It Can Happen Here

Posted on Tuesday 2 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

I’m not the first to make this observation. Trump’s rise echoes a famous 1935 novel called (ironically) It Can’t Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis. Wikipedia:

The novel describes the rise of Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, a demagogue who is elected President of the United States, after fomenting fear and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and “traditional” values. After his election, Windrip takes complete control of the government via self-coup and imposes totalitarian rule with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force, in the manner of European fascists such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

Americans brag about their system of checks and balances in our government, but look how quickly some of those balances are being chipped away. Note how in this book’s description, and in authoritarians who have come to power in the last decade or two, how they appeal to “traditional” values.

NY Times, 1 Jul 2024: Trump Amplifies Calls to Jail Top Elected Officials, Invokes Military Tribunals, subtitled “A post that Mr. Trump circulated on Sunday called for Liz Cheney to be prosecuted by a military court reserved for enemy combatants and war criminals.” [shared link]

Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, science fiction, Social Progress | Comments Off on It Can Happen Here

More About Regression Toward the Mean

Posted on Monday 1 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Thought for the day. On the other hand, rather than thinking we must be living in the worst of times (see last Wednesday’s post), perhaps we are merely experience regression toward the mean. I’ve mentioned this notion several times. The idea is that democracy, and science, are exceptional in world history. While progressives like to think humanity is on an upwards path toward a better, more egalitarian, future, a future better-informed about the nature of reality and overcoming tribal instincts of nationalism and religion that actively deny that reality (in science fiction, that was portrayed by the original Star Trek), perhaps that is not realistic. Perhaps that future will never be attained, except only temporarily, before returning to than mean, based ultimately on human nature, established over millions of years, and which cannot easily be swayed.

On the other hand, humanity *has* advanced, overall, in recent centuries. Our politics and our understanding of the world, and thus our ability to control it, are far better here in the 21st century than they were, say, 500 years ago. We no longer accede to the divine right of kings; we no longer believe in demons and spirits to explain the natural world.

Well, some of us don’t. Others still do. There is no consensus among the entire world, or national, population. Case in point.

The big news today Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Religion, Science | Comments Off on More About Regression Toward the Mean

The Debate, and the Continuing Christian Insurgence

Posted on Sunday 30 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

  • Comments about the debate between Biden and Trump three days ago, on Thursday;
  • Items about Christian Insurgence in Oklahoma schools, and David Barton;
  • And how humans are wired to believe anything their parents or culture tells them to believe, up to a point, when the native intelligence of our species sets in, and young humans begin to question everything.

I cringed at the debate the other night, between Biden and Trump, and thought it was a disaster for Biden. I covered my eyes at times; I could barely watch. At the same time, as many have pointed out, Biden looked like a feeble old man, but at least he discussed policies and accomplishments, whereas Trump lied in virtually everything he said, as if he’s lived in some alternate world in which global leaders respected *him* until January 6th (!) before Biden took over and ruined everything. Some people, especially those who do not follow the news outside of partisan sources, will believe anything, anything he says. And CNN did not fact-check-challenge him. Do you want an old man who’s good some days and not others, but who has the right values and tells the truth, or a slick con-man who can play his audience to accept a constant stream of lies? A couple major news sources have called for Biden to step down; at least one, based on his lies, has called for Trump to step down. How did we get to this place?

But I’m not inclined to pursue this any farther.

Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on The Debate, and the Continuing Christian Insurgence

Hectic Week

Posted on Saturday 29 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

In my retirement I’m getting very accustomed to routine days with no urgent tasks awaiting me. I read the paper, I do a chore or two for Locus Online or sfadb.com, have lunch and take a nap, then read a book for two or three hours in the afternoon, and finally write a blog post, sometimes a book write-up but often simply commentary about what I saw in the paper or online during the day. Then dinner, and TV (Jeopardy, then whatever), until 9 or 9.30pm. Early to bed, early to rise (typically awake by 6 or 6:30am).

This past week has seen one interruption to that routine almost every day. So I’m behind on blog posts, writing up Pinker, and reading anything at all.

Last Saturday was the Locus Awards, which I’ve already discussed.

Continue reading →

Posted in Personal history | Comments Off on Hectic Week

You Are Here

Posted on Thursday 27 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

If you know how to look, you can see amazing things, far vaster and more impressive than anything imagined by our ancient ancestors. But you have to know how, and be willing to.

This is an image from an article in the magazine New Scientist, which I don’t subscribe to and so can only read the opening of; discovered via Google News.

New Scientist, 26 Jun 2024: This mind-blowing map shows Earth’s position within the vast universe, subtitled “See the circle of galaxy clusters and voids that surround us in this map of the nearby cosmos, extending 200 million light years in each direction”

Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Science | Comments Off on You Are Here

Are We Living in the Worst of Times?

Posted on Wednesday 26 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Or is it only human nature to think so?

  • A Scientific American piece about the denial of reality. Maybe the evidence suggests we *are* living in the worst of times.
  • Short pieces about MAGA infighting and accusations, economists warning about Trump’s policies, FRC about their privilege, casual Republican threats of violence, unintended consequences of the Texas abortion ban, and a GOP candidate (who lost yesterday) apparently living in the 14th century.

Scientific American, Marianne Cooper & Maxim Voronov, 18 Jun 2024: We’ve Hit Peak Denial. Here’s Why We Can’t Turn Away From Reality, subtitled “We are living through a terrible time in humanity. Here’s why we tend to stick our heads in the sand and why we need to pull them out, fast”

Well… I’m beginning to think that Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Culture, Politics | Comments Off on Are We Living in the Worst of Times?

Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 4

Posted on Wednesday 26 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Another five chapters, mostly addressing the fears people have with the idea of an innate human nature, as opposed to the idealized blank slate: concerning inequality, imperfectibility, determinism, and nihilism.

Earlier posts about this book: post 1, post 2, post 3.

– – –

 

–Ch7, The Holy Trinity

Further examples of traditionalists trying to save the concepts of the blank slate, the noble savage, and the ghost in the machine, presumably as sources of meaning and morality. Their claims, even from scientists like Gould and Lewontin, are political, or moral, not evidence based. The ghost in the machine is especially important to the right, and to religious fundamentalists with their moral fears and Biblical literalism, as if without such morality we’d behave like beasts. This has led to the corruption of American science education. They don’t like neuroscience any more than evolution. Scientists reject the Intelligent Design folks, like Michael Behe, while leading (political) neoconservatives have embraced the idea. (Author quotes “Inherit the Wind” about how simple, poor people need to believe in something beautiful, so why take that away from them?)

The influence of the right on intellectual life is limited by its denial of evolution. Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, MInd, Science, Steven Pinker | Comments Off on Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 4

How Language Changes, Sometimes for Political Purposes

Posted on Tuesday 25 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Three items from the news the past few days. First, some quotes from a piece about how climate change deniers have refined their game.

TNR, The New Republic, Genevieve Guenther, 24 Jun 2024: The New Climate Denial Is Based on These Six Terms, subtitled “The new obstructionist approach doesn’t say global warming isn’t happening. Instead, it argues we don’t need to phase out oil and gas.”

The larger issue here is that deniers of climate change, evolution, vaccines, and so on, *always* have an ulterior motive. They’re never interested about the pure science of the matters (else there are *lots* of other things they might be concerned about). In the case of climate change, whatever their surface arguments are, their underlying motivation is to preserve the status quo, in this case the interests of the fossil fuel industries.

But OK, what are their six terms? The piece begins: Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Science | Comments Off on How Language Changes, Sometimes for Political Purposes

Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 3

Posted on Monday 24 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Summaries and comments about three more chapters of Steven Pinker’s THE BLANK SLATE;
  • And YouTube tracks from one of my favorite film scores: Richard Robbins’ for The Remains of the Day.

I’ll try to get through the rest of book this week, though I’ll need to be more succinct, or I’ll never finish. Three chapters done previously; 17 to go. Three more in this post.

Chapter 3 described the steps that led to the fall of the walls between matter and mind — the material and spiritual, and so on. Via cognitive science, cognitive neuroscience, behavioral genetics, and evolutionary psychology.

— Ch4, Culture Vultures

Culture is not simply absorbed by people; it depends on learning, which relies on faculties of the mind. Much of culture is simply accumulated local wisdom. People tend to follow the norms of their community. Many things in life lie along a continuum, but decisions must often be binary. [[ well, this is a good point ]] And some conventions exist only in people’s minds [[ one of Harari’s central themes ]]. Cultures, like languages, become different when separated. Why do some cultures dominate others? It’s not about race, cf books by Thomas Sowell and Jared Diamond [[ the latter is GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL ]]. Geography was destiny. Nonscientists fear a kind of reductionism. But there’s greedy and good reductionism; the latter is hierarchical [[ as we’ve seen in Carroll and currently in Brian Greene ]]. The very word ‘understanding’ means a kind of reductionism, i.e. descending to deeper levels of analysis. Summary para:

Our understanding of life has only been enriched by the discovery that living flesh is composed of molecular clockwork rather than quivering protoplasm, or that birds soar by exploiting the laws of physics rather than defying them. In the same way, our understanding of ourselves and our cultures can only be enriched by the discovery that our minds are composed of intricate neural circuits for thinking, feeling, and learning rather than bank slates, amorphous blobs, or inscrutable ghosts.

Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, MInd, Music, Science, Steven Pinker | Comments Off on Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 3

Understanding Human Nature

Posted on Sunday 23 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Ultimately, everything in the daily news makes sense through an honest understanding of human nature. (It is not there are two legitimate “sides” to every issue.) Two thought pieces for today, then a bunch of shorter items.

  • About how macaques — and humans — actually cooperate in stressful situations, despite popular narratives;
  • About how philosopher Charles Taylor thinks the world needs the pre-scientific understanding of the world, to restore “a shared sense of meaning and purpose”;
  • Shorter items about how Iowans don’t want to hear about climate science; a list of GOP lies; a left-wing charge that NYT and WaPo are exaggerating the threat of Trump; how FRC claims tolerance is evil; how since Reagan the GOP has slid into authoritarianism and ignorance; how conservatives don’t want to hear that crime rates are falling.

NY Times, Rachel Nuwer, 20 Jun 2024: After a Weather Disaster, a Surprise: Some Ornery Monkeys Got Nicer, subtitled “Macaques, reeling from a hurricane, learned by necessity to get along, a study found. It’s one of the first to suggest that animals can adapt to environmental upheaval with social changes.” [shared link]

I heard this exact story somewhere else recently — on 60 Minutes? Yes, it’s right here. Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Evolution, Human Progress, Humanism, Philosophy | Comments Off on Understanding Human Nature