The biggest intellectual nothing burger of the last century?
Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach contained some interesting musings on recursion, computation, self-reference, and so on. But of course is main "oomph" was that it was going to use all of these musings to explain consciousness. And the explanation? "This is it -- this is what consciousness is . Consciousness is that property of a system that arises whenever there exists symbols in the system which obey triggering patterns somewhat like the ones described in the past several sections" (385). Can you imagine someone in a real science, one that makes real discoveries, offering an "explanation" like that? "Planets just are those celestial objects that move in the sky in that funny way." "Atoms just are those things that cause chemicals to form in the patterns they do." "Evolution just is the process of new species coming into being." Such a phony would be laughed right out of the scientific community. In a real s
I found this very humorous; however, I can't help but think that part of the reason many people make fun of Paul has to do with his non-interventionist foreign policy, attack on the Federal Reserve, and to a degree his opposition to expansion of the police state.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching this video, I became a bit annoyed (aside from finding this funny); I think because making fun of Paul for his views as if they're 'crazy' seems, in my opinion, to be ridiculous in light of the fact that what passes for 'normal' US Gov. policy to me seems to be what is truly crazy.
I think it is possible that many became upset about saying, "Ron Paul can't win, etc", because, even though they possibly knew this deep down, it was felt that to say that, would be a sign of complete resignation. After all, why go through all one goes through to support a cause if you believe that you are going to fail; it seems as if it would be used by the media to say, "He's says he can't win; his supporters do, so, we'll ignore him even more." This can give rise to an attitude of defiant resistance, and absolute disregard for the attacks of everything against you. But, in a reactive emotional sense, feeling you've been pushed in the mud all the time, always attacked, and even after getting into the double-digits, being attacked more, people just become stubborn.
At some point, many people make the decision that they would rather maintain the illusion, than give into an bad reality. Because, to say evil has won, to many, seems as if you are giving in.
Not saying you are bad, Dr. Callahan, for posting this, or making any attacks on you. But, as someone who supported Ron Paul both in 2008 and 2012, I think, in retrospect, this was part o the reason. If the neo-con opponent, establishmentarian, etc, etc, just laughs at you, ridicules you, and says very condescending things to you, at some point you just go in the exact opposite direction. And, in a certain sense, because so many of Paul's supporters absolutely believed he could win (unlikely as that was), they worked very, very hard, and, amazingly, they contributed to him doing far better this time around than he did last.
That's just my thoughts.