Don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys

[coberst]

“Don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.” Willie Nelson

I imagine myself as a member of a small group of riders trying desperately to turn the stampeding herd before that herd reaches the cliffs.

The herd is humanity. My fellow riders are the few who, like me, think they have been enlightened and wish to stop an impending catastrophe. The skeptical reader is, of course, correct that the riders may be idiots and that the herd is just seeking better pastures. The consoling thought for the riders is that if they, the riders, are wrong it is of little consequence because they are so few; while the herd, if wrong, will probably destroy them self.

The riders, like me, think that there is a fundamental issue, that if resolved, will reposition the herd into a more perceptive and reasonable mode and thus the herd will live happily ever after.

The fundamental issue that concerns the riders is that the herd makes very poor decisions. For this reason the riders think that if the herd became Critical Thinkers and self-learners matters would improve. See “Bertrand Russell on Critical Thinking” http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Educ/EducHare.htm

A rider from a past generation spoke about these matters in:

The Decline of Western Democracy
by Walter Lippmann

“There has developed in this century a functional derangement of the relationship between the mass of the people and the government. The people have acquired power which they are incapable of exercising and the governments they elect have lost powers which they must recover if they are to govern …” http://www.theatlantic.com/ideastour...-excerpt.mhtml
For copyright reasons, the full text of this article is not available on The Atlantic's site.

However, another site provides some interesting Lippmann insights.
http://www.memorablequotations.com/lippmann.htm

[Michaelangelica]

I just posted this.on the What really is it to learn? thread
Is it what you mean?
Smile Re: What really is it to learn? - Today, 11:07 PM
To be able to change and adapt, quickly to new information and situations.

Something I think our species will not be able to do quickly enough to stave off environmental extiction.

[coberst]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

I just posted this.on the What really is it to learn? thread
Is it what you mean?
Smile Re: What really is it to learn? - Today, 11:07 PM
To be able to change and adapt, quickly to new information and situations.

Something I think our species will not be able to do quickly enough to stave off environmental extiction.

???

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by coberst

???

I guess not

[Turtle]

Babies, don't let your cowboys grow up to be mothers. When you're riding on a McClellan saddle, holding your horn has a whole new meaning.

[HydrogenBond]

One of the necessities for more riders is to downgrade statistics, since it is lower than reason, yet is given equal status to reason. Here is a joke to prove it: How many statistitions would it take to correlate Newtonian gravity; hundreds. How many rationalist would be needed to do the same thing; one, Newton.

If only fifty statistitions are available the correlation would be incomplete. If it is pitched as complete there is all kinds of subjectivity liberty built in to draw erroneous conclusions. One can go off into fantasy worlds where the statistitions have yet to tread.

What culture needs to do is call rationalism the A-team and stats the B-team to help people distunquish what is rational and what is pre-rational and still full of subjectivity.

Let me give an example, statistics have determine blood alchol levels and breath tests are useful for determing drunk drivers. To a rationalist, driving is based on motor coordination and reflexes and not bad breath. A coordination test would be a better test than a bad breath test. Under the current B-team illusion the secretary who is tispy after half a wine cooler is given her keys back. The cowboy who has been on the range all day and slugs three beers is thrown in jail. With the rational coordination test, the secretary would be detained and the cowboy would get back on his horse to ride home to his schoolmom wife.

Culture is letting the B-team rule the A-team. This screws up the ability of the masses to learn the nature of cause and affect, which is the precursor of critical thinking. The B-team, because it has subjective fluff is better for politics and entertainment. The A-team is better for eduction.