“They saw their injured country's woe;
The flaming town, the wasted field;
Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;
They took the spear, - but left the shield.”
―Philip Freneau
.
And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again?
Archilochus
I've watched the two shortest videos –– the first and the last. I thought Baron Cohen was rather sweet with the autistic kids, but in the last video he revealed himself to be the leftist he obviously is, and the calm, sweet, even tone there seemed bloodless and more than a but creepy.
His LOOKS are certainly against him, –– and that LISP! OY!
But who can help the appearance God gives any of us, unless they resort to plastic surgery and orthodontistry?
In fairness I have to say he looks physically HEALTHY –– notably good coloring, good posture, an apparently fine slim body –– all characteristics of typical British Public Schools men –– BUT tha eerily calm, unnaturally even-tempered VOICE –– a voice devoid of passion, humor, warmth, and expressivity –– makes me feel it would be difficult for me to like or trust this person.
People of this personlity type are very good at masking their true feelings to the point where one can't help but wonder if they have ANY "true feelings" at ALL?
More important than any consideraton of Baron Cohen's appearance and underlying personality traits would be his outright rejection of the concept of EVIL as unreal and unworthy of consideration because it is "unscientific," therefore not "USEFUL."
Statements like that reveal where the rubber meets the road, as it were.
People who talk like that are usually atheists, and so far I have never gotten to know any I felt I could trust.
I'll admit to having been charmed by several over the years, –– I even fell in LOVE with one once! –– but as the relationship developed, invariably I felt less and less kinship, and less and less comfortable with the avowed atheist, so eventually the relationship faded into noothingness.
Again to be fair –– and o avoid giving a false impression –– I have met any number of so-called Christian Fundamentalists who make me feel every bit as alienated and disquieted as the avowed atheists. Frankly I see those apparent extreme opposites as two sides of the same specious coin. COUNTERFEITS of REALITY both.
Without confronting honest Doubt, true Faith would be impossible.
Likewise without confronting EVIL, and recognizing it for what it is, "GOOD" would have no meaning either.
Also, Baron Cohen makes it plain that he believes autism –– and probably evey other malady, abnormality and aberration –– stems from a purely PHYSICAL condition in the brain, which implies he probably beleves there must be a PHYSICAL "cure" out there somewhere waiting to be discovered and implemented.
AGAIN this reveals an atheistic drive to "prove" that MAN is HIS OWN GOD, and that no other gods exist –– except in the realms of outmoded supersition and vain, hyperactive, frankly hysterical imaginings.
The manic, twentieth-century drive to reduce Faith –– particularly CHRISTIAN Faith –– to the category of NEUROSIS –– or better yet PSYCHOSIS ––, stems, of course, primarily from atheistic JEWS [MUST I name them again?] who consciously or subconsciously longed to wreak VENGEANCE and RUIN upon the dominant culture that gave THEM such a hard time historically.
From this sad observaton I have learnt never to underestimate the power of a BAD idea or an EVIL Ideological Fabricaton –– especially when it's couched in clever, seductive, erudite-sounding rhetoric artfully designed to appeal to mankind's basest instincts.
Baron-Cohen is of the school of "neurological diversity"... a school that believes that mental differences aren't so much "diseases" as they are "variability" in neurology. What drew me to him was his "theory of mind" that describes autism and Asbergers as a form of hyper-masculinity...
No matter WHAT smug, cold-blooded, cold-hearted, atheistic "scientists" would have us believe, we are NOT merely the ACCIDENTAL RESULT of an imonderably long series of RANDOM Chemical Reactions.
The brain within its groove Runs evenly and true But let a splinter swerve 'Twere easier for you To put the water back When floods have slit the hills And scooped a turnpike for themselves And blotted out the mills.
~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Miss Emily was a skeptic who struggled mightily with traditional concepts of a God she could not reconcile with the pangs of her own inner torment, BUT she was neither ARROGANT nor CONCEITED. Instead she was merely HONEST with herself as she wrote her poems most of which, I believe, were her way of trying to discover then explain the meaning of life to herself. The poem above about The Brain illustrates the modesty of her awareness that many many things were far beyond our control –– and likely to remain so.
Things I like most abut Miss Emily are her delicate sense of Humor tinged with Iroony, her frank enjoyment of Mystery, Wonder and Awe, and her abiity both to LOVE and ACCEPT people she knew even though none of them had the faintest inkling of what she was really all about.
Too many have assumed she must have been unhappy and terribly lonely, as befits the classic image of an embittered Old Maid, but I don't believe she was. I see her as an entity unto herself, –– and a uniquely marvellous one at that.
I don't think that Baron-Cohen believes that the reactions are "random". He see's roots of neurological differences in genetics and environmental factors, pre-natal and post-natal. None of these would lead me to believe that he's an atheist.... but I could be wrong.
Baron-Cohen also points to potentially positive consequences of "zero degrees of empathy." Chief among them is a superior ability to systematize, which explains why many Asperger Syndrome individuals have unusually high aptitudes in math and science. Their "remarkable attention to detail" and their "ability to concentrate on a small topic for hours, to understand that topic in a highly systematic way," Baron-Cohen argues, "can lead the individual to blossom in certain fields."
Strikingly, Baron-Cohen's Jewish upbringing and education and his liberal Zionist sensibilities emerge throughout the book as central—indeed, formative—in his thinking. He begins by recalling the traumatic impact of having been told as a child that Nazis used the skins of their Jewish victims to make lampshades. His early exposure to the Holocaust's evil triggered a life-long fascination with human cruelty—and, indirectly, his stellar career in neuroscience. The book also describes Baron-Cohen's engagement with the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber's "I-Thou" paradigm as a way of framing empathy; and the final chapter includes a calm, cogent demolition of Hannah Arendt's thesis that the Holocaust is explained by the "banality of evil."
The final chapter also includes Baron-Cohen's ruminations, inspired by Shabbat dinner discussions and a Kol Nidrei synagogue sermon, about how increased empathy might bring about world peace, including Israeli-Palestinian peace. Here Baron-Cohen reveals a political naïvete at odds with his scientific sophistication.
Baron-Cohen is a leading member of an international cadre of cutting-edge clinical scientists who painstakingly study the functioning of compromised human brains. Antonio Damasio has done work similar to Baron-Cohen's, mainly with victims of severe head trauma. Damasio's most philosophically intriguing book, Looking for Spinoza, describes the modern scientist's discovery that the 17th-century Jewish heretic anticipated all of Damasio's scientific findings about human emotions. Spinoza's pantheism—his belief that God and Nature are one and the same, bound by immutable laws—leaves no room for any beings beyond the physical universe, whether angels or evil spirits. The work of scientists like Baron-Cohen and Damasio substantiates clinically what Spinoza intuited philosophically: It powerfully debunks religious and metaphysical approaches that explain evil as a struggle between benign and malignant spirits within human souls. Instead, for these scientists, the biological explanations of all our feelings, emotions, and deeds, good and evil, are so concrete and precise that they can be mapped by MRIs.
Yet, for Baron-Cohen, this work coexists with his deep affection for his Jewish identity and for Israel. This, at least, he shares with his more flamboyant cousin.
I would STILL like to find an honest, "scientific" explanation as to why "Anti-Semitism" has been –– and REMAINS –– so powerful and omnipresent all over the globe?
What IS it about this tiny handful of people that inspires so much loathing, fear and endless antagonism?
21 comments:
As you know, FJ, I'm quite interested in this topic. I will make time to watch these videos tomorrow (a no-work day for me).
I've watched the two shortest videos –– the first and the last. I thought Baron Cohen was rather sweet with the autistic kids, but in the last video he revealed himself to be the leftist he obviously is, and the calm, sweet, even tone there seemed bloodless and more than a but creepy.
His LOOKS are certainly against him, –– and that LISP! OY!
But who can help the appearance God gives any of us, unless they resort to plastic surgery and orthodontistry?
In fairness I have to say he looks physically HEALTHY –– notably good coloring, good posture, an apparently fine slim body –– all characteristics of typical British Public Schools men –– BUT tha eerily calm, unnaturally even-tempered VOICE –– a voice devoid of passion, humor, warmth, and expressivity –– makes me feel it would be difficult for me to like or trust this person.
People of this personlity type are very good at masking their true feelings to the point where one can't help but wonder if they have ANY "true feelings" at ALL?
More important than any consideraton of Baron Cohen's appearance and underlying personality traits would be his outright rejection of the concept of EVIL as unreal and unworthy of consideration because it is "unscientific," therefore not "USEFUL."
Statements like that reveal where the rubber meets the road, as it were.
People who talk like that are usually atheists, and so far I have never gotten to know any I felt I could trust.
I'll admit to having been charmed by several over the years, –– I even fell in LOVE with one once! –– but as the relationship developed, invariably I felt less and less kinship, and less and less comfortable with the avowed atheist, so eventually the relationship faded into noothingness.
Again to be fair –– and o avoid giving a false impression –– I have met any number of so-called Christian Fundamentalists who make me feel every bit as alienated and disquieted as the avowed atheists. Frankly I see those apparent extreme opposites as two sides of the same specious coin. COUNTERFEITS of REALITY both.
Without confronting honest Doubt, true Faith would be impossible.
Likewise without confronting EVIL, and recognizing it for what it is, "GOOD" would have no meaning either.
Also, Baron Cohen makes it plain that he believes autism –– and probably evey other malady, abnormality and aberration –– stems from a purely PHYSICAL condition in the brain, which implies he probably beleves there must be a PHYSICAL "cure" out there somewhere waiting to be discovered and implemented.
AGAIN this reveals an atheistic drive to "prove" that MAN is HIS OWN GOD, and that no other gods exist –– except in the realms of outmoded supersition and vain, hyperactive, frankly hysterical imaginings.
The manic, twentieth-century drive to reduce Faith –– particularly CHRISTIAN Faith –– to the category of NEUROSIS –– or better yet PSYCHOSIS ––, stems, of course, primarily from atheistic JEWS [MUST I name them again?] who consciously or subconsciously longed to wreak VENGEANCE and RUIN upon the dominant culture that gave THEM such a hard time historically.
From this sad observaton I have learnt never to underestimate the power of a BAD idea or an EVIL Ideological Fabricaton –– especially when it's couched in clever, seductive, erudite-sounding rhetoric artfully designed to appeal to mankind's basest instincts.
Baron-Cohen is of the school of "neurological diversity"... a school that believes that mental differences aren't so much "diseases" as they are "variability" in neurology. What drew me to him was his "theory of mind" that describes autism and Asbergers as a form of hyper-masculinity...
No matter WHAT smug, cold-blooded, cold-hearted, atheistic "scientists" would have us believe, we are NOT merely the ACCIDENTAL RESULT of an imonderably long series of RANDOM Chemical Reactions.
The brain within its groove
Runs evenly and true
But let a splinter swerve
'Twere easier for you
To put the water back
When floods have slit the hills
And scooped a turnpike for themselves
And blotted out the mills.
~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Miss Emily was a skeptic who struggled mightily with traditional concepts of a God she could not reconcile with the pangs of her own inner torment, BUT she was neither ARROGANT nor CONCEITED. Instead she was merely HONEST with herself as she wrote her poems most of which, I believe, were her way of trying to discover then explain the meaning of life to herself. The poem above about The Brain illustrates the modesty of her awareness that many many things were far beyond our control –– and likely to remain so.
Things I like most abut Miss Emily are her delicate sense of Humor tinged with Iroony, her frank enjoyment of Mystery, Wonder and Awe, and her abiity both to LOVE and ACCEPT people she knew even though none of them had the faintest inkling of what she was really all about.
Too many have assumed she must have been unhappy and terribly lonely, as befits the classic image of an embittered Old Maid, but I don't believe she was. I see her as an entity unto herself, –– and a uniquely marvellous one at that.
I don't think that Baron-Cohen believes that the reactions are "random". He see's roots of neurological differences in genetics and environmental factors, pre-natal and post-natal. None of these would lead me to believe that he's an atheist.... but I could be wrong.
from Jewish Ideas Daily
Baron-Cohen also points to potentially positive consequences of "zero degrees of empathy." Chief among them is a superior ability to systematize, which explains why many Asperger Syndrome individuals have unusually high aptitudes in math and science. Their "remarkable attention to detail" and their "ability to concentrate on a small topic for hours, to understand that topic in a highly systematic way," Baron-Cohen argues, "can lead the individual to blossom in certain fields."
Strikingly, Baron-Cohen's Jewish upbringing and education and his liberal Zionist sensibilities emerge throughout the book as central—indeed, formative—in his thinking. He begins by recalling the traumatic impact of having been told as a child that Nazis used the skins of their Jewish victims to make lampshades. His early exposure to the Holocaust's evil triggered a life-long fascination with human cruelty—and, indirectly, his stellar career in neuroscience. The book also describes Baron-Cohen's engagement with the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber's "I-Thou" paradigm as a way of framing empathy; and the final chapter includes a calm, cogent demolition of Hannah Arendt's thesis that the Holocaust is explained by the "banality of evil."
The final chapter also includes Baron-Cohen's ruminations, inspired by Shabbat dinner discussions and a Kol Nidrei synagogue sermon, about how increased empathy might bring about world peace, including Israeli-Palestinian peace. Here Baron-Cohen reveals a political naïvete at odds with his scientific sophistication.
Baron-Cohen is a leading member of an international cadre of cutting-edge clinical scientists who painstakingly study the functioning of compromised human brains. Antonio Damasio has done work similar to Baron-Cohen's, mainly with victims of severe head trauma. Damasio's most philosophically intriguing book, Looking for Spinoza, describes the modern scientist's discovery that the 17th-century Jewish heretic anticipated all of Damasio's scientific findings about human emotions. Spinoza's pantheism—his belief that God and Nature are one and the same, bound by immutable laws—leaves no room for any beings beyond the physical universe, whether angels or evil spirits. The work of scientists like Baron-Cohen and Damasio substantiates clinically what Spinoza intuited philosophically: It powerfully debunks religious and metaphysical approaches that explain evil as a struggle between benign and malignant spirits within human souls. Instead, for these scientists, the biological explanations of all our feelings, emotions, and deeds, good and evil, are so concrete and precise that they can be mapped by MRIs.
Yet, for Baron-Cohen, this work coexists with his deep affection for his Jewish identity and for Israel. This, at least, he shares with his more flamboyant cousin.
Simon-Cohens motivation.
ps - I-Thou is a religious doctrine.
...and you might find this interesting... whether there's a link between atheism and autism.
Even computers can't generate random numbers. Avoiding a pattern takes a pattern...
Everything contains its own explanation. QED
I would STILL like to find an honest, "scientific" explanation as to why "Anti-Semitism" has been –– and REMAINS –– so powerful and omnipresent all over the globe?
What IS it about this tiny handful of people that inspires so much loathing, fear and endless antagonism?
They are the objet petit 'a of capitalism....
...the 'other' you owe all your loans to.
Non-conformity with polytheism, at first. Jews were the first cultural conservatives.
it does make it harder to get along with the ideologically different when you can't just add a contradicting idea into your 'pantheon'.
...unless the superceding idea is Meden Agan! ;)
Say what you will about National Socialism, at least it's an ethos...
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