Why does Dr. Noam Chomsky, or as I call him—Dr. Chomsky and Mr. Noam—refuse to apply the realities of his discoveries and those of the rest of cognitive neuroscience these past few decades to his politics? Why does he continue to write the same article over and over again, decade after decade, trying to reach some “critical mass” of truth consciousness in the species, repeating himself, begging and pleading for reason and change based only on political/historical information, when cognitive neuroscience has shown aggression and tribalism to be as much hard-wired aspects of human evolution as altruism and cooperation—or indeed language—are?
Dear Dr. Chomsky and Mr. Noam—unify your theory and give some hope to praxis. Admit that a different approach needs to be taken to fight the genetic diseases of human imperialism, racism, and exploitation. Rather than “lancing the boils” on the surface of our collective skin as you repeatedly do in your articles and books, why not illuminate the underlying “virus”—which is the human brain’s hard-wired tendencies toward authoritarian loyalty to the “ingroup”? Or how about writing article after article detailing how ideology has been shown time and time again to be what amounts to the brain’s immune system—ie an evolutionary adaptation whose purpose is to attack strange and unfamiliar ideas with the same ferocity that the white blood cells and phagocytes attack foreign microbes in the bloodstream—and as such is hopelessly invulnerable to contrary information—of the very sort you repeatedly attempt to supply—which does not address the actual biological structure and functioning of thought itself?
Do you think “the people” are too stupid to grasp the deeper truths underlying their behavior, an understanding of which might actually hold out some hope for effecting tectonic shifts in large-scale human thought and behavior? Do you believe that. like Jesus telling parables, your disciples “can’t handle the truth”, and so must be fed cosmetic, idealized moralizations—is that why you continue these futile attempts at changing mass thought based on intellectual arguments of right and wrong? Plastic surgery cannot change the genes (or the accident) which caused the undesirable “deformity”, and your attempts at effecting real world change will never succeed until the real causes of real world problems are exposed and attacked. Come on Mr. Noam—bring the monster under control—stop drinking the potion every time you pick up the pen and living the dual life of scientist and activist. Introduce the people to the truth which is what makes their brains tick. From there the truths about the world you keep trying to force feed them with these repetitive moralistic arguments will become self-evident to them, and then and only then will there be hope for a mass opposition to these things you have been tirelessly attacking these many years aback Rocinante, in your rusty armor with faithful Sancho by your side.
People do not need to be conscious of information to change their behavior—you really aren’t telling people anything new. They know. They just don’t care. What they need is information about their consciousness—to be shown why they act the way they do, why they can stand by while so much evil is done, why they don’t care—but why they should. Until you attack the real causes, and awaken the selfishness of individual survival Noam, you’re just another romantic old fool tilting at windmills.
Posted by Gileadite on Jun 12, 2009 at 12:20 PM
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Reader Comments
Why does Dr. Noam Chomsky, or as I call him—Dr. Chomsky and Mr. Noam—refuse to apply the realities of his discoveries and those of the rest of cognitive neuroscience these past few decades to his politics? Why does he continue to write the same article over and over again, decade after decade, trying to reach some “critical mass” of truth consciousness in the species, repeating himself, begging and pleading for reason and change based only on political/historical information, when cognitive neuroscience has shown aggression and tribalism to be as much hard-wired aspects of human evolution as altruism and cooperation—or indeed language—are?
Dear Dr. Chomsky and Mr. Noam—unify your theory and give some hope to praxis. Admit that a different approach needs to be taken to fight the genetic diseases of human imperialism, racism, and exploitation. Rather than “lancing the boils” on the surface of our collective skin as you repeatedly do in your articles and books, why not illuminate the underlying “virus”—which is the human brain’s hard-wired tendencies toward authoritarian loyalty to the “ingroup”? Or how about writing article after article detailing how ideology has been shown time and time again to be what amounts to the brain’s immune system—ie an evolutionary adaptation whose purpose is to attack strange and unfamiliar ideas with the same ferocity that the white blood cells and phagocytes attack foreign microbes in the bloodstream—and as such is hopelessly invulnerable to contrary information—of the very sort you repeatedly attempt to supply—which does not address the actual biological structure and functioning of thought itself?
Do you think “the people” are too stupid to grasp the deeper truths underlying their behavior, an understanding of which might actually hold out some hope for effecting tectonic shifts in large-scale human thought and behavior? Do you believe that. like Jesus telling parables, your disciples “can’t handle the truth”, and so must be fed cosmetic, idealized moralizations—is that why you continue these futile attempts at changing mass thought based on intellectual arguments of right and wrong? Plastic surgery cannot change the genes (or the accident) which caused the undesirable “deformity”, and your attempts at effecting real world change will never succeed until the real causes of real world problems are exposed and attacked. Come on Mr. Noam—bring the monster under control—stop drinking the potion every time you pick up the pen and living the dual life of scientist and activist. Introduce the people to the truth which is what makes their brains tick. From there the truths about the world you keep trying to force feed them with these repetitive moralistic arguments will become self-evident to them, and then and only then will there be hope for a mass opposition to these things you have been tirelessly attacking these many years aback Rocinante, in your rusty armor with faithful Sancho by your side.
People do not need to be conscious of information to change their behavior—you really aren’t telling people anything new. They know. They just don’t care. What they need is information about their consciousness—to be shown why they act the way they do, why they can stand by while so much evil is done, why they don’t care—but why they should. Until you attack the real causes, and awaken the selfishness of individual survival Noam, you’re just another romantic old fool tilting at windmills.
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