a small scale. It works on the principle that the behaviour of a mass of people is predictable if the quantity of this mass is very large (equal to the population of the galaxy, which has a population of quadrillions of humans, inhabiting millions of star systems). The larger the number, the more predictable is the future.

Posted by Bobby 2014-04-29 13:25|| 2014-04-29 13:25|| Front Page Top

#11 Bobby,
Asimov conforms completely to my point. Given the fact that I read the Foundation series 40 years ago it probably got me thinking along these lines.

Statistics CAN, if done well, be quite predictive of mass action among people or particles. What it doesn't do well at all is predict the actions of an individual.

As Asimov points out, the smaller the entity that you are trying to predict the greater the error rate. Given that individual actions can trigger mass actions you wind up with a great exercise in 20/20 hind-sight.

Unfortunately, the math that works best for individuals is quantum mechanics and pure randomness.

Of course the main problem with statistics is honesty. Whether you attribute it to Twain or Disraeli the quote always holds There are three types of lie: Lies, damned lies, and statistics a fact constantly demonstrated by politicians and the climate change hucksters.

Posted by AlanC 2014-04-29 13:40|| 2014-04-29 13:40|| Front Page Top

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