Most People Today Want to be Propagandized
"Intellectually insecure and socially uprooted, many people are now desperate for some authority to cling to, someone who will give simple expression to the inklings of thoughts and instincts to which they can neither give adequate voice nor adequately live out."
"Is it any wonder, then, that so many people would seek out propaganda today, and that its providers would be so happy to oblige?"
Where would you be if it were not for objectivism?
"Is it any wonder, then, that so many people would seek out propaganda today, and that its providers would be so happy to oblige?"
Where would you be if it were not for objectivism?
I am a physical chemist who did, during all of my 44 years in professional life, what you would call development engineering. Long time before I became aware of Objectivism, I read a quote that defined engineering as "the art of things that work". It has remained for ever, in my mind, as a thoroughly true statement.
The "... that work" part imposes a practicality, an honesty, a sticking to the facts. It is also an art, because, if you wish your product to last, say, 40 years, you are not allowed 40 years of testing to find out what works. Also, you cannot compute the entire design. So you have guess, gamble and take risks. That forces you to use your imagination, express your character and your emotions.. To express your reasoning, your honesty, your control of fear. In short, as Ayn Rand says, express your sense of life. Engineers have to stick to "existence exists" and "A is A". Otherwise, machines fail, and buildings collapse.
This is a verbose way of saying that you are right. What you say, to me, is a "subset" of the concepts conveyed by the statement: "Objectivism is a lot like experience of life."
Nice to chat with you. Stay well
so my choice of a profession was easy. . the opposite
would also have been easy, had I found engineering
first. . Rand, and some science fiction authors, are
the only folks who seem to understand engineers.
science plus life equals engineering. . simple! -- j
.
do both, are the most rare ... re-writing the rules and
using the principles to change the big picture. . even
though Galt was a fictional character, he was still
my idol for decades, as a practicing engineer. -- j
.
to estimate outcomes of calculations -- order of magnitude
or net improvement / net loss -- without crunching the
numbers. . experience, yes, but also insight into the
ways the principles operate. . What Fun!! -- j
.
Starting from scratch, making something new using parts that have wide tolerances is just a different way of thinking from science.
behind her!! -- j
.
I did some work for a refrigeration engineer who did his work with little four function calculator, though it did have a square root function on it, who had done some nuclear plant jobs and did consultant work for some company in Japan. He seemed conservatively directed with an on going bad life feeling because of his parent's Armenian background and their not getting proper recognition as an oppressed group. He did not seem to have any interest in science at all, but was a good curler.
Science interest and math interest was nearly zero for those whom I did work over 40 years and did not seem to keep them from becoming wealthy from inventing and patenting things nor did education levels. They were, though, good at general problem solving. Seemed like the key to their successes was taking risks at jobs and learning after being hired. Political leanings or math and science leanings did not enter much in their successes, being more interested in country club activities.
correctness inhibit creative thinking. -- j
.
Sometimes I feel like I'm blind to it, like it goes right over my head. I'm not making the toupee fallacy, saying I can always see through it. I think politicians often operate by getting people fired up about things so they partly abandon reason. Engineers don't get as emotionally fired up. It's like we're the weirdos (I am anyway) not caught up in the trees, so we see the forest.
the forest and the trees, individually. . like that
stupid cartoon from long ago where the dog is
running through the forest and hits a tree ...
and says, " 'Nuther tree." -- j
.
Had a discussion the other night at the change of shifts, my replacement said he watched a history show about how cruel and evil America was on the Indians...I flashed back: Not America...Andrew Jackson and a few idiots on both sides...not the country, not our founding fathers, not "White" people. I pointed out the treaties by the Pilgrims and our new government had with the Indian population that still stand today.
People look at you with disbelief when you say to them..."That's a Lie!", much like we did at first, but we went to check it out for ourselves.
I do take issue with the last definition, to which I attribute the word "dissemination" or "marketing".
Thus, based on the first definition, the genus of propaganda should be "claim" and the differentia should be both "unproven" and "intended to influence an outcome".
To seek out propaganda is to seek out an unproven claim intended to influence an outcome. Two approaches come to mind. People do not seek out claims which are unproven qua unproven. No one cares about the convention of gremlins studying Hegel on the planet Venus. People seek out claims which are unproven believing these claims to be proven, soon-to-be proven, or to-be-proven. The approach is similar to rooting for a sports team facing a more or less equal opponent. The second is what I would call the "false prophet effect", where a person wants to believe a claim and so believes an elaborate series of falsehoods in order to maintain his views. This can be likened to the savage who chants some kind of spell in order to avoid an impending lava flow. Or to an ostrich.
Objectivism provides a structure, a method, and a basis for interacting with Western culture at the most fundamental level. Without Objectivism, the immune system of my thought process, I would be able to neither explicitly defend nor consistently integrate the philosophic and political thought to which I am exposed.
Yum, yum, yum! Follow the Way of Allow-A-Soar!
Yum, yum, yum! Be at one with Allow-A-Soar!
No longer let your hearts be troubled! Enter ye into the safe zone of communal safekeeping.
Yum, yum, yum. Come be at one to soar with Allow-A-Soar, Come ye into mine belly of thine betterment! And ye get free stuff!
Come, come, come! Come enter the sheer ecstasy of the wonderful Way of Allow-A-Soar fulfillment.
Power to the People! Power to the People!
All Allow-A-Soar power unto YOU!
Allow-A-Soar shall reach you!
Allow-A-Soar shall teach you!
Allow-A-Soar shall make you sublime and divine!
Yum, yum, yum, Be at one with Allow-A-Soar.
Allow-A-Soar forever! Allow-A-Soar forever!
Yum, yum, yum! Come now unto communion with Allow-A-Soar forever!
Strip off your unseemly garments, take a dip in olive oil and allow Allow-A-Soar to anoint ye with choice herbs and spices and decorate your nakedness with spinach leaves and parsley.
Yum, yum, yum! Enter ye into the maw of infinite oblivion where ye shall fear pain and want no more!
Yum, yum--burp!
We don't want to hear about the turtle head though...!
Remember Jurassic Park 2 with that stupid T-Rex ramming a ship into San Diego and then trashing the place?
All that tomfoolery wasn't too damn inconspicuous!
Me? Kinda hard to keep a low profile when you're 30 feet long and always in need of raw meat to feed all my massive dino bulk.
Think about it.
"In the past, when confronted with new or different ideas, people who did not achieve the heights of formal education had the values and traditions embedded in their communities to fall back on."
"But today, hyper-individualism, increased urbanization, the breakdown of the family, and ideological divisions have caused a decline in the formative influence of community, and reduced our access to the “common sense” that it can provide. "
I agree with the quotes, but I think they're a positive development.