tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29763791.post2253970063107260007..comments2023-10-31T05:07:19.353-04:00Comments on Delenda est Carthago: SpentDr. Φhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14086783503820477029noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29763791.post-13211420980090601602009-07-19T14:04:21.030-04:002009-07-19T14:04:21.030-04:00A lot of really great thinkers and writers, like S...A lot of really great thinkers and writers, like Steven Pinker, Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Joseph Heath and Miller feel the need to ostentatiously display their liberal (whether right or left liberal) credentials, and spew a lot of squid ink, to distract the academic and media commissars. Steven Pinker's book The Blank Slate, much as I love it, is frequently hilarious in this regard, as Pinker hand holds the timid liberal reader through what must be some pretty shocking material.<br /><br />But the fact remains that the conclusions of evolutionary psychology and related disciplines are, in fact, very conservative, when not downright reactionary. So, we traditionalist conservatives though need not feel any such compuctions in saying plainly and without embellishment exactly what these scientific discoveries actually mean.<br /><br />- ThursdayAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29763791.post-49832502293932588562009-07-19T06:42:30.713-04:002009-07-19T06:42:30.713-04:00Critics such as Stephen Jay Gould, Steven Rose, an...<i>Critics such as Stephen Jay Gould, Steven Rose, and Richard Lewontin have convinced a substantial portion of the educated public that evolutionary psychology is a pernicious right-wing conspiracy, with the hidden ideological agenda of reviving biological determinism, sexism, racism, and elitism.</i><br /><br />That must be some of that left-wing openness he was talking about.<br /><br /><i>The Tomaselli paintings would be effective for my social-screening purposes because few people of low openness could bear to sit through a dinner party with such disorienting works on the walls. They would feel existential nausea and never come back.</i><br /><br />I have a vague memory of a scene from (perhaps) a TV show in which a parody of a hippy wanted to do something because it would blow the squares' minds. How full of yourself do you have to be to believe that your taste in art is so sophisticated that lesser men succumb to nausea in the presence of your favorite paintings? I expect this sort of thing from whiny goth teenagers, but not from adults.<br /><br />Personally, I wouldn't be terribly offended by either type of painting. I guess libertarians are more open than leftists.Brandon Berghttp://distributedrepublic.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29763791.post-65404022776864015772009-07-19T04:04:02.868-04:002009-07-19T04:04:02.868-04:00I think that in the abstract Miller is right about...I think that in the abstract Miller is right about liberals being broadly more open than conservatives for the reasons that you indicate. But a lot of that depends on who and where you are. I can certainly agree that his examples were flawed. I'd also add that openness is in and of itself a relatively neutral thing. I think that there needs to be pressure coming from both the opened and closed sides to ferret out where we need to stand firm and where we need to introduce new and different ideas.Trumwillhttp://hitcoffee.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29763791.post-6319066875036922862009-07-19T02:23:25.713-04:002009-07-19T02:23:25.713-04:00Oh, and stereotypes make life safer as well as sim...<i>Oh, and stereotypes make life safer as well as simpler...</i><br /><br />Indeed. What is a stereotype except the application of experience?<br /><br />9/11 is what happens when we <i>don't</i> stereotype. That was certainly the death of <i>my</i> neocon fantasies about the universal brotherhood of man.Burkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14252946969701576139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29763791.post-69337653610458954952009-07-18T23:44:23.829-04:002009-07-18T23:44:23.829-04:00"...evolutionary psychology is a pernicious r...<i>"...evolutionary psychology is a pernicious right-wing conspiracy, with the hidden ideological agenda of reviving biological determinism, sexism, racism, and elitism."</i><br /><br />Ugh. when will left wing nuts get it through their thick heads that biological determinism, sexism, racism, and elitism were left-wing hobby horses in the 19th and 20th centuries?<br /><br /><i>"But the one exception to this is his confounding of the personality trait "openness" with political liberalism."</i><br /><br />I saw an article on exactly this a couple of months back. Basically, if you were open to new experiences, you are more likely to be a liberal. If you are a closed-minded hidebound reactionary, you are more likely to be a conservative.<br /><br />I call it just having standards and morals. You know, like being able to tell right from wrong, and not buffeted by the waves to and fro all the time. <br /><br />Oh, and stereotypes make life <i>safer</i> as well as simpler...Elusive Wapitihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16825547465295622621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29763791.post-25736020884662995142009-07-18T20:23:17.568-04:002009-07-18T20:23:17.568-04:00I'm reminded of a zinger from The Rawness:
&...I'm reminded of a zinger from The Rawness: <br /><br />"When people admonish you to “be more original,” what they really mean is “be more like me.” When people admonish you to “be a free thinker,” they really mean “try to think more like me.”"PeterWhttp://ssmag.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com