patrick.net

Would that include mass movements on "the left" as well as "the right."?

Sure, the fundamentals of mass movements are all the same.

It was Alan Greenspan who said, "to exist you need an ideology; the question is whether it is accurate or not."
He said it before the Oversight and Government Reform committee on October 28, 2008.

The world is terribly complex and difficult to understand. It's also tragic. We die and so do our loved ones. I guess that's why we need ideologies.

freak80 says

The world is terribly complex and difficult to understand. It's also tragic. We die and so do our loved ones. I guess that's why we need ideologies.

True. In the grand scheme of things, we are nothing more than a fly or a rat. Our beliefs give us purpose, make us feel larger than ourselves. Collective belief gives us strength, which can cause good or bad. But again in the grand scehme of things-what is good or bad.

This book is truly a masterpiece. Whether you are conservative or liberal, it will make you question the real reason for what you think is your core beliefs. The author is able to show why so many of our beliefs are really based on fear and our need to be validated. Rational political discussion and debate is important and valuable to our society, but a reading of this book will make you more honest as to what you "think you think."

Yes, that's exactly it. It goes into why people believe certain things, and it has little to do with reason.

saroya says

This book is truly a masterpiece. Whether you are conservative or liberal, it will make you question the real reason for what you think is your core beliefs. The author is able to show why so many of our beliefs are really based on fear and our need to be validated. Rational political discussion and debate is important and valuable to our society, but a reading of this book will make you more honest as to what you "think you think."

Dunno if I'm ready for that. You got a book that will confirm my assumptions and reassure me that people who disagree with me are evil and irrational?

Yes, that's exactly it. It goes into why people believe certain things, and it has little to do with reason.

But it'd be all too easy to say "we're the smart ones, we are open minded, we are rational; it's only those other idiots that succumb to groupthink." We all have our dogmas.

Heck I can't even prove, rationally, that I exist at all. Everything could just be an illusion. I wish I'd never have seen those Matrix movies. I haven't been right since.

freak80 says

Heck I can't even prove, rationally, that I exist at all. Everything could just be an illusion.

Buddhists say you are approaching enlightenment when you realize that!

Buddhists say you are approaching enlightenment when you realize that!

Wow.

Wasn't it Socrates who said he was the wisest of all the Greeks because he claimed to know nothing at all?

how about thoughts on killing innocent people by obombya drone attacks,

Even more impressive when you learn that the author was just a regular dockworker in San Francisco

This reminds me of one of my favorite thinkers, Paul G. Hewitt, whose community college lectures on conceptual physics are free online:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_G._Hewitt

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=paul+hewitt+conceptual+physics

In some of Professor Hewitt's lectures, he tells the story of his younger days as a manual laborer with a co-worker whom nobody else wanted to work with because the guy was "a intellectual." As the new hire, young Paul was assigned to work with him, and the experience inspired Paul to study physics. Professor Hewitt also recounts the insights and errors of some of history's most brilliant physicists, and likens them to his colleague the laborer: they possessed great intelligence, but they lacked a theoretical framework. As Hewitt puts it, "We're all prisoners of our time."

freak80 says

The world is terribly complex and difficult to understand. It's also tragic. We die and so do our loved ones. I guess that's why we need ideologies.

The world is also quite beautiful, and amazing that it works at all. We live a time, learn what we can, and among other things we are especially lucky to have been born human and in this particular part of human history. Many of our predecessors starved, suffered terrible hardships, and found no solace other than a belief that somehow it would get better; religion may have been what kept some of them from suicide. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why some religious people panic at any conceivable threat to their doctrine, no matter how obviously exaggerated; they fear that without their church/mosque/synagogue, they would slit their own throats. They stop up their ears and Ignore any idea that challenges their beliefs, or take to the streets and demand death to those who insult their Prophet. All the while, the world keeps turning, the sun rises and sets, shining and indifferent.

curious2 says

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why some religious people panic at any conceivable threat to their doctrine, no matter how obviously exaggerated; they fear that without their church/mosque/synagogue, they would slit their own throats. They stop up their ears and Ignore any idea that challenges their beliefs, or take to the streets and demand death to those who insult their Prophet. All the while, the world keeps turning, the sun rises and sets, shining and indifferent.

Sounds like the "truther" movement.

"Even more impressive when you learn that the author was just a regular dockworker in San Francisco"

People gotta eat. Dock work can pay decent wages. I know from experience. More importantly to someone who would write a book like this, it's mindless work that practically drives your mind to higher thought. Lots of time with your thoughts is essential to this sort of writing!