Memories of the 28th Century

I have started to think that humans are opposed to rational thought. Simply starting for a reasonable premise (a premise based in reality) and accurate evidence, and then making logical deductions based on those leads to something reasonable. It was an excellent way to figure things out, but reasoning seems to have been abandoned by many people, perhaps even most people. People often start from bits of fiction and fantasize from that. It’s one thing to kid around, but I have heard or seen too many comments recently that were based on fantasies. It seems that more and more that people are inclined to, or willing to, believe things for which there is no evidence. While people have believed religions for a long time, in recent years people have added conspiracy theories and silliness like Velikofsky’s books, and people seem to truly take it seriously. In addition to conspiracy theories, there are people who seem to think that Donald Trump is a serious political candidate. A while back I wrote about the idea that people should be instructed in basic logic starting in primary school, but I didn’t post that; I should have.

Yesterday, someone mentioned how horrible it was that the illuminati and the New World Order were dragging the world to Hell. He was completely serious, even though the New World Order never was anything except a slogan, and the Illuminati went out of business around 1784, and they were committed to Enlightenment values such as freedom, logic, education, and democratic forms of government (it was the last that got them in trouble with the prince of Bavaria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati.

I started writing about the Jewish guy I know who rants about The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, as if he believes that that was written by Jews about what they were doing. The Protocols is interesting as a piece of political satire, and its conversion from the original French attack on Napoleon III to the attack on Jews is weird. With the facts being known now I am surprised that there still are people who think about the Protocols, but people will think what they will regardless of actual fact. This is a very good example of people abandoning reason. People believe what they want, regardless of actual fact. When I get a chance, I plan to read the original attack on Napoleon III; it looks very interesting.

Maybe it’s just that some people lack the intellectual capacity, educational background, and information that are necessary to determine the veracity of something. When I read the news, I often get the impression that the news writer had no idea what he was writing about. Unfortunately, I get a similar impression about political leaders and various events. I am one of “Those who do study history are doomed to stand by helplessly while everyone else repeats it.” http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/Th...i13522585_.htm.

This is a subject about which I could go on for a long time, but it wouldn't make ay difference, because those who understand do understand, and those who do not understand probably cannot be made to understand, even though the real world is quite clear.



https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article...uleId=10007058
Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu (Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu)
http://www.notbored.org/dialogue-in-hell-I.html
Text of the Protocols
https://archive.org/stream/Protocols...Zion2_djvu.txt
Wiki article
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pr...n#Maurice_Joly