The Power of Witchcraft 8 November 2009
Posted by Lao Tzu in anthropology, media, philosophy, psychology, religion, sociology, witchcraft.Tags: witchcraft
add a comment
John Stossel, a reporter for the show 20/20, did a great 1 hour documentary on the power of belief. Essentially, his point was that people’s desire to believe in things, even if they are not real, had incredible power. This is essentially circular reasoning with a conscious avoidance of critical thinking. I would like to take it one step further, specifically in the areas of witchcraft and satanism. Even if these are not real forces (I am not suggesting they are or are not), the belief alone is sufficient for these tradecrafts to have some effect. As a great example, see this video. This video is also a great example of another current trend – media sensationalism. The show makes a big build up claiming that something incredible happened to this scientist that changed his mind, when nothing REAL happened at all.
On John Hughes 8 August 2009
Posted by Lao Tzu in arts, entertainment, evolution, media, movies, philosophy, sociology.Tags: john hughes, maslot hierarchy of needs, maslot's pyramid, the breakfast club
add a comment
Courtesy MSN Online
The movie writer, director, producer John Hughes passed away recently (06 Aug 2009). For those that don’t know, Mr. Hughes did not only make movies about culture in the 1980s, the culture of the 1980s were built around his movies. His movies helped make the 80s what they were – deep, happy, and highly artistic. His movies demonstrated how Maslot’s pyramid can be applied to an entire society, not just a single individual. We were at a point, partly thanks to the cold war, where we were not in a real war, the economy was positive, and as a whole, this country had little concerns (except the threat of total global nuclear war) – allowing, I feel, for this country to self-actualize. It appears that DEVO might have been right, and we were at a point where we could only devolve from there.
His most recent movie is Drillbit Taylor. If you have not seen, “The Breakfast Club”, I cannot recommend it highly enough – one of my top 10 movies of all time. It is a timeless summary of life in high school at a depth not accomplished in other attempts. We won’t forget about you.
Michael Jackson’s Legacy 28 June 2009
Posted by Lao Tzu in arts, entertainment, media, music, sociology.Tags: michael jackson
2 comments
If you are my age, or older, you are familiar with the many phases of Michael Jackson’s career. And although he was a bit eccentric at times, he was an icon that had great influence on music and pop culture. Although I am not a fan of pop music, I cannot deny his impact. To watch any of his early performances (e.g., the Ed Sullivan show), one can easily see how amazing this person was.
As for the child molestation accusations, it’s common sense. If someone molests your child, you don’t ask for money – and you definitely don’t forgive for money. If the police were smarter, either case would not have gotten as far as it did. The press made MJ a star, and made him a pedophile. His talent not withstanding, the media built him up, and tore him down. And it was not until his death that any media spoke of these accusations as weak. Truly a shame. I hope he is remembered for his positive accomplishments.
Video Did Kill the Radio Star! 1 September 2008
Posted by Lao Tzu in arts, entertainment, media, politics.Tags: mtv, music, music video, rock
1 comment so far
Some of you may be familiar with the new wave song (far on the geeky end of the spectrum) by the Buggles entitled, Video Killed the Radio Star. Intentionally ironic, it was the first video played on MTV, back when MTV meant Music TeleVision, not Teenager BrainWashing. Videos added a new dimension to music (literally). However, even though pop music has been around for decades – whether popular due to constant, unsolicited air play, or popular because it spoke the language of the adolescence mindset rather than that of music – video gave pop music an even greater power. Video made songs a visual experience as well as audio experience. Hence, songs that had videos that were visually entertaining, sexy, or otherwise appealing became popular even when the music quality was obviously lacking. This progressed to the point where it is now where the is very little if any music quality in mainstream music these days. The age of the manufactured commercial “bands” (collection of pretty faces with no musical talent) is squelching any attempt for real musicians to become successful. I envision this small collection of 40-something executives that sit around a table suffling magnetic word puzzles around to create new songs for each of the pop stars that are currently in the business. And, apparently, the word pool is quite small. Picking a radio station these days is like picking a president, they all suck, but you know you have to settle on one of them, so you pick the one you can tolerate for awhile and hope the trip will be over soon, constantyl thinking to yoursefl, “Isn’t there something better out there.”
Offensiphobia 10 August 2008
Posted by Lao Tzu in law, media, philosophy, politics, sociology.Tags: offensiphobia, offensive, politically correct
1 comment so far
There is a new fear amongst us. It affects the media, politicians, and is starting to infect the scientific community. It is the fear of offending someone. Someone living with offensiphobia may exhibit the following symptoms:
- Having someone else prepare / review their speech
- Restating bad truths into good lies
- Addressing the audience in a condesending manner of comradery
- Apologizing for every statement made the day after it is made
- Not acknowledging they are human capable of poorly worded statements in haste
- Easily convinced by others that what they said was somehow offensive, even when it may not be
- Overestimating the importance or legitimacy of small or strange special interest groups
This fear is a powerful force in politics and the media these days. If untreated, it often results in politicians making incredibly bad decisions and science misinforming the public.
Racism Detection 24 July 2008
Posted by Lao Tzu in anthropology, media, philosophy, politics, psychology, sociology.Tags: bad science, ethic food, national children's bureau, racism, racist toddlers, young children and racial justice
4 comments
Ah, I found a case in point of raciphobia.
I heard this news story about a week ago, and I honestly thought it was a joke because it is so insane, but today I found another blog talking about it at detecting racism in your toddlers. The original news article can be found here (it may take some time to load).
Apparently, the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) in the UK wrote a guide (over 300 pages) for staff in charge of pre-school children, called Young Children and Racial Justice. It contains some very outlandish concepts for identifying racism in young children, and recommendations for how to react.
Every now and then, something so ridiculous comes along that you just don’t know where to begin.
First, not liking certain ethnic foods cannot be an indicator for racism (even in people old enough to like everything you put in front of them). Despite the fact that toddlers are picky eaters ANYWAY, food is a CULTURAL artifact, and not a by product of any race. If you don’t know the difference between culture and race (and how they have absolutely nothing to do with each other), then you are too stupid to be talking about the subject at all. The recommendations are not even based on science. The fact that it urges child care facilities to REPORT and DISCIPLINE this so called “racist” behavior is quite disturbing.
Second, children are learning about the world. Racism is a structured concept (that does not mean it is something to be proud of, I just mean it relies on a multi-level propositional network, albeit a flawed one) that preschoolers are not yet equipped to formulate. This begs me to write a post on the definition of racism.
Third, it is quite normal for a young child to be apprehensive towards people that are different from them. They usaully grow out of this after learning how alike we all are and that skin color is just skin color. Racists are adults that don’t reach that level of cognitive development.
Finally, it always disturbs me when we are harder on our children than we are on adults. I can’t imagine what people would say if you “punished” an adult in a restaurant that didn’t like an ethic dish. Would people call them racist?
Hmmm, so if I didn’t like Taco Bell, since it is not authetice Mexican food, would I be a racist towards fake Mexicans. Oh wait, Mexican is not a race…
Raciphobia 23 July 2008
Posted by Lao Tzu in anthropology, media, sociology.Tags: ethnocentricism, raciphobia, racism
add a comment
Unfortunately, there is still racism in this country. This country has evolved considerably over the last 200 years, but there is still a little ways to go. But, there is so much talk about racism these days, and all too often, people don’t really know what they are talking about (e.g., confusing it with ethnocentrism). I believe that this slippery slope has led to a new trend – raciphobia (my word, noun: fear of racism). To elaborate, there is a great and very reactive fear of racism to the point that if anyone says anything about race (or even ethnicity), then it is considered by many to be a racist statement.
Pregnant Man Gives Birth 6 July 2008
Posted by Lao Tzu in media, psychology, sociology.Tags: cbs, early show, illinformed, media, people magazine, pregnant man, press, thomas beatie, transgender, uninformed
add a comment
I talked about this subject before, but there is an update. CBS News reported on 04 Jul 2008, I believe it was on the Early Show (I am not sure because I only saw the video) that the “pregnant man” gave birth. The CBS “news” (and I use that term for descriptive purposes only) woman continued to call Thomas Beatie a man. They had a guest on to talk about it, and presented him as if he were some kind of expert, but he actually only worked for People magazine – one of the lowest forms of print journalism being just a step above tabloids. They asked him his opinion and he stated that Thomas sees himself as the father. Now, his statement itself was misleading if you weren’t paying attention to the words, but, for those that didn’t read my previous post on the subject, Thomas Beatie is not really a man and is 100% female. It should not be news at all that “she” gave birth considering she has a uterus and it was natural child birth.
Many people fear that in more totalitarian countries, the people are often uninformed by the press. In the US, we have a new trend, where the people are illinformed for the sake of sensationalism and ratings. This is very disturbing. People that don’t understand the science behind this controversy must be very confused from watchng the news, especially when CBS news reported that the birth was natural (e.g., no C section). Maybe if the news spent more time on the many more important topics out there (like, I don’t know, the war maybe), we wouldn’t be having this discussion. If news agencies would rather run stories that they think will get people to watch out of curiosity, that’s their choice, but you must be factual, otherwise, you are not fulfilling the role of jouralism in society.
And The Loudest Voice Wins Again 17 June 2008
Posted by Lao Tzu in media, medicine, sociology.Tags: ama, cherry picking, childbirth, media, ricki lake
add a comment
There was a shining example in the news today of a critical problem plaguing America – idiots with microphones. To elaborate, there has been a trend for about 20 years now where the general population can’t separate fame from power and thereby assumes anyone famous (for whatever reason) has something important or intelligent to say (e.g., celebrities on the Bill Maher show, the political speeches at the Oscars, etc.). It’s not their fault. It is an inate psychological mechanism that causes us to assume that if someone is famous, they must be great. Unfortunately, today it just means they get a lot of camera or microphone time (e.g., Oprah, Paris Hilton, etc). The downside of this is that they are constantly either asked their opnion, or their unsolicited opinion is cast about the media like a thunderstorm, no matter how ridiculously stupid.
The latest shining example to which I speak is the recent media focus on Ricki Lake. Apparently, she made a documentary, “The Business of Being Born”, where whe implies something to the effect that giving birth at home might be a preferred option in general, and that giving birth at a hospital is unneccesary and religious doctrine imposed upon us by the AMA. Please read the story, I might be mis-paraphrasing.
The list of logical fallacies in her statement and philosophy are extensive, but for the sake of brevity, let’s hit the biggest one – cherry picking. She has given birth to two (2) children, and everything went smoothly. She was very lucky. To assume that all child births occur in such a manner is silly. The reason people give birth at a hospital with physicians is in case something goes wrong! Basic EMT courses teach that normal childbirth is a natural process and not a medical emergency. It is for the unfortunate anomalies where we realize the benefits of our current medical technologies – that still, unfortunately, aren’t prepared for every scenario.
Will someone please kindly ask these people to stop giving advice. But don’t take my word for it – I am just another idot with a media outlet.
