tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post3851247839795626097..comments2024-03-26T14:20:38.103-04:00Comments on The Thought Criminal: You Think Sagan Came Up With These Ideas? Have You Ever Read Anything? Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-22616649487794232572017-08-10T21:24:21.667-04:002017-08-10T21:24:21.667-04:00It's tripped me up more than once.It's tripped me up more than once. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-18298456495809620602017-08-10T20:52:41.626-04:002017-08-10T20:52:41.626-04:00Stupid auto-correct.Stupid auto-correct.Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-86838001943327539862017-08-10T18:46:23.916-04:002017-08-10T18:46:23.916-04:00Satan and Dyson were both"made" on TeeVe...Satan and Dyson were both"made" on TeeVee. And yeah, I learned philosophy by reading directly. Some commentary at first was helpful, but if you don't go to the source, you get misdirected. It's harder, but you get it right. Or closer than "everybody knows."Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-88385727796047950072017-08-10T13:59:44.361-04:002017-08-10T13:59:44.361-04:00As I mentioned yesterday, a lot of people motivate...As I mentioned yesterday, a lot of people motivated by religion seem to understand that in order to know what something says you have to read it, something which is news to many of the devout in the Church of Scientism. I will say that late in my life, as I started to take Marilynne Robinson's example and read things that I'd always assumed I'd known through second-hand and worse characterizations of them and found how many of those didn't say what they were purported to, it made a huge difference in how I understood things. You would assume someone who'd been to college and grad school would realize that about something outside of their own field but even many public alleged intellectuals don't seem to get that. And their fan boys are even worse. The comment that came with the image link was repulsively hagiographic of St. Carl, emetically so. I'm sure if he hadn't been a TV celebrity he wouldn't be considered that way. And people wonder how Trump suckered millions in by just having his fat, ugly face and putrid personality on TV. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-18966105515788961642017-08-10T11:58:50.213-04:002017-08-10T11:58:50.213-04:00I found a post at Slate (my own post on it to publ...I found a post at Slate (my own post on it to publish soon) critiquing science for being taken as "truth" when it is no such thing. Pretty good argument, but the comments were even more interesting. The "top comment" dismissed the argument out of hand, without even trying to engage it. Because, you know, science is beyond repute, and can only be praised and never be critiques.<br /><br />Sagan's observation is so hackneyed it was beyond cliche when he wrote it. Not to mention the elitist stance that "what is popular is beneath my consideration, therefore people who make it popular are stupid." And I'm trying to figure out what manufacturing has to do with setting one's own agenda and not clutching crystals, etc. Honestly, that's as clueless and historically ignorant an argument as I've ever encountered. Somehow I don't remember, back when America literally built it's way into victory over Germany, that factory workers were all scholars in their spare time, reading Greek literature in the original language and parsing the insights of Cicero in learned discussions conducted in Latin.<br /><br />I do recall, from history not personal experience, a boom in mail-order koine Greek lessons in America in the early 20th century, one prompted by scriptural studies and a desire to read the Christian scriptures in their original tongue. But that's a boomlet in education prompted by religion, so that can't count, right?Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.com