-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 05/04/2017 06:11 PM, juan wrote:
On Thu, 4 May 2017 13:49:03 -0400 Steve Kinney <admin@pilobilus.net> wrote:
The Scientician faith and its Corporate Capitalist patrons tell us that technological "quick fix" solutions will be created when and as needed to keep the world as we know it intact. Like all respectable apocalyptic prophesies, those of the Scienticians are likely to be reasonably accurate right up to the point where the Heavens open up and Bog and all his Holy Angels come down and fix everything for us: That part never happens.
I'm not completely following. The scienticians don't subscribe to any apocalyptic prophesy. Quite the opposite, the shitbags are Optimists who believe in Eternal Progress.
What I call the Scientician faith is a very widespread popular religion, maybe the first really successful atheist religious sect. In the U.S. its followers number in the tens of millions and include most self identifying "Liberals" as well as numerous "Libertarians" and others who pin a large part of their self esteem on the notion that they are "smarter" than other people. The Scientician priesthood - - everyone who claims the title "scientist" and is available through speakers' bureaus and press agents - replaces the functions of the Church as "explainer of everything" and "Voice of Divine Authority." The apocalyptic prophesy I refer to is more or less the same scenario I outlined earlier: The impact of resource depletion, environmental degradation, population pressure etc. on human affairs in the next couple of decades. There is a sharp divide between the scientists and Scienticians over what the outcome will be: A broad consensus among working scientists in relevant fields says "life as we know it" will be ending shortly; massive losses are inevitable; and immediate, radical remedial action is warranted. But our Scienticians are happy to promote the belief that by throwing enough money at the symptoms when they become too severe to ignore, all the problems arising from the Industrial Revolution can be solved to everyone's satisfaction by Startling Miracles of Super Science. The Scientician position has practical consequences: It maximizes Corporate executive compensation packages, Corporate shareholder capital gains, and both poverty and human fatalities among the "lower classes" worldwide: It's a win/win/win proposition from our rulers' perspective. The State fully endorses the Scientician approach, as the State's sole function is to transfer money and power from the poor to the rich at the fastest practicable rate. As always, symbolic "initiatives" and strongly worded press releases are sufficient responses to public pressure to "do something" about, for instance, global warming. When our propaganda industries co-opted the image of science as a marketing tool, this already complex and contentious field of human activity became a /real/ hairball. Almost nobody who lacks formal training in the physical sciences stands any chance of understanding, much less evaluating, claims made In The Name Of Science today. :o/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJZC8hzAAoJEECU6c5Xzmuq1IwH/jGouDLGPlv1mHXEOyn3PQgk /oz17qF1mYTRTAXFNCLONfYH5m0dbDaGBp10OeAC1IfgCLAaY9s6uTyK2yK3Ca+u O/4o0Rp37pkV1OMEH6WhjbX8rPYi//+r9T5fmF01zG5zyd7MgKI+OZbaq+04GYrG lZHi/ze3mH1fltKldnqZcFeVCizDsVM8idFFpvvNs/MKyolWU4jLV7h0KJmDAed1 f05YPEO0Uql1dFi5sAAy9zs+Hs2USloyq7qAHt308tf8nYLcJn3nk6uZne3/FRcc NWXz4N6D8vhERgUeQdNj+rNSX42WYiyhPOYdhvk/IlssrLwqsnQ3nPPtJ8gXGcc= =rk1f -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----