09.30.07

Darwinism, the classic shock doctrine

Posted in Critique of Evolutionary Economy at 8:52 pm by nemo

One gets a little impatient with the left for fumbling the ball on Darwinian ideology. The birth of the shock doctrine in the wake of Adam Smith produced a mind that enters into the Darwinian worldview,
Birth of the Shock Doctrine.

The destruction of the ethics of altruism in the mystique of propaganda over natural selection is the most obvious giveaway to the ’shock them out of ethical restraint’ strain in otherwise scientific looking evolutionary theory. It is a lot easier for economists to ply value-free (psychopathic) economic legitimation in an environment where Darwinism prospers.

One reason the left is stuck here is, perhaps, that it has its own ’shock doctrine’ history. It is hard to exempt Stalin’s ‘economic shock treatment’ of the thirties from the condemnation of neoliberalism! There terror and torture were the specialty of the house on the grand scale.
Maybe the Chicago Boys plagiarized a bit in their Pinochet fantasies.

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Birth of the Shock Doctrine? (ca. 1803)

Posted in Critique of Evolutionary Economy, History, Evolution at 8:45 pm by nemo

The ’shock doctrine’ actually is born in the period just after the brief aura of the seemingly ‘revolutionary’ or radical Adam Smith past away and was conservatized in the next generation, witness this passage from history-and-evoluton.com, and World History and The Eonic Effect, Critique of Evolutionary Economy:
—–:
As one author notes, “Classical political economy presents an imposing façade. For more than two centuries, its professed adherents have been grinding out texts to demonstrate how a market generates forces that provide the most efficient method for organizing production. The concept of primitive accumulation—that is, the process of depriving people of their means of producing for themselves—seems far removed from the literature of classical political economy.” Michael Perelman, Classical Political Economy (London: Rowman and Allanheld, 1983), p. vii, and p. 171.

Are we to suppose that Darwin mistakenly borrowed an ideological cover story, yet succeeded in producing a science? The author also cites the often-quoted comment of a Francis Horner, a Captain of Industry if there ever was one, from 1803, declining to review a reissue of Smith’s text,

I should be reluctant to expose S’s errors before his work had operated its full effect. We owe much at present to the superstitious worship of S’s name; and we must not impair that feeling, till the victory is more complete….[U]ntil we can give a correct and precise theory of the origin of wealth, his popular and plausible and loose hypothesis is as good for the vulgar as any others.

I think we should do well to suspect the equally complete cynicism in some quarters in the social promotion of Darwin’s theory. Perhaps we have cut and paste ‘S.’s errors’ for D’s. Is the whole game a hack? How utterly convenient. Economic agents with legitimate selfishness in theory are blessed as the breaking front of evolution and the champions of economy both.

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Mind control and Neoliberalism

Posted in Critique of Evolutionary Economy at 8:13 pm by nemo

It is strange that we have been discussing mind control, partly beginning with sillykitty’s concerns here, as I began to investigate, reaching the conclusion that beyond the ‘Manchurian Candidate’ myths there was in fact a crystallizing set of interrogation techniques. See this post on Padilla
Klein’s Shock Doctrine, to my surprise, picks up this theme in the first chapter and tells us that the CIA research (see Kubark Counterinlligence Interrogation, www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv) has been adopted by free market economists, et al, in the tactics of ’shock treatment’ economics. This sets the tone for the book, and Klein shows how the original techniques of the CIA (whose files on this were all destroyed) become a mystique of surprise attack economics plied by the epigones of the Chicago School. We are of course seeing this all come to light in the wake of 9/11, Abu Ghraib, and the rest of it. But its application to macroeconomic manipulations, the famous shock therapy from Pinochet to Jeffrey Sacks and Paul Bremer et co., is an acute revelation of Klein’s book.
We can’t just yawn anymore when these gangs start using these tactics on innocent populations where editorial gonzos slick the news stories with ‘freedom’ verbiage. The tactics are a form of piracy to reap the huge profits of ’shock therapy’ economics, while noone is watching, or quite aware of what is going on.
We need to be on full alert from now on whenever this brand of Neoliberalism gets in motion for more of its profits through crimes against humanity.

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Shock Doctrine and that ‘fascist pig’ Mr. Friedman

Posted in 1848+, Critique of Evolutionary Economy, Booknotes at 5:58 pm by nemo

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (Hardcover)
by Naomi Klein (Author)
I am finishing up Klein’s superb Shock Doctrine, and if you are anyone not connected with the economic elite I recommend reading this book to figure if you have been fooled lately.
I try hard to withstand the disinformation rife in the major media on the issues of politics, economy and ideology, have studied Marx on ideology with its warning to not be fooled, but I know from hard experience that one’s batting average here is comparable to that of baseball players (i.e. always below .500, at best, etc…)
Klein’s tour de force does something that has become rare for leftists: produces a critique of economic issues that is clear, not laden with leftwing shibboleths, and able to get down to cases with what should have been obvious to all of us, but which never fully connects as we sluggishly process disinformation and half-truths.
I was worried at first that Klein’s generalization about ’shock doctrine’ would be one-sided, or put the data into false analogy mode, but was surprised at the deft way she makes her case, connecting the dots on both the legacy of ‘mind control’ (so-called) research, and Milton Friedman’s brand of economics, so heavily disguised behind its mesmerizing ‘freedom’ pitch. The portrait of the influence of Friedman (often with his direct intervention) and the Chicago School is a story that needed to be told, one that few can seem to tell, and the sheer mass of new information here makes an overwhelming case. The latter is the key value of the book, the simple facts of the history of neo-liberalism and the laundered economic history we get from the News, NY Times certainly not excepted.
There are a lot of devastating revelations of fact in this book for anyone not ‘fully informed’ in a busy world (that means me, you speak for yourself), starting with the Pinochet era, moving to the Russian shock doctrine case, and coming to the truly mind-boggling case of the shock doctrine in Iraq.
I can assure that you have been brainwashed here, and I am sure you are sure you are not, so read the book.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Who, or what, is anti-science?

Posted in Science & Religion at 5:42 pm by nemo

Who is Anti-Science?

There is a long record of conflict and persecution in the history of science, as in any area of endeavor. Scientists are given to the same failings as other human beings: greed, status anxiety, envy, and fear. To believe the pious statements by professional organizations about the enlightened way “science works” is comparable to accepting the civics textbook renderings of “how a law is made.” There is a way, all right, that science is supposed to work (and laws supposedly are made), and then there is reality.


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Atheist rhetoric to demonize Muslims?

Posted in Science & Religion at 4:55 pm by nemo

Enlightenment wars
The real battle going on is between different kinds of enlightenment
By Michael Nenonen

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Who is a secularist?

Posted in Science & Religion at 4:51 pm by nemo

The Rise of Atheism
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On the defensive against Hitchens et al

Posted in Science & Religion at 4:42 pm by nemo

Faithful Often Fail, Never Give Up
It is noble to acknowledge some truth in the Hitchens/Dawkins claims, but there is not excuse for their slovenly treatment of religion.
It is part of the very problem they denounce.
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Some news items

Posted in In the News, Evolution at 4:35 pm by nemo

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Times to Texas fallacy flow

Posted in Evolution at 4:32 pm by nemo

The evolution of Morality

Is ‘do unto others’ written into our genes? Science now thinks it may be, says NICHOLAS WADE.

We can see this Times Darwinism flowing from Wade to the far corners, and the basic fallacy behind this Darwinization of research will not flow with it. This issue has been addressed many times on this blog.

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Enigma of the Old Testament

Posted in Science & Religion, The Axial Age, The Eonic Effect at 4:26 pm by nemo

Raiders of the faux ark

Biblical archeology is too important to leave to crackpots and ideologues. It’s time to fight back.

The confusion over the Old Testament, religious and secular, is disguising its ultimately unique significance as a record of the Axial Age, and the existence of macro-historical phenomena. Rescuing this interpretation (e.g. via the study of the eonic effect) is getting lost in the exploitations and secularist reductions. Read the rest of this entry »

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09.29.07

Wolf video

Posted in Booknotes at 7:04 pm by nemo

Naomi Wolf Schools Stephen Colbert on The Rise of Fascism in America [VIDEO]
Posted by Adam Howard at 12:30 PM on September 28, 2007.
The author of “The End of America” points out disturbing parallels between the Bush administration and fascist dictatorships throughout history.

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Gurdjieff was against abolition

Posted in New Age at 7:02 pm by nemo

Michael Medved Defends Slavery
Posted by Jillian at 1:00 PM on September 28, 2007.

Jillian: Way to go, Medved, have you considered pimping this argument out to David Duke? I bet he’d love it.

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The sacred, and the meaning of ‘religion’

Posted in Science & Religion, The Axial Age at 6:57 pm by nemo

James on the question of the ’sacred’:

You are quite right, how can we talk about the ’sacred’ at all, in a secular context. We can’t, and don’t need to.
As to what we mean by religion, the question if very complex, and it is probably counterproductive to insist on a single definition. It won’t work, and leads people like the New Atheists to denounce ‘all religion’ in all its aspects, a tactic that is highly dangerous in the end.

Look at history, the question of religion is not simple. We have the signs of religion in the Neolithic, at the birth of civilization, in the Axial Age, etc…
We can’t easily generalize on the question.
Look at ancient Israel. It is hard to figure that one out. Note that the religion(s) came much later, the Old Testemant era itself, was the tale of a Canaanite kingdom and its emergent theocratic state.
Or Buddhism, a tiny ashram in the forest area of India.

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G.I. Gurdjieff, et al,… sufi hyenas

Posted in General at 6:43 pm by nemo

post on ’sufi hyenas’.
Perhaps this post was misleading! I was not proposing another consipiracy theory, but simply expressing pure paranoia. We can’t easily figure this one out.
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Evangelicals: reconnect with primitive religion

Posted in Science & Religion at 3:40 pm by nemo

Pentecostal rave party
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Say goodbye to French wines, baseball and the Great Barrier Reef…

Posted in In the News at 3:27 pm by nemo

Top 100 Ways Global Warming Will Change Your Life
Center for American Progress. Posted September 29, 2007.

Say goodbye to French wines, baseball and the Great Barrier Reef. Say hello to massive amounts of mosquitoes, the northwest passage and hurricanes.


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Dashiell Hammett

Posted in Booknotes at 3:00 pm by nemo

The poet of collision

Dashiell Hammett knew that his day job as a detective for the anti-trade
union Pinkerton agency made him in large part a fascist tool - his
guilt, writes James Ellroy, was the driving force of his crime fiction

by James Ellroy
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After shock

Posted in Booknotes at 2:56 pm by nemo

Just got a copy of Klein’s book, …
After shock
Naomi Klein interviewed by
Oscar Reyes
September 29, 2007

From Poland to Iraq and from China to New Orleans, neoliberalism has risen on the back of what Naomi Klein calls ‘disaster capitalism’. She spoke to Oscar Reyes about her new book, The Shock Doctrine, and new forms of resistance.

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Intuition

Posted in Evolution at 2:51 pm by nemo

Have Scientists Discovered Intuition?
By Gerald Traufetter

Whenever humans recognize a mistake, a mysterious wave of electricity passes through the brain. Researchers think the signal could explain addiction, error correction and even the sixth sense.

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The debate and post 9/11

Posted in Science & Religion at 2:39 pm by nemo

Muffled rage from the side of the angels
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On faith on Hitchens

Posted in Evolution at 2:38 pm by nemo

On Faith on Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens and his best-selling book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, continues to stir up online controversy. On Faith, the joint Washington Post/Newsweek interactive project, is asking for reaction to his contention that religion is “violent, irrational, intolerant.”


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Rigor mortis at Times

Posted in Evolution at 2:30 pm by nemo

Talkin ‘Bout Evolution
Posted by Annie Wagner on September 27 at 10:55 AM

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Deceptive by design

Posted in Evolution at 2:25 pm by nemo

Anti-evolution movie is deceptive by design
I fear that Darwinism is also ‘deceptive by design’. Look at Dawkins’ Climbing Mt. Improbable: the basic argument, which as convinced millions, is a fraud. This has been pointed out for over thirty years.
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On evolution, from Nigeria

Posted in Evolution at 2:21 pm by nemo

Evolution versus creation
By Leo Igwe

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