While reading this, I immediately thought of the sociopathically toxic relationship between most undergrad 'professors' and large classes of students that they sort on standardized tests for brute memory and compliance to authority. The same seems true for most of the compulsory education here in Japan. While my classes were popular with the students, many 'teachers' accused me of being unprofessional in expressing self-doubt or confessing that I am learning anything of value from my students.
It appears this need for certainty is so deeply embedded in our collective psyche enough to be directly correlated with rule-driven institutions rather than empathy-driven communities.
One reason the same playbook has been used since the beginning of mankind is because the average person can not help but judge other people, including intelligence and morality, according to their own personal standard of self-awareness. It is a sad fact that the predators among us are also as 'intelligent' as they are corrupt. That is one reason I admire the humility of the likes of Spinoza and Einstein ... rare cases of high intelligence coupled with a high sense of morality.
The smarter one is (genuine genius-level intellect, not midwits who strut and preen because they outperformed the 100-IQ masses), the more one understands the depths of one’s ignorance. This level of nuance is lost on most, but it is an important discipline to cultivate.
Yes, one of the hardest for people to let go is their religious beliefs, but sometimes it seems that religion is their escape from the harsh reality of life, faith probably has evolutionary roots in human psyche, because if it's not beneficial, it would have been eliminated by nature. We can imagine a band of hunter gatherers in a dark jungle of Asia, surrounded by deadly snakes, tigers, and other fearsome animals, after hunting a mammoth, sitting in front of a bon fire or inside a cave, they'll probably make up some fun stories and habit (rituals) to soothe and entertain themselves, as time goes the story become legends, and rituals become dogmas, and they become religions. And any descendants who criticize them will be labeled as heretic.
Whatever their flaws, religion is Lindy - a coherent faith system held together societies and gave average IQ (and below-average IQ) people a code of conduct, a method of adjudicating disputes, of keeping the peace within a tribe. In our modern haste to shed these “archaic” traditions, congratulating ourselves on shedding ancient superstitions, we inadvertently created a spiritual vacuum which is filled with less-Lindy forms of belief systems (BLM, LGBTQ, Global Warming, etc), and its high priests (TV comedy show presenters, “community leaders” and other regime cutouts) occupy the space where local, regionally-accountable pastors once stood for thousands of years.
The results are what we see in contemporary society - widespread levels of depression, teenagers filled with existential dread, noodle-armed children volunteering to be foot soldiers for ANTIFA, etc.
Hi KC.
While reading this, I immediately thought of the sociopathically toxic relationship between most undergrad 'professors' and large classes of students that they sort on standardized tests for brute memory and compliance to authority. The same seems true for most of the compulsory education here in Japan. While my classes were popular with the students, many 'teachers' accused me of being unprofessional in expressing self-doubt or confessing that I am learning anything of value from my students.
It appears this need for certainty is so deeply embedded in our collective psyche enough to be directly correlated with rule-driven institutions rather than empathy-driven communities.
One reason the same playbook has been used since the beginning of mankind is because the average person can not help but judge other people, including intelligence and morality, according to their own personal standard of self-awareness. It is a sad fact that the predators among us are also as 'intelligent' as they are corrupt. That is one reason I admire the humility of the likes of Spinoza and Einstein ... rare cases of high intelligence coupled with a high sense of morality.
Merry Christmas to ya!
The smarter one is (genuine genius-level intellect, not midwits who strut and preen because they outperformed the 100-IQ masses), the more one understands the depths of one’s ignorance. This level of nuance is lost on most, but it is an important discipline to cultivate.
Yes, one of the hardest for people to let go is their religious beliefs, but sometimes it seems that religion is their escape from the harsh reality of life, faith probably has evolutionary roots in human psyche, because if it's not beneficial, it would have been eliminated by nature. We can imagine a band of hunter gatherers in a dark jungle of Asia, surrounded by deadly snakes, tigers, and other fearsome animals, after hunting a mammoth, sitting in front of a bon fire or inside a cave, they'll probably make up some fun stories and habit (rituals) to soothe and entertain themselves, as time goes the story become legends, and rituals become dogmas, and they become religions. And any descendants who criticize them will be labeled as heretic.
Whatever their flaws, religion is Lindy - a coherent faith system held together societies and gave average IQ (and below-average IQ) people a code of conduct, a method of adjudicating disputes, of keeping the peace within a tribe. In our modern haste to shed these “archaic” traditions, congratulating ourselves on shedding ancient superstitions, we inadvertently created a spiritual vacuum which is filled with less-Lindy forms of belief systems (BLM, LGBTQ, Global Warming, etc), and its high priests (TV comedy show presenters, “community leaders” and other regime cutouts) occupy the space where local, regionally-accountable pastors once stood for thousands of years.
The results are what we see in contemporary society - widespread levels of depression, teenagers filled with existential dread, noodle-armed children volunteering to be foot soldiers for ANTIFA, etc.