Reading this feels like watching someone explain that water is wet while half the country insists, “Actually, it’s Antifa soup.”
The “five mechanisms” are spot on. Reality inversion, magical causation, scapegoating—basically Hogwarts for gaslighters. It’s political alchemy: turn failure into success, ignorance into wisdom, cruelty into patriotism. And somehow, Jason Calacanis becomes a moral weathervane spinning faster than a ceiling fan at a Florida Hooters.
Truth isn’t sexy in a world addicted to team jerseys. But here’s the joke: arithmetic doesn’t care who you voted for. Two plus two still equals four, even if your senator swears it equals “owning the libs.”
Oh my gosh! I just did a similar post. The Right (honestly, I’m not even sure what to call them any more) still think Trump will magically pivot to save them.
Where is the passion? Reason will never be enough. Look at The Prophet, by Gibran. They need each other. Reason will become a cage if left alone and passion will burn itself out. The rudder and the sail. Where's the sail, the drive forward found in the restful nest of reason? We can intellectualize till the cows come home, but without the pulse to make things go, what's the use?
Yeah, well, some "winds" are less useful or beneficial than others ...
One is reminded of the semi-popular concept of "The Divine Logos", and Einstein's elaboration on the theme, "God does not play dice with the universe" -- or not always in any case as later physicists have argued ...
Gibran: Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peaceful serenity of distant fields and meadows--then let your heart say in silence, "God rests in reason."
And when the storm comes, and the mighty winds shake the forest and thunder and lightening proclaim the majesty of the sky--then let your heart say in awe, "God moves in passion."
Divinity is on both sides of the relation: Reason, values and rationality; intuition, sensation and the irrational with our dual hemispheric brains and their distinct functional repertoires.
Staying in complex balance in the face of simplifying either/or favoritisms is our best shot forward. We need the full picture of humanity in the round, each of us with all of our elements accounted for. Then tell your story, one which covers all the bases of mind and heart, where we don't get lost in one or the other and can find the common ground to reset the story of the world around us!
Seem to remember reading bits and pieces in The Prophet -- a great many moons ago. Never did quite get the connection between Gibran's poetry and Mohammed and the latter's claim to fame and fortune. Kind of preferred the poetry of Omar Khayyam and his The Rubaiyat, at least the Fitzgerald translation:
But, speaking of Islam and it's lost "Golden Age", I'm reminded of this article -- in of all places, The New Atlantis, speaking of ends of ages and all that --
"Why the Arabic World Turned Away from Science; On the lost Golden Age and the rejection of reason":
Yeah, it's really hard to avoid the temptation to join one of the teams, Republicans or Democrats. I had hoped that independents could evaluate the motives of Kirk's assassin objectively: that he had left-wing motives (but that's no reason to ban the opposite view. The state shouldn't have forced ABC to take Kimmel's show off the air).
Independents seem exactly half-way between Rs and Ds on the assassin's motives. I have no data on the Kimmel situation, but I fear that most who disagreed with Kimmel raised few objections to his cancellation.
I am with you on this point. Tribal loyalty has all kinds of hidden freedom traps built into it. Freedom of thought in tribal structures is a bit of an oxymoron to me….
Clearly something of a "tipping point" -- some reason to argue that that issue tipped the balance in favour of Trump in the last election. Kamala -- "she's for they/them" -- Harris being a case in point.
Should maybe be an important question if not one of the hour.
Reading this feels like watching someone explain that water is wet while half the country insists, “Actually, it’s Antifa soup.”
The “five mechanisms” are spot on. Reality inversion, magical causation, scapegoating—basically Hogwarts for gaslighters. It’s political alchemy: turn failure into success, ignorance into wisdom, cruelty into patriotism. And somehow, Jason Calacanis becomes a moral weathervane spinning faster than a ceiling fan at a Florida Hooters.
Truth isn’t sexy in a world addicted to team jerseys. But here’s the joke: arithmetic doesn’t care who you voted for. Two plus two still equals four, even if your senator swears it equals “owning the libs.”
Man, I really appreciate you Mike. THANK YOU for your truth-seeking, intellectual courage, and moral clarity. Seriously.
Yes. I feel the same way. SO GRATEFUL, MIKE.
Oh my gosh! I just did a similar post. The Right (honestly, I’m not even sure what to call them any more) still think Trump will magically pivot to save them.
Where is the passion? Reason will never be enough. Look at The Prophet, by Gibran. They need each other. Reason will become a cage if left alone and passion will burn itself out. The rudder and the sail. Where's the sail, the drive forward found in the restful nest of reason? We can intellectualize till the cows come home, but without the pulse to make things go, what's the use?
Yeah, well, some "winds" are less useful or beneficial than others ...
One is reminded of the semi-popular concept of "The Divine Logos", and Einstein's elaboration on the theme, "God does not play dice with the universe" -- or not always in any case as later physicists have argued ...
Gibran: Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peaceful serenity of distant fields and meadows--then let your heart say in silence, "God rests in reason."
And when the storm comes, and the mighty winds shake the forest and thunder and lightening proclaim the majesty of the sky--then let your heart say in awe, "God moves in passion."
Divinity is on both sides of the relation: Reason, values and rationality; intuition, sensation and the irrational with our dual hemispheric brains and their distinct functional repertoires.
Staying in complex balance in the face of simplifying either/or favoritisms is our best shot forward. We need the full picture of humanity in the round, each of us with all of our elements accounted for. Then tell your story, one which covers all the bases of mind and heart, where we don't get lost in one or the other and can find the common ground to reset the story of the world around us!
Seem to remember reading bits and pieces in The Prophet -- a great many moons ago. Never did quite get the connection between Gibran's poetry and Mohammed and the latter's claim to fame and fortune. Kind of preferred the poetry of Omar Khayyam and his The Rubaiyat, at least the Fitzgerald translation:
https://victorianweb.org/authors/fitzgerald/rubaiyat.html
But, speaking of Islam and it's lost "Golden Age", I'm reminded of this article -- in of all places, The New Atlantis, speaking of ends of ages and all that --
"Why the Arabic World Turned Away from Science; On the lost Golden Age and the rejection of reason":
https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/why-the-arabic-world-turned-away-from-science
Superb article. Sublime eloquence and reasoning.
Yeah, it's really hard to avoid the temptation to join one of the teams, Republicans or Democrats. I had hoped that independents could evaluate the motives of Kirk's assassin objectively: that he had left-wing motives (but that's no reason to ban the opposite view. The state shouldn't have forced ABC to take Kimmel's show off the air).
Independents seem exactly half-way between Rs and Ds on the assassin's motives. I have no data on the Kimmel situation, but I fear that most who disagreed with Kimmel raised few objections to his cancellation.
https://x.com/glukianoff/status/1970127446323146898?t=KNeK-azY3ZVBIyIZCEAtag&s=19
Superb analysis - thank you 🙏
Am I the only weirdo who finds tribal identity meaningless and cult like loyalty creepy?
You are a very rare human to think that way, yes.
Nope
I am with you on this point. Tribal loyalty has all kinds of hidden freedom traps built into it. Freedom of thought in tribal structures is a bit of an oxymoron to me….
> "Rational discourse has been converted into magical thinking ..."
Yeah, well, you might give some thought to some of that "magical thinking" on the Left, notably that people can "change sex" ...
At some point, I will dive very deeply into my thoughts about gender, culture and the politics around them. But not today.
Clearly something of a "tipping point" -- some reason to argue that that issue tipped the balance in favour of Trump in the last election. Kamala -- "she's for they/them" -- Harris being a case in point.
Should maybe be an important question if not one of the hour.