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Science, Scientism, and Pseudo-science

“We the People” Vs. Insane Utopian Zombies (R Rated—Contains Sex and Profanity)



"Some of you folks get mad at me for going after Republicans and "conservatives" --well somebody needs to. I want to win. I want to win! ...We're losing, and we need to stop thinking that we are smarter than them.
Lesson number one: liberals never spend their money on anyone that they perceive as an enemy. Why don't we grasp that? Number two: politically speaking they are pro-active --they attack, attack, attack, attack, on multiple fronts at the same time. And all Republicans and conservatives do is serve as predictable reactionary buffoons. All we do is respond. That's not leadership, that's not wisdom, that's capitulation. If we're so d--n smart, why aren't we in charge?" --Joe Dan Gorman "Intellectual Froglegs" And you measure for wealth by the things you can hold And you measure for love by the sweet things you're told And you live in the past or a dream that you're in And your selfishness is your cardinal sin --Sixto Rodriguez " Like Janis"

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"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you...." It is a constant source of amazement to me how the free-wheeling liberals of yesteryear morphed into the most intolerant, self-righteous, arrogant smacked asses on the planet. They are the firmly entrenched Establishment that pretends it is an "outsider" counter-culture. The transformation from sandal-wearing beatniks into jack-booted thugs wearing three-piece suits and designer gowns has been something to behold --and behold it I have. The end always justifies the means to these humorless utopian zealots. What is more, their "end" acts as a perfect camouflage for all manner of social misfits and undesirables -- psychotics, sociopaths, narcissists, thieves...all of them and more have found a made-to-order refuge under the cloak of utopianism. The utopian cloak is a patchwork quilt made of many pieces, but in this article I will focus on only two of them --secular millenarianism and materialism (scientism). I am indebted to Melanie Phillips and her book "The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle Over God, Truth, and Power" for valuable insights into these two areas (and several other areas as well). I can't recommend the book highly enough. Millenarianism is generally associated with the belief that the 2nd coming of Christ will usher in 1,000 years of perfect peace. Secular millenarianism can be described as the belief in a Godless perfect society --utopia. When utopia is your end, all means are considered legitimate. Melanie Phillips writes in her blog that: All the totemic creeds of today's 'progressive' classes -- environmentalism, egalitarianism, multiculturalism, anti-Zionism and so on -- are millenarian, in that they all posit in their different ways the perfection of the world (just like, in their time, the Inquisition, Stalinism and fascism).
Consequently, today's militantly secular leftists display some astonishing similarities to both modern-day Islamists and medieval Christian fanatics. There is the same belief in the Revealed Truth --Revealed, that is, to them alone --from which no-one is permitted to dissent. Anyone who denies it is a heretic and has to be destroyed. Because the left believes it embodies virtue -- on account of its desire to perfect the world --anyone who dissents or opposes it is evil. Because it is Manichean, all who are not left-wing are right-wing (even if they are in fact liberal). All who oppose the left are evil right-wingers who must be destroyed. They are therefore in effect a modern secular Inquisition. They are in the same mold as the religious and political totalitarian tyrannies of the past...and they share the characteristic of a closed thought system which is totally impervious to reason and destroys all who challenge it.

A Thoroughly Thought-out Lunacy

If you have come to feel that the inmates are running the asylum, and have the nagging suspicion that you have been, and are being, lied to by your government, entertainment industry, "news" media, politicians, pundits, and darn near everybody else and their cousin, then take heart --you aren't crazy, they are. Their insanity is the end result of a long, Byzantine trail of intellectual and spiritual missteps that can be traced back to the Enlightenment and the reason-driven teachings of the philosophes, which in turn led to the philosophical rebuttal of the emotion-driven Romantic movement, and so on through numerous permutations on up to the present day. Connecting the dots between the various associated philosophies, movements, doctrines, and ideologies is no doubt a fascinating journey, but it is not one we shall be embarking on in this article. Suffice it to say that through centuries of trial and error the left-wing intelligentsia have parlayed a hope-filled optimistic foundation of sanity, morality, Deism, and reason -- into a grim, amoral, envious, pessimistic, misogynistic, misanthropic, nihilistic, Godless, senseless mess. No mean feat that. What was bad is now good, and what was good is now bad --this state of affairs is sometimes called the "Luciferian Inversion." [Sidebar: It is worth noting that although spiritual experiences can have a great intellectual and/or emotional impact, a true spiritual experience is not an intellectual or emotional construct.] Be that as it may, it is important to realize that the current Liberal/Progressive agenda is not the result of some fearless search for truth, but the result of a slavish devotion to promoting a predetermined outcome (a collectivist utopia). Clever propaganda and duplicity are zombie collectivism's stock in trade. It is also important to understand that the 'lie-meisters" who design the liberal/progressive agenda do not buy into their own bulls--t. As "lie-meister" extraordinaire Saul Alinsky put it in his book "Rules for Radicals:"
The [community] organizer must become schizoid, politically, in order not to slip into becoming a true believer. ...Having his own identity, he has no need for the security of an ideology...he does not depend on illusion. (Italics added)

Science, Scientism, and Pseudo-science

Speaking of illusions, it is now time to touch on scientism and ideologically driven faux-science. Scientism is a doctrine that states that materialism alone can describe and answer all questions (see also scientific naturalism and positivism). Despite its name, scientism is hardly a scientific methodology. As Melanie Phillips notes:
...science cannot account for everything. Many people --including many scientists --have pointed out that such a view is as absurd as it is arrogant. There are clearly many aspects of existence that cannot be reduced to materialist scientific analysis: love, law, philosophy, appreciation of beauty, belief in right and wrong. It does not follow that these things lie beyond rational understanding.
Scientism holds that what you can't weigh, measure, spindle, fold, or mutilate doesn't exist (no empirical evidence = no existence). (Hmm...that would mean that gnosis or knowledge doesn't exist. I wish I had known that back in school, as I am sure I could have used it to pump up my GPA somehow). Be that as it may, much more insidious than the truncated and myopic view of scientism is the recent proliferation of pseudo-science in the service of leftist ideology --oy vey. Probably the most infamous example of pseudo-science is the AGW scam, whose latest contribution to scientific knowledge is that "It is growing colder because it is growing warmer" (excuse me?). Personally I think the whole thing is rubbish, and cynical manipulation on a global scale. CO2 is a poison gas? Really? You might try telling that to the world's vegetation, to whom it is a vital, life giving component. Without CO2 the planet's plant life would all die off in short order --and seeing as plants essentially breathe in CO2 and breathe out oxygen, and humans breathe in oxygen and breathe out CO2, what we have is a beautifully synchronistic relationship between animal and plant life that has survived much higher levels of CO2 than we are currently experiencing, or are due to experience in the foreseeable future. But, as anyone who has bothered to research it knows, the AGW bugaboo is merely a stalking horse for global collectivism --something for the zombies to rally around. It was chiefly designed to force the more developed (industrial) nations into a more homogenized equality with the less developed nations. The global elites were poised to pocket trillions of dollars in the carbon tax extortion racket -- they even had a stock exchange set up and ready to go (based in Chicago of all places...surprise, surprise) --but for whatever reason(s) they decided to pull the plug on that particular money winner, at least for the time being. Liberals/Progressives will throw an instantaneous and vociferous hissy fit when anyone questions the validity of one of their "scientific" sacred cows. Try muttering "I'm not sure about this whole global warming thing" at the next "Kumbaya" sing-along you attend and you'll see what I mean. What has so firmly shut the zombie mind to inquiry, curiosity, and honest exploration? Allow me to return to Ms. Phillips one last time:
Most fundamentally, they [i.e. liberal sacred cows] all involve the promotion of beliefs that purport to be unchallengeable truths but are in fact ideologies in which evidence is manipulated, twisted and distorted to support and "prove" their governing idea. All are therefore based on false or unsupported beliefs that are presented as axiomatically true. ...Reason is replaced by bullying, intimidation and the suppression of debate. This makes them all deeply regressive movements of thought.
A couple of things worth noting here: (1) people who have self-esteem issues and are unsure of the validity of a stance they have taken tend to be very defensive about it, and (2) people who are atheists or possess only a hazy, vague concept of God tend to be extremely protective of any position that their ego has adopted, because their ego is basically all they've got, and if their ego gets it wrong they're screwed. Also worth noting is that someone can have serious self-esteem issues and still be very egotistical --in fact, more often than not they go hand in hand. Alas, as rewarding as diving into the rich cornucopia of liberal mental pathology is, pursuing this line of thought would take us too far afield, so I hasten to get back on message. As I mentioned previously, behind all of the hoopla surrounding global warming, sustainable development, Agenda 21, social justice, and the like is a vision of a New World Order, or global utopia. Behind that vision is a power grab by global elites to steal and subsume the wealth and influence of the world's most productive nation states --and behind that power grab is the real battle being waged --between narcissism and spirit, or if you prefer, between God and Lucifer.

Narcissistic Materialistic Constriction vs. Loving Spiritual Expansion

Liberals/Progressives consider as anathema anything that would put a crimp in their style --that is, anything that might disturb their narcissistic navel-gazing. Even liberal "spirituality" tends to be of the ego-strengthening sort, as opposed to teachings designed to purify, diminish, or housebreak the ego. The Liberal's/Progressive's excessive preoccupation with sex (polymorphous perversity anyone?) leaves them either spinning their wheels or actively regressing...spiritually speaking. A few words here about sex: sex, like electricity, is neither a good nor bad energy in and of itself. It largely depends on what you do with it: i.e. your intent and motivation. For example, you can use electricity to cook your dinner (good), or zap a Chihuahua in the microwave (bad). (Yes, I know...everything's relative --tell that to the Chihuahua). Sex generally has a less than stellar rep in spiritual circles -- not because it is in itself such an awful thing, but because it misses the mark (which is the literal meaning of the word "sin" --missing the mark). Sex tends to mire one in the material (carnal) realm, and thus "misses the mark" in that it draws our attention away from where it should be aimed --i.e. God and personal salvation and/or enlightenment. There are, of course, teachings that combine sex and spirituality, but they generally amount to the spiritual equivalent of driving with your parking-brake on --that is, the practitioners of such teachings may make spiritual progress, but it will tend to be of a halting and slow variety, and in any event there is more often than not a spiritual "glass ceiling" to such practices. (Also, our ego's infinite capacity for lying to itself in order to justify its desires, means that sex is at best a problematic aid for true spiritual growth). There is a good reason why chastity has historically been considered conducive to spiritual growth --it is not so much that sex is bad, as that chastity is more likely to facilitate and encourage one's spiritual growth. We are, after all, spiritual beings first and foremost, and physical (sexual) beings second. We typically reverse that order, but the poet Robert Browning (1812-1889) got the right of it: TRUTH is within ourselves; it takes no rise From outward things, whate'er you may believe There is an inmost centre in us all, Where truth abides in fullness; and around, Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in, This perfect, clear perception--which is truth. A baffling and perverting carnal mesh Binds it, and makes all error: and, to KNOW, Rather consists in opening out a way Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape, Than in effecting entry for a light Supposed to be without. Is an earthly utopia a realizable goal? I would say yes --in the sense that heaven can be experienced while in our earthly incarnation. Experiencing heaven is mainly an inside job, not an outside job. That is, heaven is within us, is a state of consciousness, and is not some physical location in the material plane ("Neither shall they say, see here! or, see there! For behold, the kingdom of God is within you"). Fortunately, spiritual lifestyles that aid and guide us on our way have been encapsulated in such wise and succinct creeds as the corporal and spiritual works of mercy and Buddha's Eightfold Path. Instead of aspiring to be collectivist zombies, we would be much better served by evolving spiritually, and there is no more important spiritual lodestone and aid than love. When I stopped looking for love outside of myself, and started cultivating it inside of myself (as a state of being), I not only freed myself, but I freed others as well. I was no longer "needy" --I didn't need outside validation, and I didn't need people to provide me with some sort of quid pro quo swap for my affections. They were free and I was free. I became much less judgmental of myself and others and much more inclined to be of service and help. Trying to create utopias by merely changing outside, materialistic things will be forever a fool's errand. Jesus noted while admonishing the arrogant, self-righteous Pharisees: "You...clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness" --and so it remains to this day, nothing has changed. The "Pharisees" are still full of c--p. Relatively few people actually know what love truly is. Most of us mix it up with, and confuse it with: wanting, needing, lusting, liking, and who knows what else. The Bible tells us that love is God, and Jesus made surrender to God (love) a focal point of His ministry. If God is love, then it stands to reason that understanding love becomes a spiritual (and cultural) quest of some importance. The words below by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) imply that love is not merely some treacly sentimentality, but a robust, vibrant, radiant energy --an energy that this world sorely needs.
Love is a sacred reserve of energy; it is like the blood of spiritual evolution. ...Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.
Awake thou that sleepeth.


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Jim ONeill -- Bio and Archives

Born June 4, 1951 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Served in the U.S. Navy from 1970-1974 in both UDT-21 (Underwater Demolition Team) and SEAL Team Two.  Worked as a commercial diver in the waters off of Scotland, India, and the United States.  Worked overseas in the Merchant Marines.  While attending the University of South Florida as a journalism student in 1998 was presented with the “Carol Burnett/University of Hawaii AEJMC Research in Journalism Ethics Award,” 1st place undergraduate division.  (The annual contest was set up by Carol Burnett with money she won from successfully suing a national newspaper for libel).  Awarded US Army, US Navy, South African, and Russian jump wings.  Graduate of NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School, 1970).  Member of Mensa, China Post #1, and lifetime member of the NRA and UDT/SEAL Association.


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