Why "follow the science" makes no sense

The problem with the whole notion of "follow the science" and if you don't your a denier, a luddite, a fascist far-right nazi is that it's wrong.  Science itself is not supposed to follow the science.  The scientific method is to propose a hypothesis and test it.

If we followed the science in the era of Christopher Columbus, we might still think the world was flat.  Science is meant to question itself.  If Albert Einstein didn't think for himself we wouldn't have a more advanced alternative to Newtonian physics.

We HAVE to question the science, not follow it.  Any scientist who thinks otherwise, or says otherwise, any politician who says otherwise, guaranteed, has an agenda; be it climate change, vaccines or whatever else inevitably comes along that ends up getting leveraged for some agenda.

The more you lean into not questioning anything, the more you end up with cognitive bias. That is the point society has reached, prior to the change we are starting to see now. Many people are waking up to reality.  The frog in the slowly boiling pot of water may have finally realized what is happening to it. 

This nine year old, but still highly relevant video, shows the impact of cognitive bias on thought processes and a sure fire way to avoid falling into that trap.

As Bill Burr so comically put it in one of his routines, "how come you can't ask questions"? That's exactly what we should be doing as human beings, always. Otherwise we will all end up as a cog in someone's agenda, and that agenda could be quite nefarious.

Saturday Learning Series - Short Bio Einstein

A short bio on the genius Albert Einstein.

You didn't win that

Where's my cut?

Taking a page out of the Elizabeth Warren-President Obama handbook on success, it's time we apply their logic to a broader spectrum.  For those of you who missed it, the president took Massachusetts senatorial candidate Elizabeth Warren's argument about business owners not being responsible for their own success, and he ran with it.

Now maybe it makes sense to the president who seems to have a predilection for lifting speeches or ideas, this one included.  So maybe he should be forgiven because clearly, he didn't build that argument.  So his worldview truly conforms with what he is saying.  He really believes it.

But let's take that success measure he espouses and apply it to the rest of the country, not just business owners.

Michael Phelps - those gold medals, you didn't win them, someone else did that.

Sean Penn - those Academy Awards, you didn't win them, someone else did that.

Kanye West - that Grammy Award - you didn't earn that, someone else did.

Oprah Winfrey - that media empire - you didn't make it, someone else did that.

Fareed Zakaria - you didn't write that, someone else did. (Oh, wait...)

Chris Matthews - you didn't build that 6 person audience, someone else did.

John Stewart - you're not funny, someone else is.

Paul Krugman - you didn't invent tinfoil, you only wear the hat.

New York Yankees - you didn't win all those World Series, someone else did.

Socrates - You didn't teach those students, someone else did that.

Shakespeare - you didn't write all those great plays, someone else did that.  Ditto for you Francis Bacon.

Albert Einstein - you didn't come up with a theory of relativity, someone else did that.

Muhammad Ali - you didn't win all those fights, some guy named Cassius Clay did...

Thomas Edison - you didn't invent and patent a gazillion things, someone else did that.

America - you didn't win the Revolutionary War, someone else did that.

This list could go on forever, but there's a point.  Those people are regarded as successes for their own accomplishments and so should those who create thriving, successful businesses.  I don't recall Sean Penn thanking the fire department in any of his Academy Award acceptance speeches.  There should be no double standard but it seems like maybe they only want to apply that shared accomplishment caveat to businesses.

But if everyone is responsible for every success, then no one is really successful.  There are no heroes because there are no successes.  A success is defined as the achievement of an aim or purpose.  The purpose of building a road or having a fire department is not to make sure a bakery succeeds.  The purpose is to enable movement or prevent fires.  The establishment of those things have their own definitions of success.  They do not share in the success of the baker or the shoe store.

For those of us who live in the real world - Michael Jordan is indeed his own success and he deserves all the credit. Sure, his coach was an enabler, but if the success belongs to his coach then why wasn't he on those highlight reels making those amazing dunks.  I only remember seeing Jordan doing that.

Saturday Learning Series - Bonus: E =mc^2

Albert Einstein's E=mc^2 formula is profound. ANOTHER Saturday Learning Series BONUS, the 2005 docudrama on the discovery of the formula.



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