From: The Low Golden Willow (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Date: Fri Jul 04 1997 - 14:46:10 MDT
On Jul 4, 2:30am, Hagbard Celine wrote:
} Name any "establishment" and RAW has satired it.
There's satire, and there's dumb satire. I haven' read RAW myself, so
I'm not expressing an opinion on him. But...
} Inquisition reprsented to Galileo. RAW argues that any scientific claim
} that does not comport with established (?) scientific dogma is a
} "damnable heresy" and is branded "pseudo-science" or "poor scientific
...this is not a recommendation. It's funny how pseudo-quantum newagers
who decry the close-mindedness of "The Establishment" (not necessarily
including RAW this bunch of newage) overlook the fact that the
Establishment accepted quantum mechanics in the first place. Einstein
didn't, but he's notable for being an exception. And of course the
Establishment had accepted _his_ crazy ideas about relativity a few
years before -- I mean, throwing out absolute space and time ain't
trivial, folks.
} establishment uses the Infallible Method: They only believe that which
} can be demonstrated to their reason, and they are able to demonstrate to
} their reason only that which they are willing to believe.
And then there's continental drift. A crazy idea Wegener came up with
which no one listened to because they couldn't think of a mechanism.
Also, apparently, because the evidence wasn't strong enough, because
around 1968 oceanic floor magnetic studies came in which in a few years
convinced many if not most geologists. Know what? They still didn't
have a mechanism (got one a few years later, but not straight off) for
how these continents were plowing through rock, but they couldn't ignore
the data.
If there were anyone who stepped forward and could read random numbers
out of James Randi's mind, I'm sure CSICOP would disband.
The point? "RAW argues that... " is crap. I'm sure sometimes a good
idea has been hindered because someone influential had blinders against
it. But the history of the "Establishment" can also be told as a
sequence of running off in very strange directions. Saying scientists
are too hidebound to do so isn't satire, it's wrong. Unless you've
utterly failed to do him justice.
} ontology" or "epistemological judo." He seeks only to warp our set
} notions of reality into what he calls new "reality tunnels;" much akin
} to taking off the lenses we've grown up with, and putting on new ones.
Not recommended if he can't see, himself.
Merry part,
-xx- Damien R. Sullivan X-) <*> http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix
"If pigs could vote, the man with the slop bucket would be elected swineherd
everytime, no matter how much slaughtering he did on the side."
-- Orson Scott Card
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