Mugged by reality? Not so fast
I keep wondering whether many people who voted for Biden still would vote for him again.
Yes, I know that his approval ratings are low, particularly with conservatives and independents. But among Democrats, he still has majority approval, although it’s dropped:
Among Democrats, Biden’s approval rating in the spring stood in the mid-90s, but in several recent polls, it has fallen into the low 80s. The drop among self-identified liberals was even bigger—just 66 percent approved of the president’s performance in a recent Monmouth poll, compared with 88 percent in April…
To investigate the roots of Biden’s Democratic discontent, I ventured to pockets of Brooklyn where his 2020 vote was nearly unanimous…
What I found among this heavily white, mostly college-educated set was not so much anger as ennui. When I asked co-op members how they thought Biden was doing, the most common response was a sigh and a one-word “Fine” that sounded more exasperated than enthusiastic. “He’s up against a lot,” Jennifer Percival, a 42-year-old speech pathologist, told me. “We’re just trying to hang in there with him.”
My thoroughly unscientific survey uncovered no mass exodus from Biden’s corner in Park Slope. Some progressives said he had even exceeded their expectations, citing an agenda that was more ambitious than Biden had initially campaigned on, as well as the passage of the COVID relief bill and the more recent bipartisan infrastructure package. Others blamed the media for the president’s unpopularity and noted that much of what ails Biden—the COVID resurgence, inflation, Democratic infighting—is out of his control…
Of the 20 people who agreed to be interviewed over the course of an afternoon, not one said they disapproved of Biden’s performance. But there were more subtle shifts that offered hints of a broader trend that national polls could be detecting. A few progressives said they were unsure about Biden’s performance, after being much more supportive in the spring, and many others said they approved of the president but felt less hopeful about him—and about the country—than they did earlier in the year.
I find this extraordinary but unsurprising. A mind is a very very very difficult thing to change.
The author of that piece went to poorer black neighborhoods in Brooklyn, too, and the story was similar, although:
…[T]hey were quicker to voice ambivalence or dissatisfaction in his performance…
…But multiple Democrats in East Flatbush brought up student loans, saying they were disappointed that the president had not acted to forgive them, as progressives like Warren have lobbied him to.
Lisa Ellison, 48 and a home-health aide, described her opinion of Biden as “borderline.” “Everything he said he was going to do for us he hasn’t done,”
So much of the disapproval among Democrats is probably because he’s not leftist enough, or at least not successfully leftist enough.
My own very informal and extremely incomplete polling has been similar. Biden is “fine,” said the one person I asked.
However, in terms of local politics rather than national, I was talking to two family members who are residents of a bluer-than-blue city that’s been having enormous crime increases, and both spontaneously brought up that fact and complained bitterly and at length. I found it interesting, though, that they didn’t seem to connect this to leftist Democratic rule. I didn’t ask them point blank, but – knowing them well – I’m convinced that they would never even consider voting for a Republican or a conservative.
As Zell Miller said, for some people political identity is “like a birthmark.” I wrote about that in a post back in 2005, and I added:
…[A] liberal political identity tends to be so much more than a political identity–it’s also a moral and personal identity. Liberals tend to equate their own position with such abstract (and non-political) qualities as goodness, kindness, lack of bigotry, intelligence–oh, a host of wonderful virtues. Any identity that is so identified is going to be particularly difficult to shed. Do some conservatives feel this way about their identity? Of course. But my impression is that it is a feeling even more basic to the political identities of liberals–at least the ones I know, and I know quite a few.
My sense is that this is one of the main reasons that my attempts to talk to my friends have so often been met with rage: to many of them, my espousing of any conservative causes means 1) I must be a bad (i.e.: selfish, racist, classist) person; and 2) if I ever were to convince them of the rightness of my arguments, they would be faced with leaving the fold, also, and becoming a bad person, too. Much better to let the whole edifice remain in place than to remove one little brick and risk the whole thing toppling down.
Twas ever thus. I would revise one thing about that passage, though – for whatever reason, my attempts to talk politics with friends are not usually met with rage anymore, although it happens on occasion. Perhaps I no longer even try to talk with those who would be likely to fly off the handle, or perhaps they’re mostly used to me by now.
Neo,
This is paralleled in the media, where there is scarcely a mention of PJRB’s cognitive decline. If one admits that the man is not performing in a stellar manner, or at least “very well given the tough circumstances,” then the whole issue of whether he is up to the job can be opened.
That is the red line for the Ds. No attacks on Joe’s ability or capacity.
Once that line is breached, his current disapproval ratios will look like the good old days.
This is what I get from the leftwing friends I have on Facebook: Biden is doing fine; increase in crime had nothing to do with electing Democrats, and even so, it’s not that bad, really; January 6 was a horrible violent insurrection; There were not terrible roots in 2020, it was just a small disturbances; COVID is a terrible horrible killer, and the government can’t do enough to save us from it; Trump supporters are all evil nutjobs who just want us to die from COVID…
And Biden is doing fine.
They read the New York Times and would never, ever consider watching that evil Fox.
“So much of the disapproval among Democrats is probably because he’s not leftist enough, or at least not successfully leftist enough.” neo
Bingo.
“…[A] liberal political identity tends to be so much more than a political identity–it’s also a moral and personal identity. Liberals tend to equate their own position with such abstract (and non-political) qualities as goodness, kindness, lack of bigotry, intelligence–oh, a host of wonderful virtues.” Zell Miller
Religious identities that the individual strongly embraces are notoriously difficult to shed. In the liberal/leftist ‘political’ identity, their secular substitute for religion, they are busily treading down the well-intentioned path to hell.
Personally, I accept that everyone has a right to go to hell but I refuse to grant them the right to drag me along with them.
However, given the universal historical record of every collectivist ideology, a large element of what can only be described as a disconnection from reality must be involved. As they subscribe to doing the same thing over and over, while insisting that this time, the results will be different.
Case in point; “San Francisco father of murdered 6-year-old says DA’s policies led to ‘no accountability’…”
“San Francisco is ‘doomed’ with Chesa Boudin as DA, father of slain boy says”
But get this: “Initially, Young supported Boudin’s rehabilitative approach to law enforcement and voted for him.”
I’d bet that in future elections, Young will still vote democrat. It’s Boudin that Young thinks is incompetent, not that ‘rehabilitating’ law enforcement is invalid.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/san-francisco-father-murdered-6-year-old-da-policies
Biden’s great success is at not being Trump, which for some people is sufficient.
“…[A] liberal political identity tends to be so much more than a political identity–it’s also a moral and personal identity. ”
You’ll have to change that opinion, the Z-Man agrees with you 100%!
More seriously, his argument is that because Progressives see themselves as being on side of the Angels against deeply evil people (broadly speaking, us), it’s pointless to use logic and reason and the Socratic Method and all that with them. Showing them the evils and failures of their policies doesn’t work. Just assume their evil intent as a given in interactions with them and speak that way. What you need to do is use rhetoric to make them feel like Bad People.
Arguments don’t matter.Speaking to them as if they’re disgusting, horrible self-hating, twisted individuals is what he recommends. The point is not to win them over. They’re like bathroom mold. You’ll never entirely get rid of it, but with relentless applications of bleach you can keep them shriveled up in the corner.
‘Conservatives’ won’t do that though… ‘Because we’re not like that’.
Classic example was how quickly the ‘CRT is Anti-White’ meme got shut down in the mainstream… and various conservative sock puppets popped up with anodyne reformulations and Blacks Saying Conservative Things ™. Why? Because can’t go around using effective tactics. Might win. And then where would we be?
Biden’s great success is at not being Trump, which for some people is sufficient.
I agree. I have three leftist children, all adults. Two are lawyers, one of the lawyers is also an FBI agent with 20 years in. A third is married to a successful artist. She also has postgrad degrees. I don’t talk about politics with them. The FBI agent daughter told me at dinner last summer, “Daddy you have stop stop watching Fox News.” Since I don’t watch TV, except college football, this was nonsense. It is also a concern about the FBI culture.
Those three have TDS in a serious case. I have two other kids who are conservative. I think I might have indulged the lefties too much.
From article and comments can you see divorce would be best of two sides who will not see eye to eye?
Won’t happen but should.
Speaking of reality and alternative realities, I’ve been reading the Economist Christmas / New Year double edition on and off this week. Mostly the standard boilerplate GloboHomo talking points interspersed with general interest articles. Only half-way through it, but I’ve learned so far that the architects of Great Zimbabwe (once upon a time, some Africans built a stone walled enclosure) put Callicrates and Phidias to shame.. or at least that’s what I’m supposed to pretend to believe if I want to get ahead in the world. Oh well, Back to the Bog for me!
@Skip:
Some kind of divorce is the only way to avoid bloodshed. But since the Left see the rest of us as not just wrong but evil, they cannot and will not leave us alone.
Trite to say that there’s an inevitability about what’s coming down the pike, but there is.
I think right on as to lefties believing as they believe means they are Very Good People. Attacking their views about policy is…attacking their self identity as righteous and virtuous.
Which is why, I am convinced, that going back and forth on facts will run three iterations before it gets to ad hom. No more. They can’t afford it.
“Which is why, I am convinced, that going back and forth on facts will run three iterations before it gets to ad hom. No more. They can’t afford it.”
So might as well just cut to the chase, no?
Go straight for the amygdala and shut them down. Make them crap themselves faster than Joe Biden meeting the Anti-Pope.
‘Perhaps I no longer even try to talk with those who would be likely to fly off the handle, or perhaps they’re mostly used to me by now.‘
I tried talking about, ‘What is happing now.’, with my siblings last week and their response was not to talk or think about politics. I found it amazing, because they voted for Joe and I know they are not please with his performance. They would have answered ‘fine’. Both of them before Trump, voted Republican. I on the other hand voted Democrat. That changed in 2016 and I became an Independent. I have no understanding why anyone would vote for Joe and continue to think he is ‘fine’. The best response is ‘silence’ and talk to people who are critical thinkers.
I think this meme is perfect for how far the Democrat party has gone left;
https://i.redd.it/p9u2me2bqfb21.jpg
The Theranos story is kind of a mini-culture example. All the people involved are either leftist megalomaniacs or deluded old men like George Schultz and Henry Kissinger. The fraud trial of Elizabeth Holmes, who created the fraud by raising $9 billion dollars for a lab test that didn’t work, was over the last two weeks. The jury has been out for a week. It is in Silicon Valley so I would not surprised if she gets away with it. There is a good book about it called “Bad Blood”
We drove to California for the holiday and we listen to audio books on the way. I have the hard copy book but put the audio version on for the trip. My wife, who is a tech illiterate, kept exclaiming all through the story, “How could she do that ?” Anyway it is a good story. And kind of emblematic of today’s left.
Zaphod:
Thing is, there are quite a few different kinds of Democrats. Some can be reached by reason and even change their minds over time. Some never will. The proportion of the first is considerably smaller than the second, but I have experienced both.
To me, some of the most obnoxious “ progressives” are often the “Christian” religious ones.
Their view of Jesus is often similar to that of a 60’s make love, not war hippie. In the last few years, many of them have become convinced that the greatest sin is to believe their is such a thing as sin, except for being rich. Then that is a sin. Never mind that many of these people are American middle class, which makes them rich compared to much of the rest of the world.
Also , believing in national borders is a sin, apparently.
And now, wokeness is bubbling up in Christian circles.
A mind is a very very very difficult thing to change.
–neo
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Another way of saying that is “A brain is a very very very difficult thing to change — in a major way.”
Because to change one’s mind is to change, literally, one’s brain. Trillions of neural connections must be changed.
It’s not simple. It doesn’t happen over night. It’s not supposed to be easy. The old connections worked well enough for survival so far. We didn’t evolve to discard previous working brain connections willy-nilly for something new that *might* be better.
This seems to be something that conservatives, who weren’t changers like neo or myself, just don’t get. So they resort to diagnoses that Democrats must be stupid, evil or mentally ill.
But they are not. Mostly they are people whose brains are working well enough — they survive and function in human society which is no small accomplishment. Changing to conservative would be a whole lot of change and, from a personal survival point of view, a dangerous one.
Neo, love your commentary and want to get on your subscription list. Don’t see any place to Subscribe. Please explain. Thank you.
Democrats cannot be mugged by reality, they’re engaged in a desperate offensive against reality. It’s do-or-die, there will be no mugging of Democrats by reality.
I perhaps , to my shame, exaggerated to some extent , when I said that “… many of them have become convinced that the greatest sin is to believe there is such a thing as sin…”
It’s the dying embers of a love affair and they both know it’s over. But most of all, it’s voter apathy blooming, and I LOVE it!
I really wish that this topic was one discussed daily by all of the sources I access.
Instead all we get is “wow, look at the drop in those poll numbers”, “the American People are seeing the flaws, the border is a mess, inflation, crime in the streets…
We get this, why don’t the folks mentioned here get it?
Why don’t my “source” folks get out and talk to these folks. It will be difficult for the many reasons y’all mention, but can these believers be that dense, that irrational, that politically religious? Are they somehow broken? Are they doing all of that virtue signaling because they lack virtue and are trying to convince themselves otherwise?
I know many whose views have changed, many of the participants in the discussions right in this blog, might they/you be a place to start? Might they/you be the bridge people?
All very frustrating to me.
My family is all mixed up politically too, with about half progressive and half conservative….and, what makes it really tangled is that people are changing over time so that it is impossible to know at, say, Thanksgiving dinner, what my daughters and son are going to say. But, alas, I love them so I am a hostage of each side. Thus, I simply never discuss politics and always discuss science or engineering or astronomy. But, they tangentially pry into my views and I have to emit occasionally “All politicians are prostitutes”…”selling their votes for similar favors”. Thus, every year I have to act like an idiot. Which I probably am.
@Neo:
You’re right that a minority can be reached. And their stories are heartening; a little glimpse of an ideal, better world. I mean that.
But quantity has a quality all of its own. They, taken in the mass, can bulldoze us into pits faster than we (well I wouldn’t necessarily claim to belong to the ranks of the more patient debaters myself) can save the few of them who would have ended up on our side.
I get it. Brutal and unpleasant and all, but First Mover Advantage is real and they have a multi-generational head start.
I think the dead people that voted for him will vote for him again.
Twice, at least.
Well you just can’t keep a good man down.
[The Devil sings.]
Listen, when you’re on the bottom like I am today
Those around you are losing faith in what you’re tryin’ to do
There is only one thing a man can say
“You can’t keep a good man down”
There’ve been mistakes and I’ve made a few
But oh, what a price I had to pay
Yet still they try to push me around
But they can’t keep a good man down
–Randy Newman, “Can’t Keep a Good Man Down” (from “Faust”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzR6Y4y5EjQ
_______________________________
Zaphod:
Randy Newman put out an overlooked gem in 1995 — his reworking of Faust as a pop musical with James Taylor as God, Newman himself as the Devil and Bonnie Raitt as the Woman Who Dumped the Devil.
Perhaps it requires a taste for Newman’s black humor. I thought it was a great album, though it did not do well with critics or customers.
Newman is such an accomplished composer and a master of his particular domain that his work never fell off all that much from his glory years.
@Huxley:
It’s true, the Devil really does get all the good lines!
The Faust bit reminds me of a movie I once saw:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mephisto_(1981_film)
There is a magnificently-done Murnau-ish tableau moment when the actor playing Mephistopheles is called into the stalls / box (I forget) during the interval to be congratulated by the Ministerpraesident of Prussia, one Hermann Goering.
Brutal and unpleasant and all, but First Mover Advantage is real and they have a multi-generational head start.
Zaphod:
But again, history is not a straight-line. Things don’t get dumber and dumber and more and more brutal because that’s just the way it is.
I don’t understand the regular Right’s and the alt-Right’s pessimism on the score, especially in New Year’s 2022.
Here’s Kurt Schlichter’s Christmas column on Manchin’s killshot to the BBB:
_____________________________
This might well be the death knell for the entire Biden agenda, such as it is. His presidency is a total failure, with COVID still rampant, the border open, inflation, and international humiliation. It’s good that he is a failure. He’s a bad person pushing bad policies. He will go down in history as a loser, which is proper. He is a loser.
–Kurt Schlichter, “America’s Christmas Present Is All the Democrats’ Dreams Dying”
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2021/12/23/americas-christmas-present-is-all-the-democrats-dreams-dying-n2600899
_____________________________
Knock on wood and all that, but it looks we’ve got a good year ahead.
@Huxley:
As always I find your optimism uplifting! 🙂
Zaphod:
Uncle Aldous’s later work keeps me going…
(Did you ever read “Island”?)
***
I saw “Mephisto” when I lived in Cambridge, Mass. and friends were always dragging me to foreign films.
I recall liking “Mephisto.” I’ll check to see it again.
@Huxley:
I’ve only ever read Brave New World. I’ll have a look at Island.
JD. Wrt your fourth graf: Yes. I have. For example, one of my relations insisted that Charlevoix, MI was cooler in the summer than Cincinnati was because of global warming. There are a couple of old-money towns on MI’s lower peninsula which were refuges from summer heat in the midwest back before a/c and when respectable folks wore three layers of clothes throat to wrist to ankle.
She spent about eight gallons of gasoline to visit and lamented the huge old homes as “too much” for people. After which we were directed to a restaurant where an unimpressive sandwich cost $25. She had a drink. Then congratulated the waitress for not bringing a straw.
She believes in CRT and White Fragility.
Discussing Covid with her and her daughter, I brought up the Diamond Princess. “All lies,” said the daughter.
There is no way in.
They despise poor whites, especially from the south. I have a speech….not sure where to deploy it. My church is one possible venue.
“In WW II, most of the guys in my father’s platoon were from the mid south. They’d have followed him to Hell and made Satan regret the visit. He would never hear a word against them his whole life. They stayed in touch until they all faded away. If I were to pick a group to despise to make myself feel valuable, it would likely be liberal Protestants who think well of themselves.”
I await the opportunity.
There was a temporary fuss over anti-Asian violence. That was a year or so back, but the Great White Defendant wore out and we haven’t heard anything else from our church social justice folks. The Asians are on their own again.
Examples abound.
I might ask what they think of Tate Meyer, Kendrick Castillo, or Riley Howell. They’ll have to look up those names. Not like commissioning another mural for St. George of The Floyd.
I sometimes think of a metaphor like shooting BBs at a basketball, but the texture of a basketball actually captures the BB for a fraction of an instant and imparts some of its own energy to the projectile. Instead, it’s like shooting a BB at a two-foot ball bearing made of armor steel. Simply redirects the BB.
I should say that none of the folks I think of in this case are in a position to be inconvenienced by the requirements they expect the government to impose…about anything. They can afford $4 gasoline and the resultant heating bills. There are no minorities living nearby whose cultural differences cause difficulty.
It’s Those Others who must yield. And they deserve it because they’re not …good people.
Talking to these folks?
One lady said of the current situation that she was glad not to hear Trump’s voice again. Nothing else penetrates.
I could go on.
Mike K — I remember reading some glowing article years ago about the brilliance of Elizabeth Holmes and I thought she was full of baloney. I couldn’t understand why all there’s people just thought she was so brilliant.
When it all fall apart, I remember thinking how gullible people were. I read “Bad Blood,” and while for the most part, I have no problem with her and her boyfriend fleecing the people she did — they deserved it — the man who killed himself was heartbreaking.
Neo,
I would like to submit an additional dynamic in play with some liberals in this case: some simply cannot connect their voting habits with the poor outcomes that progressive policies tend to produce. In fact, many don’t even understand the political nature of public policy. Unless it has “Democrat” or “Republican” on the label, it’s just not political to them.
So you get brainless commentary like, “Parents (or legislators) shouldn’t be telling teachers what to do. Keep your politics out of it!” Or blue state voters fleeing the very policies they helped implement, only to vote the same damn way at their new colony.
It’s a complete disconnect borne from ignorance (either willful or organic) of where policy comes from.
It’s a cult. It’s difficult to reverse the programming, especially when it is constantly broadcast. But reality still permeates. Most of these zombies will continue to be “disinterested” in reality until it really affects them, via a crime or financial loss or a major medical emergency. Then they’ll have to face facts, and most will still find a way to deflect, but a lot may finally wake.
Doc Zero – Mugging in a Time of Covid
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1476536807928078340.html
Zaphod…”Arguments don’t matter.Speaking to them as if they’re disgusting, horrible self-hating, twisted individuals is what he recommends.”
This approach is precisely what Stalin’s master propagandist, Willi Munzenberg, recommended to Arthur Koestler, back when Koestler was still a Communist:
“Don’t argue with them, Make them stink in the nose of the world. Make people curse and abominate them, Make them shudder with horror. That, Arturo, is propaganda!”
Much, perhaps most, ‘liberal’ and ‘progressive’ political communication is of this nature.
“‘Conservatives’ won’t do that though… ‘Because we’re not like that’”…well, there’s another reason: it works for the Progs because they control most of the media, virtually all of academia, and much of the business world on their side, so they speak with the voice of apparent authority.
And here is Koestler again, this time in 1951 after very prominently breaking with Communism. He is speaking about the situation of writers who have escaped from totalitarian countries…especially the Soviet-occupied countries in Eastern Europe…and about how the cultures of these writers and their countries can be preserved:
“I say ‘exiled cultures’ and not ‘exiled writers’ or ‘artists’ or individual refugees….We are faced today with the calculated and systematic extermination of whole national cultures–the Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish and so on. Culture, as we understand this term, is dependent, among other factors, on two essential conditions; freedom of expression and continuity of tradition. Both these conditions are absent in countries under totalitarian rule.”
My wife insists on listening to NPR from 6am to 8am every morning, after which she gets up. That’s why I usually get up at 6. But if I am tired, but not tired enough to sleep, I have to endure it. I have never made it beyond 7.
This morning indicates we are in for a rough run to the election. Literally every news story (except the passing of Betty White) was told from a single liberal point of view, or was essentially content-free.
The highlight was a book on the last election that began with the host stating flatly that listeners should bear in mind that there is NO EVIDENCE for electoral fraud (emphasis in voice). The book’s authors expounded on the evilness and dishonesty of Trump, and the basic honesty of American electoral officials. No data or evidence was presented – only opinion.
Another news piece was on the Colorado grassfires, which was laced with references to global warming, presented as the obvious cause.
Exposed to this drumbeat of opinion disguised as fact, it is no wonder that so many adults think like children – they are seldom exposed to actual argument and counter-argument. My wife will state firmly that it should be “illegal” to publish “lies”, such as arguments that global warming is not real. To the obvious question of who determines what is true, she simply asserts that the truth is obvious if one listens to NPR!
God help us!
I’ve only ever read Brave New World. I’ll have a look at Island.
Zaphod:
“Island” is Huxley’s last book. He intended it to be the utopian flip-side to “Brave New World” in which the technologies and social planning used in “Brave New World” to subjugate humans are used to liberate them.
Instead of occurring in the future, “Island” takes place in the 20th century on a fictional island, Pala, somewhere between Sumatra and Burma. Due to unusual historical circumstances the leaders of Pala choose to implement the best of Western science and Eastern philosophy for their country — exactly the things Huxley had been pondering as solutions for humanity’s problems after two world wars and the destabilizing advances of science and technology.
Like most utopias “Island” serves more as exposition for ideas rather than literary values, so I wouldn’t call it great literature. But the ideas are captivating for those sharing Huxley’s concerns for the future.
It’s one of the books which changed my life.
Neo it is classic cognitive dissonance. I agree with you 100% though, once people have made a commitment to the Democratic Party it usually seems to be a life time commitment that is really hard to break even when the Democratic Party bares no resemblance to the Party that it was in the mid-20th century. For people like that voting for the republican party is just a “bridge too far“.
Another interesting Huxley book is “Ape and Essence.” In this novel, nuclear war has devastated the US and the entire northern hemisphere…and, many years later, a rediscovery expedition from New Zealand, untouched by the war, lands in America to see what they can find out.
The book is told in the form of a script for a movie that was never made, and is rescued from the trash when it blows off a truck and is found by a film exec.
Ray. Looking at such belief systems from the outside is puzzling. Is it that the individual believes in certain things? Or is it that the individual believes in BELIEVING, irrespective of factual difficulties?
From time to time I’ll recommend looking at Watts Up With That, WUWT, a warming denial website. Read their stuff, figure out why they’re wrong. Simple enough, right? Right? Oh, no. Not going to read that.
Suggest to some folks whose idea of evolution revolves around knowing the difference between kerosene and pliocene that they check out Gelerntner. Couple of youtube vids on the subject.
Nope, not going to listen to some gap-toothed fundy.
Gelerntner says the math doesn’t work So haul out your calculator and prove him wrong. NOOOOO.
david foster:
Yes! “Ape and Essence” is another wild book by Huxley.
Most people only know Huxley through “Brave New World” and, maybe, “The Doors of Perception.” But he covered a vast amount of ground — art, religion, literature, music, history and science — with a remarkable mind and spirit.
Huxley’s “Complete Essays” covers 1920-1963 and requires six thick hardbound volumes to contain them. I have three and I marvel at his erudition and ease whenever I read him. Then there are the novels, screenplays, poetry collections and longer non-fiction woks.
He was a Huxley and he worked. He would have gone into medicine but for an eye condition he acquired as a teenager nearly left him blind.
Huxley was a giant. Though his reputation has shrunk to a footnote on “Brave New World,” he is one of the minds who formed the world in which we now live.
One more point about Erector Set and Meccano (the Brit equivalent)…Meccano was used to build what I believe was the first mechanical differential analyzer (differential equation solver) in the UK. I doubt that *all* of the necessary parts were found in the kit…thinking especially of the glass disks…but I believe most of them were.
See my post Retrotech—With a Future?
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/57194.html
Richard Aubrey, I made what I thought was an un-refutable challenge to a liberal relative. They asked me how I could hold conservative beliefs, so I challenged them to expose themselves to such beliefs.
I asked that they read and consider ONE news item from the website “Instapundit” every day! I think Instapundit offers a good selection of conservative thinking, not the best by any means, but my strategy was simply to open a chink that might inspire some critical thinking.
The response: “NO” No, I will not expose myself to aberrant thinking! When I asked if they had read the pieces there and found them false, they replied that they had not! They said that their assumption was that if I recommended such content, it must be flawed!
I informed them that they had insulted me, and at the same set up a foolproof method of avoiding ever thinking again! I now ignore any but the most banal words from this person, as I feel they have proudly identified themselves as richly deserving of being ignored!
“…[A] liberal political identity tends to be so much more than a political identity–it’s also a moral and personal identity. Liberals tend to equate their own position with such abstract (and non-political) qualities as goodness, kindness, lack of bigotry, intelligence–oh, a host of wonderful virtues. Any identity that is so identified is going to be particularly difficult to shed…”
I used to have liberal friends growing up in Kali. Here in Texas I avoid having liberal friends. Do I want to live in a bubble? No, it’s just so exhausting having liberal friends (I don’t make the same distinction between liberal and leftist as Dennis Prager does; I don’t think there is one). They believe in certain things because believing in those things makes them good people in their eyes and the eyes of their fellow travelers. No amount of evidence that that the things they believe in don’t work because it doesn’t matter if they work or not. It’s sort of liberal Nicene Creed. A profession of faith.
And believing in those things means they can be nastier people in their personal lives. I recall Joe Biden mentioning Mitt Romney’s “personal” charitable acts during the 2008. Illustrating my point; to a liberal voting for what they consider charitable is just as good if not better than spending their own money like Romney (this isn’t an endorsement of Romney). Liberals are far less likely to give to charity than conservatives. But of course they’re far more likely to steal since they’ve done so much good with their vote. Pointing out their preferred policies do a lot of harm does no good because they don’t care.
I recall commuting with two Navy captains to a meeting between two bases while stationed in Japan. We got into a discussion concerning welfare reform and I mentioned that my real problem with welfare was the moral hazard that goes with it, breeding a sense of entitlement. Out of the blue one captain says, “That’s not true, there are more white people on welfare than black people.” I just looked at him. I hadn’t said anything about race. You can go to Britain and see the same effect being on the dole has on people. Of course they’re white. He just assumed believing in and voting for “generous” welfare benefits made him a good person, including not being racist. Since I was for getting people off welfare and into the work force I must be a bad person in all ways possible, including being a racist.
Who wants to hang out with such people as friends? I meet enough of them on the job.
“…Do some conservatives feel this way about their identity? Of course…”
My identity is far more involved with doing good works as an individual, and caring about whether or not my preferred policies actually have the effects I intend for them to have. So I’m actually not immune to evidence that my preferred policies might not be working.
The fact that paper/cloth masks don’t work and the “vaccines” don’t prevent people from catching and transmitting Covid doesn’t matter. Wearing a mask and having a “vaccine passport” shows you care about not killing grandma. The fact that they caught Covid and infected Grandma even though they were both fully “vaxed” doesn’t make a dent. The fact that I’m not wearing a mask and refuse to put these mRNA jabs in my body because there is no long term data on the health effects means I’m evil to a liberal.
@ huxley > You got me interested.
https://www.huxley.net/island/aldoushuxley-island.pdf
AesopFan:
Whoa!
I’d be interested in your reaction. I don’t expect you will agree with everything — it’s not that kind of book and some of it is definitely outdated.
@ David Foster > “See my post Retrotech—With a Future?”
Loved the post. I learned a lot from the main article and the comments, as I usually do with your writings.
Somewhat tangential to the main subject was a side-conversation on whether or not kids should be taught cursive writing in school, and it seems on-topic with the reality mugging trope.
I thought the question was definitively answered in this comment, particularly since I had seen the same argument made in more “scholarly” articles, and also had the same experience Joe did in my own Cub Scout pack in 2015 (not so much in my heyday of Cubs before 2000, after which I had a long gap, during which the BSA actually added basic functions to the Whittling requirements that included cutting a string in half and slicing open a taped box, which were never a problem for the boys before).
(omitting the majority of the conversation, light editing)
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/57194.html#comment-1024445
But then there was this reply from Kirk Parker:
“How about teaching them something actually useful as a way to promote fine motor skills?”
So far I have been stumped.
It seems to me that, back in our grandparents’ days, the knot tying and carving/whittling that were ordinary household activities were how kids developed their fine motor skills, which could then be used in writing cursive. Somewhere along the way, that got reversed, and the writing skill became the “wax on, wax off” exercise antecedent to the knots & knifes.
I do wonder if using video controllers develops any fine motor dexterity comparable to writing cursive, but can’t think of any “useful” activity other than tying knots & whittling. Possibly playing a musical instrument?
In the comments to his “Retrotech” post, David Foster referenced another of his writings, which I also think is relevant to the Mugged by Reality topic: school is actually making it harder for kids to comprehend Reality aka facts and reason.
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/20829.html
Cue the recent stories about the Teacher’s Unions and School Boards.
And peruse the comments if you have time.
David’s observations reminded me of a passage in one of Harry Kemelman’s “Rabbi Small” novels (murder mysteries), where the Rabbi is teaching part-time at the local college. When he poses a question and the students start giving their opinions, he brings them up short by telling them that they don’t know enough facts about the subject to HAVE any opinions, and certainly none worth sharing.
In “Tuesday the Rabbi Saw Red” – I loved the series.
https://www.amazon.com/The-Rabbi-Small-Mysteries-12-book-series/dp/B07DBGGCJQ
“Harry Kemelman’s “Rabbi Small” novels “…
The ‘Nine Mile Walk’. Not a Rabbi Small story, but the first Harry Kemelman I read. Got me hooked on the Rabbi Small series.
http://www.101bananas.com/library2/ninemile.html