Welcome to Monday’s News on the March – The week that was in my digital world.
Blog article at JordanBPeterson.com :
The Canadian Psychologist Jordan Peterson left the public spotlight abruptly some time ago, but after a lengthy private spell to see to his health and his wife Tammy’s he has put finger to keyboard and written a lengthy, but scathing article about encroaches of the Social Justice and Post Modernist movement on the hard sciences in Universities. I wrote in a recent article ‘Once Evergreen college and now the Western World Part 2‘ how incensed Brett Weinstein and Heather Heying were about Science magazine publishing and enacting on ‘ShutDownSTEM’ in support of this movement. What Peterson demonstrates in his article is the transgressive threat posed on the hard sciences in Universities to become less rigorous in their scientific method and approach. As with most with what he has to say, it’s eye opening and hugely informative:
The George Floyd incident has emboldened those who are shamelessly using crooked faux-moral means to stake a moral claim in the so-called patriarchal structure that makes up the academic world. They are certainly able and willing to use the unfortunate death of an individual who had enough of the attributes of a systemically oppressed person to serve as poster boy for the self-serving political claims that are now being made on his behalf. This tendency, unchecked, poses a direct danger to the integrity of precisely those STEM fields that have so far remained essentially immune to the embarrassments and blandishments of the politically correct movement. But, make no mistake about it, scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians: your famous immunity to political concerns will not protect you against what is coming fast over the next five or so years: wake up, pay attention, or perish, along with your legacy….…(Read entire article).
Blog article by Mike Smith at SelfAwarePatterns:
Infant consciousness seems like a difficult question. It’s one people often react to with outrage that it’s even being asked. Of course they’re conscious, is the sentiment. Aren’t they human, and don’t we see them crying, showing facial expressions, and exhibiting other behaviors? Others conclude that there’s no real way to know since they can’t talk and reveal their experience to us.
For several decades in the 20th century, the medical profession largely assumed that babies were not in fact conscious. As a result, they were often subjected to medical procedures, including surgery, without anesthesia. …Read entire article
Poem at Intellectual Shaman:
As beauty fades
and we no longer have the desire to repent
and the places we knew
close
and the people who smiled at us
die
and the shadows of ourselves
no longer show up
under the sun.…(Read entire poem)
Audio podcast at Sam Harris:
There are simply no other news or community announcements I see as well-reasoned and factual based exploring every nook and cranny surrounding the explosive response to George Floyd’s senseless killing in Minneapolis than this one by Harris. This monumental podcast about Cop killings in the US (which is awash with facts and evidence) should be in my estimation – compulsory listening to those invested emotionally or otherwise in the matter..…(Watch entire podcast)
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
Most interesting article by Jordan Peterson.
Is his voice sorely missed in these precarious times or what? Christopher Hitchens as well. Thankfully there are some others filling the void and providing us with reason and good sensemaking. I’m glad you liked the article as well.
Very diverse, eclectic points of view.
The stuff about babies was especially horrifying.
But the poem was a nice balm…even if it is wrapped in a cocoon of despair, sort of. At least they’ve made peace with their end, whenever it might be!
I remember thinking once years ago that if I close my eyes and see and hear nothing, what, exactly, is real? Everything I think is real is, at that moment, just a memory. Because the poem was talking about the fact that we just have memories now.
I guess it’s the same kind of idea about a tree falling in the woods and if no one’s there to hear it, does it make a sound?
Thanks Stacey. That’s so nice of you to write those kind words and I especially like the word ‘eclectic’ because when I developed an online learning community as a hobby called ‘The Learners Realm’ many years ago when I was still in the Navy, the Australian newspaper ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ reviewed it and wrote: ‘It’s very eclectic and there’s lots to see here’. I still have the newspaper cutting. hehe.
I didn’t find the stuff about babies horrifying exactly except the parts about experiments etc. The author said they may be at a different level of consciousness and that makes sense since very few adults if any remember being a baby. Sometimes I ACT like a baby, but that’s another story. Hehe
With respect to the poem I think it sheds light as you alluded to the illusion of consciousness. I mean wtf is it and how do we know we really have it? We wouldn’t know if we were part of a superior culture’s simulation of consciousness. I point you to Nick Bostrom’s ‘Simulation Theory’ if you haven’t already heard about it. Nick is no dummy working at Uni of Oxford on ‘existential risk’.
Regarding does the tree make a sound question without conscious observation..draws back to an almost century old debate in Quantum Mechanics and I’m on the Copenhagen side of that one. What do I mean? Well I wrote an article about it exactly called ‘Is it too early to rule out the Copenhagen classic interpretation?‘
And the ‘Real Truth science’ documentary below (great for the lay persons amongst us) purports what John Stewart Bell’s Theorem seems to suggest which is – the nature of reality seems to only appear to conscious observers as we conjure particles into their existence. Or better put, Einstein’s version of reality cannot be true (ie his being …the tree does make a sound). Photons only become real when we observe them. The experiments shown in this presentation seem to confirms this. The significance of these results is enormous!
Did you hear the stats of Sam Harris’ podcast about police shootings at 44 minutes in? I don’t mean to be asshole but its so important wouldn’t you think?
Justice requires our contact with reality
Yeah, I was specifically referring to the babies they would experiment or operate on without anesthesia. Omfg!
I know all about the photos due to hubby’s interest in that topic. Didn’t we not know what the atom looked like at one point, then when we finally “saw” it for the first time, it looked exactly the way we “thought” it would? Fascinating. Does consciousness “form” reality? And if that’s the case, why the hell can’t I picture, imagine, meditate on, believe I’ll find a gold brick tomorrow….and make it happen?! lol
PS: Regarding other topics, I’ll just say this, Matt. If you moved here, it wouldn’t be long before someone told you to “go back to Mexico” even though you don’t look it. The institutionalization of racism is an old, deep wound that must be dealt with and cops have become militarized and are part of the problem. Admittedly, their stance against “others” worsened noticeably after 9/11, but they harass, arrest, and kill white people too. There’s a thing called “contempt of cop” which you cannot express at all in any way including, as a benign example, asking why you’re being stopped–which is their job to tell you why–without being fallaciously arrested for knowing your rights. They don’t like being confronted. You’re supposed to just do whatever they want without question, which is the place of a god. So it’s time to let them know they are not godlike. They have to be cleaned and out and reformed. As for the general racism here, it’s not just “racism” by itself: That would be simple to deal with, since bigotry is everywhere, all over the world;it’s human nature to bunch together culturally and sometimes yell “Neener, neener, neener!” to other groups. It’s the monolithic, impenetrable wall that an average, normal citizen here lacks the tools to confront, much less overcome, leading domino-style to all that comes after.
Well… they are cops Stacey… in one of the most heavily armed countries in the western world. Of course you have to do what they say (esp if one is considered a threat), otherwise how does a society maintain order? I don’t envy them at all or the stress thy must endure on a daily basis. Of course you want a ‘perceived’ strong force especially in an highly armed society. I honestly don’t understand how one can just brushstroke everyone so negatively in this highly stressful profession. Have you noticed also in the nursing profession which is also stressful (and under-resourced) how some nurses just become so emotionally detached from what they are doing or perhaps so methodical as being perceived as lacking genuine empathy for their patients? In a sense they become partly militarized/robotic in their actions and behavior.
My understanding is based on the facts and evidence is that ‘Violent crime’ was at a 30 year low in the US. I think throughout the world the rate has followed a similar trajectory. That’s an extraordinary outcome and should be applauded especially considering population growth and other factors.
You mentioned that if I moved to the US it wouldn’t be long until someone told me to go back to Mexico. I’m Australian. Why would they tell me that? Also I have lots of Latin connections in the US and not once have I heard of them saying they had been discriminated against. Otherwise, why would they be there and a great many more want to reside in the US?
So while two workmates of mine were walking down the street speaking Spanish, that’s exactly what happened to them one day. A man walked past them and muttered, “Go back to Mexico,” and he kept walking past. So I was referring to the fact that if you were speaking Spanish in public, eventually it would happen to you too.
Nurses can become emotionally detached in order to do their job because they don’t end up harming anyone in the end, while with the cops who don’t want to be questioned or confronted in any way, your life becomes in jeopardy. Nobody has put a gun to their heads to become policemen. They wanted to do that job for some reason. I can only imagine the ones who actually want to “do good” will continue in that vein, but an untold number turn to policing due to the power trip being extremely attractive, regardless of the danger. When a cop comes up to your car for whatever reason, he has no right to tell you to put your cigarette out. You’re in your car. It’s not his job to tell you to do that. And you certainly should not end up dead, in the end, after the encounter (a woman, several years ago).
When you know your rights, when you ague, when you’re obviously just upset and NOT dangerous, you should not be worried for your life. The motto is “to protect and serve,” but many have ceased to even think in those terms.
And as far as law and order go, I’ve brought this up before: Camden, New Jersey is the model which everyone needs to follow. Once they cleaned that place out and started over and made policing community-based, crime plummeted, homicides plummeted, and complaints about abuse plummeted about 95%. “Law and order” aren’t maintained by terrorizing people and extending yourself into a godlike position of power, which has been proven without a doubt by the new practices in Camden. So perhaps you have your statistics about when violent crime goes down, and others have theirs, like policy and attitude change in the police department.
I’m so sorry, I was so hoping to have a good faith argument with you but you are so indoctrinated with radical left propaganda, we can’t do that. Really it boggles the mind. God help the US if that’s what you think.
My God I tried so hard. Cheers
Okay–now, finally, I’m insulted Matt. You do realize I live here, right? You do realize you’re getting your information from secondhand knowledge over TV and the internet? Since when is looking at the positivity of community-based policing a radical left-leaning indoctrinated stance? I’m flabbergasted that you labeled me thus when I’ve acquiesced, considered, and agreed on many of your points while you’ve remained completely immobile in your stance. Immobile. And blatantly lacking empathy but brimming with contempt.
Wow, you did it. I’m officially in a rage and officially done..
You keep insinuating because of my not living in your country that my opinion is invalid which makes you Xenophobic – at least towards my position… which is callous when we are dealing with a worldwide phenomena. Your hyperbole about being rageful and ‘officially done’, oh and in general your over-sensitivity towards the issue doesn’t wash with me and proves we can’t have a good-faith discussion about this topic. You neglected to address the facts and evidence (or even listen to them) and that is frankly deplorable for someone who sees themselves as far above and beyond an outsider. Have you seen the latest crime statistics from NY just last weekend because of the Mayor’s support for defunding the Police? Not to mention the cancel culture and totalitarianism going on (in the western world), which even caused liberal progressives form a signature letter. You radicals will ‘eat your own’. I’m another one. I’m done. Byess ‘aMIGa’.
Sorry, we shouldn’t be so emotive about this. Really, we get on well. I hope we can keep talking