America is a MYTH

Donald Trump’s Unstoppable Virality

By Emma Roller Dec. 29, 2015 (LINK to article)

 "we need him [Donald Trump], as his hat promises, to make America great again."

The important thing to recognise here is that Donald Trump's "America", like everyone else's, is a MYTH, tailored his own, and every other individual American's, personal world view.

This may seem trivial, but it's not, and it is vitally important that we develop a better, more realistic, understanding of what we mean and understand by "America", or whatever state you are a citizen of, because we are taught to identify with it as our NATION, which taps into our inherent and extremely powerful tribal nature, which the state's ruling elites manipulate and exploit in their own narrow and short-sighted self-interests, which they sell to the rest of us as the "national self-interest", when in reality it is no such thing.

Our tribal affiliations massively influence our perception of social and political reality, including that of academics, whom we look to as authorities, but who are no closer to a realistic view of social and political reality than anyone else.

The only way to get a handle on this is to view ourselves, our society and situation from a human-evolutionary perspective, which, however, in overreaction to the half-baked ideas of "social Darwinism", which the Nazis hijacked, abused and discredited, a previous generation of academics made a taboo of.

See BLOG in which I make a fresh attempt at developing such an evolutionary view of ourselves and our society and situation.

BLOG in which I elaborate on the West's overreaction of Nazism.

Fate of the West in the Balance

Cracks in the Liberal Order

By Ross Douthat  Dec. 26, 2015 (LINK to article)

I submitted two comments on this article, both of which, after some delay, were approved and published, but I thought that I would publish them here anyway.

First Post:

"late-modern liberalism might have a certain tendency toward suicide"

EVERY civilisation tends towards suicide, because of their perverted Darwinian nature, which, because of the taboo a previous generation of academics placed on viewing our own species from an evolutionary perspective (an OVERREACTION to the Nazis having hijacked and abused the half-baked ideas of social Darwinism for their own evil purposes), there has been a failure to recognise.

And why would they WANT to recognise it, given how well "the current order" works for them?

The human brain surely evolved to want to maintain the environment on which it depends, especially when it has been relatively successful within it, as everyone who is anyone in society invariably has been, and rationalises its view of social, political and economic reality accordingly.

We (especially academics) are bound to see ourselves as a "rational animal", when in fact we are far more a "rationalising animal", which means that unlike in the material sciences, where our models of reality now correlate closely with it, in the social sciences they don't. Thus the author's difficulty in "imagining the basic liberal democratic capitalist order cracking up".

The current order is indeed on course to crack up, and if we want something better, rather than worse, to come of it, we urgently need a much better model of the reality of our situation: http://philosopherkin.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/civilisation-evolutionary-cul-de-sac.html

Second Post:

"it’s been hard to imagine the basic liberal democratic capitalist order cracking up . . "

The Germans have a word for this: Zweckoptimismus (self-serving optimism).

" . . let alone envision what might take its place."

Looking back to premodern times, would Ptolemaic astronomers, alchemists, or Galenic doctors have been able to imagine what would one day replace their "sciences" and their world? I think not.

And because of their lack of a human-evolutionary, i.e. Darwinian, perspective, the present-day social and political sciences are still stuck in a pre-Copernican, i.e. pre-Darwinian, dark age.

Responsible for this is something the NYT's Editorial Board itself warns of in a recent editorial, The Price of Fear:

“In the reaction and overreaction to terrorism comes the risk that society will lose its way."

Western civilisation has indeed lost its way, in overreaction to Nazism, which hijacked and abused the half-baked ideas of social Darwinism for its own evil purposes, making a taboo of the whole idea of viewing ourselves, our civilisation and situation from a human-evolutionary perspective, thus blinding us to its perverted Darwinian nature.

Healthy Darwinian nature serves' a population's survival, while perverted Darwinian nature leads to its demise. What do I mean by "population"? That is something that needs to be discussed, but we can't discuss, or arrive at an understanding of anything, so long as this taboo remains in place.

America is NOT a Nation

The Real Victims of Victimhood

By Arthur C. Brooks Dec. 26, 2015 (LINK to article)

"It is still in our hands to . .  cultivate a nation of strong individuals . . . "

This might make some sense if America were in fact a nation, but it is not, nor any other state I know of, but a mercenary "patron state" deceitfully posing as a nation, in order to legitimise itself, its ruling elites and the immense power they wield and abuse, to their own personal advantage and that of favoured (especially wealthy and academic) clients, at the expense of society at large.

What the state does is to conflate and confound very different aspects of the original tribal environment in which human nature evolved, long before the first states and civilisation emerged from it. It poses as our nation (intra- and inter-tribal environment), while at the same time facilitating society's self-exploitation (as an extra-tribal environment), which must ultimately lead to its self-destruction.

The academics we look to as authorities in understanding society and the state fail to recognise this profound truth, because they are themselves privileged clients (if not actual employees) of their respective "patron state", with a massive personal self-interest (subconscious more than conscious) in rationalising and defending its role, self-image (as our "nation") and ideologies (social, political, economic and racial, formerly religious), on which the state bases its claim to moral and knowledgeable authority (see BLOG in which I elaborate).

My Response to George Yancy's Dear White America

Dear White America

By George Yancy, Dember 24 2015  (LINK to article)

I love, i.e. identify with, my own, white, race, just as you, George, clearly identify with your own, black, race, which is natural and healthy human nature.

The only people I have ever hated have been other white people, and when I look at history I see far more evidence of racial SELF-hatred (white people doing terrible things to other white people, including WW1, the Holocaust and the blanket bombing of German cities) than I do for white hatred of other races.

For more than half a century we have been taught to equate "racial prejudice", which was wrongly made responsible for the Holocaust, with racial hated. This was an understandable, but misconceived overreaction to the evil of Nazism, which was quickly incorporated into an ideology of white racial self-denial and self-contempt and ever since has served as an instrument of socio-political intimidation, rewards, punishments, manipulation and control (mainly of whites over whites), just as medieval church ideology once did.

It is the age-old strategy of divide and rule, which I elaborate on in this BLOG:

I want racial harmony as much as you do, but it has to be based on truthfulness. And the truth is that race matters; not in the way that racial supremacists believe it does, but because central to any deep and meaningful sense of both personal and group identity.

Race matters because identity matters, which is what we need to be clear about, instead of allowing the state and capital to keep us in a state of confusion, which they exploit to their own power-political and commercial advantage.

Thoroughly Deceived by Confirmation Bias

The Trap of Confirmation Bias

By Prof. Thomas Gilovich (LINK to article)

"The brain's job is to make sense of the world, and it does so — easily, rapidly and generally accurately . . "  

The brain's job is indeed to make sense of the world, but the author is being wildly overoptimistic about its accuracy, i.e. the extent to which it correlates with objective reality, which is why "We're Doomed", as Roy Scranton writes in a recent op-ed.

The sense our brain is capable of making of the world was good enough for facilitating our survival in the environment in which it evolved, long before the first states and civilisations emerged from it, thereby creating an artificial environment shaped over the centuries by society's ruling elites to their own personal advantage, at the expense of society at large.

The sense we make of this environment is largely determined by the personal self-interests of these ruling elites and the academics they employ to create a "national narrative. It is an environment, social order and narrative which serves them and their favoured (especially wealthy and academic) clients very well, and which they thus want to maintain, despite it being inherently unjust, inhumane and unsustainable on our finite, vulnerable and overpopulated planet, which their own self-interests blinds them to.

I elaborate on these ideas, which have the potential to provide the understanding that might yet save us from ourselves, in this and appended BLOGS.

Time to Take Human Tribalism Seriously

For Many, Faith Comes at a High Price

By Nicholas Kristof, Dec. 19,2015 (LINK to article)


All these problems - which is an understatement, I know - relate to human tribal nature (tribalism) which it can be no coincidence we are taught to trivialise, ridicule or demonise, instead of giving it the attention and study it deserves.

The reason for this is simple: the state deceitfully poses as our tribe or nation itself and doesn't want too much light cast on how it manipulates and exploits our tribal nature by so doing.

Our tribal nature is clearly something that can only be understood from a human-evolutionary, i.e. Darwinian, perspective, which a previous generation of academics made a taboo of, in overreaction to initial attempts which (as first attempts at anything new and difficult often do) went horribly wrong, especially when the Nazis hijacked the half-baked ideas of social Darwinism to justify their insane racial ideology, eugenics and euthanasia programmes, and wars of aggression.

This was part of a much broader overreaction to Nazism which we urgently need to recognise, develop an understanding of, and correct: http://unapprovedcomments.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/the-wests-overreaction-to-nazism.html

Resolving Middle East Conflict via Better Understanding of the State

The Assassination in Israel That Worked

By Roger Cohen, Dec. 17 2015 (LINK to article)

It makes a nice change to find myself agreeing with Mr Cohen on an issue, as I do on this one.

What would help resolve the conflict between Jews and Arabs is a better understanding of the nature of the state itself, which academics, for reasons of self-interest, have not been entirely honest with us, or themselves, about.

I've developed a far more realistic understanding of the state, based on a human-evolutionary, i.e. Darwinian, perspective, which a previous generation of academics made a taboo of doing.

What such a perspective reveals is that contrary to what is widely believed, there is no such thing as a "nation state", just mercenary "patron states" deceitfully posing as nations, in order to legitimise themselves, their ruling elites and the immense power they wield and abuse.

At first I thought that Israel was perhaps an exception, but have since come to realise that it is not, which gives me added confidence in my theory, which I elaborate on in this and appended BLOGS.