The Matt Taibbi quote is an amazingly clear description of the
dilemma of minds that “make sense” of things by plugging in
stereotypes of the real world and so creating an imaginary one lacking internal
conflicts. The error common to all such “confusions”
seems to be discussing things in terms of pictures in our heads without a reliable
way of referring to any independent reality people might consider.
From:
[hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Douglas
Roberts
Sent: Sunday, October 05, 2008 2:08 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Willfull Ignorance - Satisfies NickCriteria E
It was a good rant, wasn't
it...
Since Steve saw fit to bring up "willful ignorance", and Marcus,
Sarah Palin: what do you want to bet that McCain's
creationist-the-world-is-6,000-years-old
gun-toting-I-can-see-Russia-from-my-window sidekick garners approximately 50%
of the vote next month?
As Matt Taibbi said in his 'The Lies of Sarah Palin' interview with Rolling
Stone Magazine earlier this week:
Here's the thing about Americans. You can send their
kids off by the thousands to get their balls blown off in foreign lands for no
reason at all, saddle them with billions in debt year after congressional year
while they spend their winters cheerfully watching game shows and football, pull
the rug out from under their mortgages, and leave them living off their credit
cards and their Wal-Mart salaries while you move their jobs to China and
Bangalore.
And none of it matters, so long as you remember a few months before
Election Day to offer them a two-bit caricature culled from some
cutting-room-floor episode of Roseanne as part of your presidential ticket.
And if she's a good enough likeness of a loudmouthed Middle American
archetype, as Sarah Palin is, John Q. Public will drop his giant sized bag of
Doritos in gratitude, wipe the sizzlin' picante dust
from his lips and rush to the booth to vote for her.
You want to talk about willful ignorance? Take a good look around you.
--
Doug Roberts, RTI International
[hidden email]
[hidden email]
505-455-7333 - Office
505-670-8195 - Cell
On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 11:49 AM, Marcus G. Daniels <[hidden email]> wrote:
Steve Smith wrote:
The point of my talk of ignorance (willful and otherwise) is
that to the extent we are complicit in our own problems, we *do* have the
ability to retrieve some of our power from those we have given it to out of our
own *willful ignorance*.
Good rant. :-)
I''ll only add that power is not claimed by not being snowed by the
misrepresentations of those having power. It's also necessary to
organize resources to influence those in power. Folks like Sarah Palin
recognize that information is a weapon (e.g. see her recent incredible remarks
about Bill Ayers), but don't otherwise need to be limited by whether
information is true in context. Similarly corporate lobbyists are
effective at influencing government, but that too is about action first and
truth second.
Marcus
--
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in
the dog." -- Mark Twain
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