[FRIAM] anthropological observations

Mon Apr 13 16:24:24 EDT 2020

Friammers,

Allow me some ill-informed maunderings about the chlor-whatitsface controversy:  It seems to me the controversy has to do with our ambivalence with respect to the law.  Do we wait for a green light on a deserted street at 3 am or do we drive right through because we KNOW that basic purpose of that light system is to prevent accidents and that  there is NO possibility of an accident under present circumstances.  When do we take the law into our own hands?

Now the Health Expert Community Knowledge (hereafter, HECK) tells us that chlor-whatitsface might help some people and might harm some others, and so we should not use it on a single patient until we can guarantee to that patient that it will do more good than harm.  Meanwhile we hear of doctors writing themselves prescriptions for themselves and their families, just in case.  "Aw, HECK, let's just try it."

So to what extent, I am wondering, is not pushing out chlor-whatitsface to every hospital in the country a case of stopping at the red light at the wilderness intersection in the middle of the night?  

And why DO we do that?  I think we do it because respect for the law is a thing itself and has benefits.  Socrates did have a reason to drink the hemlock.  Well-designed laws have benefits for the vast majority of citizens in the vast majority of circumstances, and laws, even well designed ones, do not survive long in a society of citizens who pick and choose among them.   But Socrates also had reasons not to drink  the hemlock.  And it's quite possible that, contrary to his final reasoning, we would all be better off, now, if he hadn't.  

Nick 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of u?l? ?
Sent: Monday, April 13, 2020 1:53 PM
To: FriAM <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] anthropological observations

I presume it's this one: 

Die geheimen Gene: Das Geheimnis der Kirche und die soziale DNA  <https://books.google.com/books?id=lpqUDwAAQBAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Jochen+Fromm%22&hl=en&source=newbks_fb> https://books.google.com/books?id=lpqUDwAAQBAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Jochen+Fromm%22&hl=en&source=newbks_fb

No copies seem to be available. I also assume propaganda plays a prominent role in your explanation. I keep wondering why Trump's sycophants like Navarro keep claiming the Spanish Flue happened in 1917 instead of 1918. E.g. in this clip:  <https://youtu.be/nSx704KK_Ik> https://youtu.be/nSx704KK_Ik

#5 and #6 from this list seem plausible to me:

 <https://theweek.com/articles/832990/6-theories-trumps-pointless-lies> https://theweek.com/articles/832990/6-theories-trumps-pointless-lies

When Trump hears Navarro say "1917", it's a signal of loyalty, even if everyone knows it's the wrong year, that he uses that year, helps confirm his loyalty. Knowing to use "1917" instead will help me code-switch if I find myself in a conversation with these people. If you use "1918", they'll know you're out-group. Hypothesis #6 is only plausible if you think Trump is an idiot. But I buy the argument put forth here:

Tony Norman: Who are you going to believe — POTUS or an actual expert?

 <https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/tony-norman/2020/04/07/1917-Donald-Trump-truth-George-Orwell-Anthony-Fauci-Peter-Navarro-hydroxychloroquine/stories/202004070017> https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/tony-norman/2020/04/07/1917-Donald-Trump-truth-George-Orwell-Anthony-Fauci-Peter-Navarro-hydroxychloroquine/stories/202004070017

Maybe it's a perverse mix of the expression of power, loyalty, and getting the audience used to fudging the details ... encouraging the cult members to impute the nomothetic even though it fails to fit the idiographic.

On 4/13/20 11:04 AM, uǝlƃ ☣ wrote:

> Link! I should buy the German version and see if I can read some of it. The last time I tried that was with Faust after my German II semester in college ... terrible failure.

--

☣ uǝlƃ

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