This doesn't even just hold true for politicians, but anyone.
Yes. Just last night, I found myself at a friend's house watching an infomercial where some guy was selling his book which was full of "natural cures" for serious diseases: diabetes, cancer, (oh yes, all types of cancer), AIDS, everything out there that makes people afraid and desperate. Why haven't any of us heard of these cures? Because the FDA is in league with the pharmaceutical companies, and they won't label anything a "cure" if pharma can't profit from it (even though the FDA is a Federal Agency, whose employees have to abide by strict rules to avoid conflicts of interest; FDA medical reviewers, for example, cannot be on advisory boards for a pharma company, and owning their stock is definitely out).
What struck me about this person is that he was obviously intelligent, well-educated, and, well-spoken. By listening closely you could see just how carefully scripted his sentences were, and pick out all the places where he took a kernel of truth, and used it to build an argument that didn't hold any water past the first sentence. I lost count of the number of fallacies and badly built arguments he used in the few minutes I was actually watching.
And what was most frustrating was that people were probably actually buying his book. Besides being your run-of-the-mill medical scam taking advantage of desperate people, this particular case was maddening because people in this country, who views education as a right to be provided free to everyone, should have enough critical thinking skills to dismiss this person's claims as obviously unfounded.
And that was clearly not the case. I have the advantage of always having lived in large metropolitan areas, surrounded by people who received an adequate (or better) education. Unlike the writer of the post you linked to, I was born to a middle class family, who valued education above almost everything else, and made certain that I would know how to think for myself by the time I was old enough to make any sort of important decision. That's a pure accident of birth. Just as easily, I could have been born in a situation where merely learning how to read was a challenge.
And I'm now rambling, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is no surviving in this world anymore - even in the absence of natural disasters - without a good education, whose value, when it all comes down to it, is to teach people how to think and how to assess the world around them.
That includes politics, and all the comments made by politicians (a topic I try to stay away from, at least on LJ, though I've been less than successful lately :-) Your point about intelligent design is another very good example. A few short years ago I would have been shocked that there are people who do not understand the difference between an established theory that has withstood two centuries of testing and is now regarded as scientific fact, and a "theory" someone cooked up by saying that, well, it's possible after all that the world was created by an intelligent being. Or by Albus Dumbledore, who happened to sneeze particularly vigorously one day while holding his wand :-/
The issue of debate in fandom is another one that I try to temper my response to. It just doesn't seem to me that analysing an argument to show exactly where it breaks down would be well received (and the few times I tried sort of reinforced that idea!). I've been reading and occasionally posting at Talk Origins ever since the usenet days, and as this is a common and respected strategy there, I figured I'd try it in fandom. I've since stopped doing that because, really, I don't have time to keep up with the fall back, or to keep explaining that it has nothing to do with being "nice". Now, I just step back and maybe go write about in my LJ, or just dismiss whatever it is altogether. Cowardly, but true!
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Looooong reply (again!)
Date: 2005-09-06 01:12 am (UTC)Yes. Just last night, I found myself at a friend's house watching an infomercial where some guy was selling his book which was full of "natural cures" for serious diseases: diabetes, cancer, (oh yes, all types of cancer), AIDS, everything out there that makes people afraid and desperate. Why haven't any of us heard of these cures? Because the FDA is in league with the pharmaceutical companies, and they won't label anything a "cure" if pharma can't profit from it (even though the FDA is a Federal Agency, whose employees have to abide by strict rules to avoid conflicts of interest; FDA medical reviewers, for example, cannot be on advisory boards for a pharma company, and owning their stock is definitely out).
What struck me about this person is that he was obviously intelligent, well-educated, and, well-spoken. By listening closely you could see just how carefully scripted his sentences were, and pick out all the places where he took a kernel of truth, and used it to build an argument that didn't hold any water past the first sentence. I lost count of the number of fallacies and badly built arguments he used in the few minutes I was actually watching.
And what was most frustrating was that people were probably actually buying his book. Besides being your run-of-the-mill medical scam taking advantage of desperate people, this particular case was maddening because people in this country, who views education as a right to be provided free to everyone, should have enough critical thinking skills to dismiss this person's claims as obviously unfounded.
And that was clearly not the case. I have the advantage of always having lived in large metropolitan areas, surrounded by people who received an adequate (or better) education. Unlike the writer of the post you linked to, I was born to a middle class family, who valued education above almost everything else, and made certain that I would know how to think for myself by the time I was old enough to make any sort of important decision. That's a pure accident of birth. Just as easily, I could have been born in a situation where merely learning how to read was a challenge.
And I'm now rambling, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is no surviving in this world anymore - even in the absence of natural disasters - without a good education, whose value, when it all comes down to it, is to teach people how to think and how to assess the world around them.
That includes politics, and all the comments made by politicians (a topic I try to stay away from, at least on LJ, though I've been less than successful lately :-) Your point about intelligent design is another very good example. A few short years ago I would have been shocked that there are people who do not understand the difference between an established theory that has withstood two centuries of testing and is now regarded as scientific fact, and a "theory" someone cooked up by saying that, well, it's possible after all that the world was created by an intelligent being. Or by Albus Dumbledore, who happened to sneeze particularly vigorously one day while holding his wand :-/
The issue of debate in fandom is another one that I try to temper my response to. It just doesn't seem to me that analysing an argument to show exactly where it breaks down would be well received (and the few times I tried sort of reinforced that idea!). I've been reading and occasionally posting at Talk Origins ever since the usenet days, and as this is a common and respected strategy there, I figured I'd try it in fandom. I've since stopped doing that because, really, I don't have time to keep up with the fall back, or to keep explaining that it has nothing to do with being "nice". Now, I just step back and maybe go write about in my LJ, or just dismiss whatever it is altogether. Cowardly, but true!