Re: Resident loonies

On Sep 28, 5:50 pm, heekster <heeks...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:06:02 -0700 (PDT), Andre Lieven

<andrelie...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sep 27, 6:08 pm, heekster <heeks...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 07:38:35 -0700 (PDT), Andre Lieven

<andrelie...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sep 27, 8:56 am, heekster <heeks...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 21:32:03 -0700 (PDT), Andre Lieven

<andrelie...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sep 26, 3:23 pm, "Steven L." <sdlit...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
heekster wrote:
I read this, and it reminded me of several posters here.

"The inferior man's reasons for hating knowledge are not hard to
discern. He hates it because it is complex -- because it puts an
unbearable burden upon his meager capacity for taking in ideas.. Thus
his search is always for short cuts. All superstitions are such short
cuts. Their aim is to make the unintelligible simple, and even
obvious. So on what seem to be higher levels. No man who has not had a
long and arduous education can understand even the most elementary
concepts of modern pathology. But even a hind at the plow can grasp
the theory of chiropractic in two lessons. Hence the vast popularity
of chiropractic among the submerged -- and of osteopathy, Christian
Science and other such quackeries with it. They are idiotic, but they
are simple -- and every man prefers what he can understand to what
puzzles and dismays him.

The popularity of Fundamentalism among the inferior orders of men is
explicable in exactly the same way. The cosmogonies that educated men
toy with are all inordinately complex. To comprehend their veriest
outlines requires an immense stock of knowledge, and a habit of
thought. It would be as vain to try to teach to peasants or to the
city proletariat as it would be to try to teach them to streptococci.
But the cosmogony of Genesis is so simple that even a yokel can grasp
it. It is set forth in a few phrases. It offers, to an ignorant man,
the irresistible reasonableness of the nonsensical. So he accepts it
with loud hosannas, and has one more excuse for hating his betters. "

Though I agree with Mencken's lamenting of anti-intellectualism,

I notice that no one has yet objected to Mencken's use of the term
"inferior orders of men."

Intellectuals tend to not only regard themselves as better educated, but
as moral superiors, as compared with the general run of humanity..

But in this regard, they're full of shit.

One has to 1) Judge based on the values of the time, not of times and
views decades or centuries later, and 2) It seems to me that what he
is talking about is not races in the biological sense, but groupings
based on self placement and choice. IE: The choice to be a 7th day
adventurer, V/ a catholic, etc...

Andre

No mention of race in the quote.

Not overtly, no, but that implication in the term "inferior orders of
men" was what Steven L was responding to, and I was replying to his
comment on the same point.

Why did you bring up such an irrelevancy?

OK, what do you think that the term "inferior orders of men" meant ?

Andre

Don't play the pedant.  Mencken was many things, but he was not
ambiguous .  Read what he wrote and figure it out.

So, you want ME to make YOUR case for YOU ?

No, I'm not making a case.

At all.

If you refuse to read the quote with comprehension, that is your
problem.  I cannot make you read, regardless of how much I might
write.

So, you want to CLAIM that my reading of the quote is incorrect,
but you REFUSE to say how, to say the "correct" reading of it,
or to show how your claim is correct, with actual evidence.

Congratulations, you just won the Creationist Impersonation On
Another Topic Award.

In the meantime, I repeat: It is NOT any one else's job to make YOUR
case FOR YOU.

HTH.

Andre

.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: Resident loonies
    ... unbearable burden upon his meager capacity for taking in ideas. ... long and arduous education can understand even the most elementary ... The cosmogonies that educated men ... But the cosmogony of Genesis is so simple that even a yokel can grasp ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Resident loonies
    ... long and arduous education can understand even the most elementary ... The cosmogonies that educated men ... To comprehend their veriest ... But the cosmogony of Genesis is so simple that even a yokel can grasp ...
    (talk.origins)
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    ... unbearable burden upon his meager capacity for taking in ideas. ... long and arduous education can understand even the most elementary ... The cosmogonies that educated men ... But the cosmogony of Genesis is so simple that even a yokel can grasp ...
    (talk.origins)
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