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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Mon Jun 9, 2014, 05:50 AM Jun 2014

Rise of the myth busters: Why Piketty and Tyson are the icons America needs

http://www.salon.com/2014/06/08/summer_of_the_myth_busters_why_piketty_and_tyson_are_the_icons_america_needs/



Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the 21st Century” was published on March 10, 2014, the day after the first episode of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” aired on Fox and its sister networks.

The fact that both men have captured the public imagination at the same time is at least partly due to that simple fact. There’s also the matter of professional ripeness, behind the appearance of fresh fame: Piketty had been around for some time, publishing papers and collaborating on constructing the Top Incomes database along with Emmanuel Saez, but he’d never published anything remotely as sweeping as “Capital” before. Similarly, Tyson had long been a prominent science communicator as well as astrophysicist, appearing as a guest on numerous shows, including both “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report,” as well as hosting PBS’s “Nova ScienceNow.” But he’d never hosted a commercial TV show before.

Yet, the two men’s sudden popularity is rooted in some deeper similarities as well — an empirical hunger, and a desire to think big in shaping the future, are two that come readily to mind. These are both long-standing features of American culture, exemplified by figures like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, George Washington Carver, Luther Burbank, just to name a few. But both these cultural appetites have been repeatedly stifled in 21st-century America. The Bush administration was infamous for its disdain for the empirical, as encapsulated in this famous passage from Ron Suskind:

In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn’t like about Bush’s former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House’s displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn’t fully comprehend — but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide [later identified as Karl Rove] said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” … “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
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Rise of the myth busters: Why Piketty and Tyson are the icons America needs (Original Post) xchrom Jun 2014 OP
These two and Sen. Warren might make the truth popular again. rickyhall Jun 2014 #1
Some folks just have a lot of problems with empiricism nikto Jun 2014 #2
Unfortunately, most people see the world through a haze of emotion. GliderGuider Jun 2014 #3
Whenever I begin discussions about art in my college intro courses... Hissyspit Jun 2014 #4
I read a good article a while back about two different kinds of thinking Victor_c3 Jun 2014 #5
Faux Newz and the RW media play to this by Snarkoleptic Jun 2014 #9
The media drives emotional issues to our detriment. Snarkoleptic Jun 2014 #6
Good article. seabeckind Jun 2014 #7
Cosmos was excellent LittleGirl Jun 2014 #11
Can't decide whether to buy the bluray. seabeckind Jun 2014 #12
My husband may order it LittleGirl Jun 2014 #13
Ties things up rather nicely. mmonk Jun 2014 #8
I believe truth has value. tclambert Jun 2014 #10
Cosmos was truly great. Initech Jun 2014 #14
truth is important MisterP Jun 2014 #15
Not as important as power. n/t jtuck004 Jun 2014 #16
 

nikto

(3,284 posts)
2. Some folks just have a lot of problems with empiricism
Mon Jun 9, 2014, 06:56 AM
Jun 2014

The whole idea of having actual facts and data and cause-and-effect examples
to back up opinions just doesn't seem right.

Isn't it more about how you feel about something, or
how many times something has been repeated, that makes something a fact?

Isn't a "fact" something that has just been repeated 1000 rimes until it becomes true?

Backing ideas up with facts and actual real-life examples seems so bogus.

It's really all about feelings, and repetition.


Ronald Reagan was a God. I know it's true,
because I've heard it so often.


Right?

 

GliderGuider

(21,088 posts)
3. Unfortunately, most people see the world through a haze of emotion.
Mon Jun 9, 2014, 07:02 AM
Jun 2014

Emotion drives our actions far more effectively than reason. The results are a bit hit and miss, though. :-/

Hissyspit

(45,788 posts)
4. Whenever I begin discussions about art in my college intro courses...
Mon Jun 9, 2014, 07:55 AM
Jun 2014

The commonality in the attempts to explain the meaning of their awareness of the different types that they have been introduced to is that art is about "emotion," about "feelings." They hardly ever mention intellect.

Victor_c3

(3,557 posts)
5. I read a good article a while back about two different kinds of thinking
Mon Jun 9, 2014, 08:14 AM
Jun 2014

- and this is where I think the emotional thinking and non-emotional thinking comes from.

Basically, there are two different systems your brain has for processing information and making decisions. System one is fast, automatic, and based on intuition while system two is slow and deliberative. When we are presented with a problem, our brains kick into one or the other depending on the situation. The article I linked below gives some great examples of both.

[url]http://www.dangreller.com/two-types-of-thinking/[/url]

So, for one reason or another, people just don't kick into the second mode of thinking when it comes to issues like income inequality, global warming, etc. I think it is just easier to not think about stuff in depth and to go with the "gut" or system 1 conclusion.

Snarkoleptic

(5,995 posts)
9. Faux Newz and the RW media play to this by
Mon Jun 9, 2014, 08:22 AM
Jun 2014

telling their sheeple who to be afraid of and who to blame for their every woe.

Snarkoleptic

(5,995 posts)
6. The media drives emotional issues to our detriment.
Mon Jun 9, 2014, 08:17 AM
Jun 2014

All of the RW talk of "God, gays, guns" is the red herring we're supposed to fixate on as the plutocrats push the true agenda.
George Carlin nailed it-

seabeckind

(1,957 posts)
7. Good article.
Mon Jun 9, 2014, 08:19 AM
Jun 2014

Wanders a bit but that's because it tries to cover so much ground in so little space. I picked up some good links to follow later:

Big Five personality traits: The Big Five factors are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits

Explains quite a bit about why conservatives have problems accepting science and cling to their security blankets.

And a book to put on hold at the library:

The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science- and Reality by Chris Mooney

http://www.amazon.com/The-Republican-Brain-Science-Science/dp/1118094514/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

BTW, Cosmos last night was one of the best episodes.

LittleGirl

(8,261 posts)
11. Cosmos was excellent
Mon Jun 9, 2014, 08:55 AM
Jun 2014

last night. We just got our tv hooked up with a provider (we couldn't get the local fox station via antennea) and have only seen two episodes so far. Last night was so good. Yes.

LittleGirl

(8,261 posts)
13. My husband may order it
Mon Jun 9, 2014, 10:22 AM
Jun 2014

We missed the season. by the way, I see an Indiana map...consider me a lost Hoosier living away from the state, ha. Cheers.

tclambert

(11,080 posts)
10. I believe truth has value.
Mon Jun 9, 2014, 08:40 AM
Jun 2014

I believe news media should be biased in favor of truth. Fairness comes from holding all sides to the same standard of truth.

But I also believe that the universe does not care what we believe. Nature's truths trump our beliefs.

And, sadly, I also recognize that lying often works. Advertising pays off. I believe truth will come out in the end, but a well-timed lie can temporarily sway buyers, or voters.

Initech

(99,915 posts)
14. Cosmos was truly great.
Mon Jun 9, 2014, 12:16 PM
Jun 2014

It was nice to have something intelligent to watch for a change. I hope this isn't the end and Prof. Tyson has enough material for a second season.

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