Re: [OT] Free Energy, for the people that think that it can be
From: N. Thornton (bigcat_at_meeow.co.uk)
Date: 10/13/04
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Date: 13 Oct 2004 07:02:23 -0700
"Bob Myers" <nospamplease@address.invalid> wrote in message news:<eXXad.640$jv5.437@news.cpqcorp.net>...
> "N. Thornton" <bigcat@meeow.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:a7076635.0410121105.506c94ff@posting.google.com...
> > The whole EER phenomenon really demonstrates the power of the mind, in
> > terms of how our thinking so totally dominates what comes of our
> > lives, and how people can and do get themselves truly stuck in
> > thought-sets.
>
> Crackpot-ism in general is, at least to me, a fascinating
> phenomenon; how some people can get totally wrapped up
> in a given idea such that they will promote and defend it
> against any and all contrary evidence or reasoning. It is,
> if I can use the word without causing offense, a form of
> "religious" extremism - holding a belief based solely on
> faith, and implicitly, then, due to a fervent desire that the
> belief be correct. In short, Frank (and others like him)
> believe as they do simply and solely because they WANT
> to, strongly enough - the belief is sufficiently necessary to
> their continued "happiness" that it will be irrationally
> defended to practically any degree.
Perhaps youre right. I had assumed with Frank it was a set of beliefs
that knit together to produce his conclusions, beliefs that go round
in rings, each supporting other of those beliefs, so that he can
always cite reason for each individual belief. A thinking trap, a big
circular argument effectively. But due to its size the circularity is
not apparent as it cant all be taken in at one time.
But maybe its emotional instead or as well... I'm sure both exist in
the wider world.
> There are countless
> other examples - "free energy" seems to be especially
> popular these days, but the whole UFO, "occult,"
> astrology, etc., fields also come to mind. Sci.skeptic
> is occasionally a fun place to hang out, at least for a short
> time - until you realize that you'll get a lot farther arguing
> with a brick wall.
Alternative medicine often strikes me as being about this, people are
willing to believe something because they so want it to be true. I
dont mean to say all alt med, some is known to work etc, but certainly
some of it seems to be nothing more than that.
Cosmetics ditto, even more so.
> You'd think that sooner or later, we'd figure this out and
> start to think about how to actually teach and encourage
> critical thinking skills starting at a very young age.
We have. Its the dullards that run our national education that cant
work stuff out. State schooling here is a product of a long list of
failures to understansd the real issues and the solutions, producing a
list of missing important elements, emphasis on things of little
relevance, and very low performing teaching methods.
The result is a tide of ignorance on important matters, and the
emotional suffering it brings that we see over and over today. And
also just poor academic performance. The fact that some individuals
outperform the average by miles should tell us something about average
teaching methods.
Even in unis theyre still using medieval teaching methods that were
obsolete over a century ago, ie copying notes from a blackboard. In
medieval times it was how books got published, the student copied it
all down, and the resulting handwritten book would be chained in the
local library for everyone to read. We have books now, hello! A
student makes far quicker progress by reading the book than by
spending much of the time trying to copy it all down, and not having
time to study and comprehend it. And thats still happening at
_universities_.
Its a remarkable world!
NT
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