Post No. 2,785 - Flawed truths and not listening carefully enough

A few weeks ago I watched a video which proposed three extra senses. The details of those are not relevant to this post so I won't link to the video, but it did prompt recollection of a comment in Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking” along the lines that thinking could be considered a sense. 

I had a mild sense of wariness, which I interpreted as “make sure you credit the original source”, so I tracked down the reference, and posted a comment along the lines of thinking also being a sense, and credited both the original source and that I had found it via Brendan Myers’ course. 

And ignored the residual wariness ... until I quite rightly got jumped on for the white supremacism and other bigotries of the source - specifically, ableism. I didn’t know about all the problems of that person, so it was a useful, if salutary lesson - two actually: one about the person, and another about not ignoring any mild sense of unease ...

Now, I’m not going to give that person, deceased though they are, nor their cause the oxygen of publicity, so I will just refer to them as R_ S_, and you can look up the links if you want to know more (although, in another example of ableism, R_ S_’s ableism is not mentioned ... ). 

All this led to further reflection along the lines of: 

at what stage does a source become so polluted that cannot use anything of theirs?

As an extreme example, the n___’s (mis)use of (a slightly modified) version of the s_ means it cannot be used by most people, despite it being a sacred symbol in several South and East Asian religions (and blogger’s sensitivities mean I am wary of naming the symbols or those who desecrated it).

R__ling has damaged her legacy through her hatred of trans people. 

And in a somewhat greyer example, some of the activist and social change concepts (especially the applications of nonviolent resistance - which is a concept developed by others, including Tolstoy) of Gandhi are still useful - but Gandhi was a sexual pervert - which I discussed here.

Do we need the perspective of chronological distance to assess this?

Maybe. 

I consider there is more to it, though - alignment or not with personal values is an issue covering usage. 

For example, I see Nietzsche getting quoted often, but I consider that person’s values to be terrible. 

I ended my post about Gandhi with the following: 

My key points from those quotes, for the consideration of current leaders, are: 

• the means shape the ends, and leaders have a duty of care for the means used. This obliges one to take the longer term view, and, if the short term outcome will harm the ultimate end, desist; 
• consider the state of being of those one is leading as much as the aims one is trying to achieve; 
• communication has many forms: use that which is most appropriate (not necessarily "most effective", given the need to consider means and ends); 
• pragmatism has many forms: some are good, some neutral, and some harmful. Use the good - that which fights evil (on that, see here); 
• admit to mistakes, and learn from them.
  

Others will, of course, see other lessons, quite likely of equal or greater validity 😊

Right now, despite considering there to be potentially useful information in some of R_ S_’s material, I consider that of insufficient value to justify using that one minor comment relayed by Brendan Myer, so I edited it out of my comment and thanked the person who brought the matter to my attention. 

And I will pay better attention to my feelings, including those of wariness, in future ...  

 

PS - not identifying the source is not, in my opinion, an acceptable option

 

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”;  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also Instagram. 

Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).

Copyright © Kayleen White 2007-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-ShareAlike basis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/  

 

Post No. 2,781 - good and bad crowds

I recently read   “Do you have an instinctive aversion to mob psychology?”   https://thequietlife.net/p/do-you-have-an-instinctive-aversion   from an introvert activist I admire and respect (Susan Cain). 

I quite liked the poem by Les  Murray, but the post raised a few other thoughts. 

Firstly, there are forms (or aspects) of crowd behaviour/psychology that I consider are wrong - things like riots, pogroms, peer pressure, gossip, etc. 

In terms of public protest, I recall being overwhelmed and scared by the noise and anger of a (peaceful - unlike at least one) Việt Nam War  protest march in the city (which I wrote about somewhere, I think).

However, coming together for collective action can create good outcomes - including outcomes such as the eight hour day and other historical achievements, and, more recently, as I wrote about in   “On public pressure affecting responses to active mass atrocity events [Note: Content Warning - mention of and links to articles violence and atrocities against victims of a wide range of ages. Reader discretion is advised]”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/02/on-public-pressure-affecting-responses.html     

So crowds can be both good and bad. Nuance is the word of the day in this, as in so many other matters.

Also, as a side note, the word “mob” is now largely used in Australia to refer to Indigenous groups, I have so deliberately chosen not to use that word in the above. 

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”;  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also Instagram. 

Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).

Copyright © Kayleen White 2007-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-ShareAlike basis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/  

 

Post No. 2,632 - The world feels like ... [Content Warning]

Thanks to every amathiac who has failed to take action against the move to the right that started in the 1980s, the world now feels like it is on the verge of war (and I am accessing my past life memories of the preludes to war that I have experienced [especially in past lives as a ciswoman] when I make that statement). 

The direct trigger is, if that sense is correct, the appalling attack by violent extremists from Gaza who I refuse to give publicity by naming - who were reacting to the right wing drift and resultant abusive actions of Israel after an assassination and illness ended the chance of peace in the 90s, and the massively abusive reaction of Israel now. 

Terror for terror for terror ad infinitum. 

We almost broke the cycle there, but now ... an eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind ... or dead.

We also almost broke the cycle of abusing workers in the mid-20^th century ... until neoliberalism and the amathiac tools who got sucked in to that evil philosophy got busy - which created conditions that meant fascism could recur.

In all of these cases, a few people with more power than they should have are the ones who start driving conditions for the worse. 

It would be nice to say we’ve also got a few powerful individuals driving things towards a better state of the world, but we don’t. 

That means it is up to every single one of us - the “everyday people” of the world, a phrase that confounds academics, to stand up in every conversation and plant a seed for a better world. 

Don’t contribute to the psychic soup of hate, bigotry, intolerance, cynicism, corruption, other character flaws, and other forms of evil. 

Give strangers the benefit of the doubt instead of assuming they are operating in bad faith, don’t be afraid of nuance (shades of grey), and argue for tolerance. 

It might be as simple as, when someone says something judgemental, responding with “I disagree”, or “I think there’s more to it than that”, or even “I'll keep my opinions to myself”. 

But don’t let evil go unchallenged - we need to be upstanders, rather than bystanders. 

There is one exception, at the moment: 

Gaza

Feelings are too inflamed on both sides by people who, in many cases in nations outside of West Asia, are helpless sock puppets to hate.

Pity them - don’t hate them. If you hate them you are just feeding the masters who are controlling the helpless, weak minded sock puppets. 

The other thing to keep in mind is, if war does spread - and it could spread widely, given what is happening in Ukraine (Zelensky needs to accept an imperfect stalemate for the pragmatic sake of the rest of the world, unfortunately), what could happen in Taiwan and/or the South China Sea, we have to think what sort of world we want to rebuild. 

The climate crisis will probably take some of that choice out of our hands - and definitely our choices will be extremely limited if we wind up in a nuclear, but ... if you are one of the survivors, you will need to be prepared to be COURAGEOUS, OUTSPOKEN, and UPSTANDING enough to not be duped by the rich & powerful, not chase material wealth, not allow patriarchy (or matriarchy), and actively allow, welcome, and embrace diversity of people, as that is the ONLY way we will find the solutions we will need as a species in order to survive. 

You may not have the chance to pursue your life goals and ambitions: if that is so, try to make sure others can chase decent goals instead - others in our future.

So, work at being a good ancestor now - someone who was progressive, and contributed to a better (more progressive) world.

PS - after I posted the above, the following turned up, which is relevant and more positively framed: 

https://tthorncoyle.substack.com/p/on-culture-change   

but also 

“One Theory [“systems justification”] Explains Why We Can't Have Nice Things”   https://www.okdoomer.io/one-obscure-psycholtheory-explains-why-we-cant-have-nice-things/   - see also   https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/social-justice-pacifists/202106/theory-system-justification-pr-cis,   https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/systems-justification-theory,   https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=System_justification&oldid=1181918077,   and   https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv13qfw6w  

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also Instagram. 

Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk.