Universe On The Couch

Read this book last night. By VP Cheney's wife. Smart woman who headed National Endowment for the Arts. Pretty disgusted by current educational standards from kids to college to law schools. Premise is that the truth is not important, but some political agenda is. Now given Dick and all, you can be sure she is conservative, and that bias shows some. She has plenty of support for her allegations too. It gets a little long-winded, but her premises are right on.

The first is that our educational system, from top to bottom, has been taken over by a narrow and flawed doctrine that is quite hostile to other points of view. And following from this our entire society is adversely affected.

The second is that there is hostility to truth in any objective sense. Truth in any objective sense in rejected as all truth is subjective. The post-modern doctrine.

The third is that the "truth" is now all that is science, male and white is bad. All that is female, minority and not scientific/logical is good.

It's funny that the proponents of all this are the early baby-boomers who came of age as the beneficiaries of science, technology and capitalism. These folks came to cheap colleges from nice homes with stay-at-home moms while their poorer brethren were in Vietnam and in low-paid and/or difficult labor. They got free love, LSD and the Rolling Stones. In their wake, we got AIDS, crack cocaine and rap.

Now they sit tenured in university departments in the non-science liberal arts. They fill the heads of college students with their fundamentalist doctrine. Of course given their doctoral degrees in education and psychology, they also create the doctrine for schoolchildren. So the brainwashing starts early. From the biased law schools, they send out young lawyers on a social agenda into the courts and government.

So let us examine this doctrine. Objective truth. Sorry but science is objective truth, or at least the best way to seek it. The universe has laws and we can and have discovered them. It is a continual quest for truth. It is being revised and debated all the time. It's truth value is practically demonstrated in the technology that follows it. You can't get to the moon on a post-modern multicultural deconstruction. I doubt many of our tenured radicals would be willing to give up the fruits of science: Medical care, cars, planes, phones, air conditioning, central heat, toilets that flush, fresh water,...

So their attacks on science are garbage. On other issues, it is more slippery. The moral and ethical thing is one. They claim all morality is subjective. Three problems here. One is that some things are wrong. Plain and simple. Sexual penetration of a child for one. Any non-sick person would agree. So much for relativity here. From that follows that if nothing is wrong, then their is no basis for crime and punishment. Total chaos would ensue. In a brutal world such as that, our liberal academics would not do too well. Most would end up as sex slaves, serfs or on the BBQ when the food ran out. Finally these radicals defend their moral views like born-again Christians, so they are hypocrites besides.

Aesthetics. Is it really subjective that Mozart is better than Marilyn Manson? That David is better than laminated feces? Some things stand the test of time. A new generation is enjoying Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon." People still read James Joyce.

The intolerance is what really is ironic. They were so for free speech when they wanted their messages heard. Now in power, they have shut off dissent in an academic version of totalitarianism. No dissent tolerated. Disagree and a poor grade, humiliation in front of your peers, no academic position, no promotion, no tenure. Inquiry and discussion are shut out. Not much in the way of new ideas either. About all they have given us in thirty years is PC, multiculturalism, sexual harrassment, androgyny and misogyny. Wow! How progressive.

Anything white or European is bad. Never mind that here is the source of democracy, the republic, social welfare, science, technology and everything else that is good and wonderful in the modern world.

Anything male is bad too. Pretty much all the white stuff above was male too. Male bashing hurts the males in this society, the vast majority who have never raped or murdered anyone. Males do most of the tough dirty work in this society too. Who builds the houses, pulls people out of fires, fights the wars and climbs up the power lines in the rain? In nearly every case its a male. Can't these supposed intellects find something more constructive to do than alienate females from their fathers, brothers, co-workers and sons?

Of course women are perfect beings. They would never lie or cheat. They are altruistic and unselfish. Please. We are all primates here.

And every non-Western culture is wonderful. Never mind the Aztec human sacrafice. Or the African and Arab slave trade that initiated the European slave trade and continues today. Or the sex slavery in Asia. Idi Amin. Pol Pot. Mao.

They are for the destruction of capitalism, despite laughing about how they are destroying the system that pays them. That's real smart. I think I'll burn the farm that feeds me.

This all supports my ever lowering opinion of so-called higher education. What a crock of shit. The university is just another wasted public resource to a large extent. Half teaching skills the students should have mastered by high school and the other half indoctrination into total bullshit. Of course there is good stuff in there too. There are good instructors. The science and engineering and health professions are good still. It appears most of the money spent on education is a waste. Or even destructive.

Just finished a good book called "Eat The Rich." It's funny and relevant, written in the mid to late nineties, so the current events are a bit behind. He looks at various places to see why some live better than others.

Its not intelligence/education as for instance Russians are much more versed academically even as children than Americans. The illiterate on the dole here live much better than most of the world. Free food, housing, subsidized utilities and a check every month is hardly poverty by world standards.

Hard work is important, but not sufficient. Even within a country. The working poor here bust their ass, often in crappy conditions. The sales reps drive around in AC yacking on the cell phone with subsidized meals and entertainment. North Koreans work their asses off but it certainly sucks there. Food is in short supply.

PJ cites three issues structurally that lead to prosperity: Free markets, rule of law and property rights. His world travels certainly support the free market ideas of Adam Smith. Government is limited to defense, safety, education, courts of law and some infrastructure. And that's about it.

And let's just face the facts. The world is unfair. Some people inherit money or just are damn lucky. They often aren't any better than anyone else like Paris Hilton. Or just happen to have found themselves in an over-rated over-paid carreer despite not really any talent like most of the actors and actresses. Or they have gifts, but are over-compensated, like our professional athletes.

But the truth is most of the prosperous have worked very hard and been disciplined to their plans. They have risen to the top of the professions, corporations or built businesses.

Certainly there are issues of better chances by circumstances of where you were born and all. Nobody can debate that. But in the USA, there is public education even through college. Community colleges are a great resource as is adult education. There are public libraries everywhere. Scholarships and student loans. The military has much to offer in terms of educations.

Totalitarianism is a proven disaster. Communism spells out many of the worse places to live. In fact, all Communist countries suck ass: North Korea, Myamar, Cuba,... Socailism is a loser too. England was on a downward spiral to a two-bit nation until Thatcher. France has become pretty candy-ass. Sweden is running out of milk from the socialist tit. Much of Europe is in deep shit due to the level of government goodies.

You see, socialism of any ilk sucks off the wealth created or already there. Communism just gets rid of any wealth creation, leaving only what was started with like vultures feeding on a carcass. In Cuba, the "people" grabbed all the wealth and now its run out. Now their economy is cigars and whores for European tourists.

Collectivism sucks. In the old USSR, private farms were very productive and eased food shortages. When Black Hitler in Zimbabwe violently forced those evil white farmers off their land, the crisis in food production followed quickly. Even our Pilgrims almost starved on collective farming. When they went to private plots, they had surplus.

The recent century in America has been one of meddling with a good thing. We had previously a stable currency and an economy growing leaps and bounds with incredible innovation. The government ran pretty much in budget. There was no income tax. Sure there were problems and labor was abused. Reforms were passed.

But the government just couldn't leave well enough alone. This last century was a series of attempts to destroy the cash cow. It's amazing it has stood up so well, but the cow is losing it fast.

Several stupid things happened early in the century: Income tax, Federal Reserve and WWI. The income tax was a way to get the feds money. It was graduated so only the rich would pay. The envious masses went for that of course. Problem is when inflation occurs, the feds keep getting a bigger percentage of the national income. Everyone who pays pays more and ever new folks now pay. Clever. This allows the Feds to do ever more stupid things with our money like stupid wars and social programs.

The Federal Reserve. Here is a private bank that manipulates the money supply for the big banks and businesses. Our stable currency is worth about two cents of what it was worth a century ago. The recent artificially low rates can be blamed for our trade deficit and real estate prices, as well as the Bush election. It has only delayed a financial reckoning that will be much worse when it hits. Thanks assholes.

WWI. Here was a stupid war. A waste of millions of lives. Nothing good or beneficial came of it. It set up a huge worldwide depression, the rise of Hitler and WWII. It also led to the Russian Revolution and hence the beginning of the USSR and Communism. Why did we bother? What a waste. A war to end all wars? A world safe for democracy? Hardly given imperialism by Europe continued on for decades until ended mostly with much violence.

So the Depression brought us FDR. Here was socialism in spades. Some good infrastructure was done per parks, power supplies and such. But the grounds of a Welfare state were laid. Social Security is not a bad idea or program, but it wasn't well thought out into the future. And it is such a sacred cow entitlement now that needed reform has been lacking for decades.

Yet our worst was yet to come. WWII left a bloated bueurocracy that should have been slowly dismantled. But no... Then we got in on Vietnam and even blocked free elections. Hence a morass that made our economy stumble later along with a serious waste of human life.

The worst however was LBJ. Here the true Welfare state was created. This bloated system is incredible expensive and has breeded generations of economically useless people. They breed at a high rate and eat up services like locusts. Not to mention crime.

Then there's Medicare. What a disaster that is. Here is the real bomb in our future. Of course our politicians are ignoring that one.

It may be too late for the USA. Our pandering politicians and ignorant entitled public are likely unable to tackle meaningful reform. The cow is ill and needs treatment. We ignore it at our own peril.

People ask me what "school" of psychiatry I subscribe to. I first said eclectic meaning some of many things. Then I said biological until that became the same as pharmaceutical. I now say evolutionary. We are animals and one week in Kenya or Tanzania looking at the baboons will tell you more than most of the books.

The title is from Timothy Leary. Yea the acid guy. But he was real smart and had plenty of ideas, some of them good. Telling everybody to take LSD was not one of them. But he wrote a book of that title and it was pretty interesting. I read it about twenty years ago as an impressionable undergrad. But I also read Desmond Morris "Naked Ape." This is much better. Still the idea remains. We are animals and act like such. Our behaviors are those of other species, particularly the apes. A trip to the zoo will confirm this quite easily.

So the point is that all our social and hence political life is based in our biology and evolution. Of course it is all dressed up in ideologies and ceremony, but underneath it is all the same.

Brute force still rules. The biggest meanest baboon. Nuclear missiles. Or be sneaky. Spies. Assassinations. Terrorism. A stick is better than bare hands. A sword better. I'll take an assault rifle.

And there is of course diplomacy and alliances. This is a less destructive and more clever method. Lost on Bush and Rummy. But the sly aspect of this is mastered by Rove.

People are hardly rational. They are limbic systems with a thin covering of cortex. Our emotions rule us and are easily manipulated. How else do you explain our recent elections?

Dominance. Submission. Pay your tribute, I mean taxes or else. Shitting and pissing to mark territory. Real estate, fences, property lines, national borders,... Territory is key. Food still rules.

The pecking order of the chimps is repeated in the schoolyard. The workplace. The military. Cop show standard is the pissing war between levels of agency. The city police dealing with the feds.

Sure we are more sophisticated. But at the root its still the same.