Pinker is an idiot. Always has been. On Mon, Nov 11, 2019 at 9:13 AM glen∈ℂ <geprope...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Yes! Along the same lines of communities policing themselves, pluralists > are at risk of runaway relativism. I was reading this article < > https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/02/smashing-the-patriarchy-why-theres-nothing-natural-about-male-supremacy> > recently and was taken aback by this excerpt: > > > Steven Pinker, for instance, has argued that men prefer to work with > “things”, whereas women prefer to work with “people”. This, he said, > explains why more women work in the (low-paid) charity and healthcare > sector, rather than getting PhDs in science. According to Pinker, “The > occupation that fits best with the ‘people’ end of the continuum is > director of a community services organisation. The occupations that fit > best with the ‘things’ end are physicist, chemist, mathematician, computer > programmer, and biologist.” > > I'm distressed by *celebrity*. But I don't draw a clear distinction > between the cultural (aka "people") and the natural. I've forgotten who > introduced me to it. But I like the concept of the "naturfact" ... like > "artifact", but a found thing modified or remade by us ... partly > synthetic, partly natural ... part thing, part "people". It's this mixing > of the 2 categories that makes me interested in "stigmergy". One person's > purely synthetic "city" is another person's purely natural habitat. > > When I hear people seemingly committed to an obviously incompetent and > corrupt person like Trump, no matter what he says or does, I can't help but > think their commitment is purely a cultural commitment. They, like me, > don't see a sharp distinction between natural things and cultural things. > So, since they're part of my "tribe", I feel a special responsibility to > criticize them and argue the complement: that there *is* a difference > between real things (like facts) versus spun narratives or "cults of > personality" (wherein both Trump and JFK are 2 peas in a pod, regardless of > any other differences). > > > > On 11/11/19 3:26 AM, Prof David West wrote: > > The most distressing, to me, aspect of what is happening is that the > discussion - rational on both sides, critical of both sides, has been > reduced to a pretty much exclusive focus on one office and one individual. > It is impossible to have an informative discussion about actions taken by > the individual, in historical context, in terms of philosophy, policy, and > context. > > > > I was speaking recently with a friend whose profession is political > historian. She was comparing Trump and JFK with regards actions in the > areas of nepotism (and generally trusting family and "cronies" over > political professionals) and the intelligence community (both men spoke ill > of it and ignored it). Interesting stuff, but she could not imagine such a > discussion getting attention, or getting published, in today's black and > white rhetorical context. > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC <http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/FRIAM-COMIC> > http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove > -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy emergentdiplomacy.org Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA merlelefk...@gmail.com <merlelef...@gmail.com> mobile: (303) 859-5609 skype: merle.lelfkoff2 twitter: @Merle_Lefkoff
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
