It is no secret that the various tribes and bubbles of our world have wildly differing beliefs about things. Why can't people just accept the truth? But the truth is so contentious. And framing is so contentious. And all these people seem to have the most outlandish superstitions.
An abiding feature of these podcasts, as we've highlighted many times, is this thing called Systems Thinking, and while this is a broad enough discipline to be fairly tribal in its own right, one key feature of this Systems Thinking is thinking about your thinking.
In this episode we review some of the things in normal western life that have the character of superstition, and explore to what extent our innate capacity for gullibility and naïvity might be used to our advantage, in evolving a more constructive mindset; in connecting better with Nature, and specifically in nurturing the health of our habitat.
Talking Points:
An experience with a palm reader
The power of belief and ritual in performance
Listener comments - a bishop, a yogi, and a reflection on who we are
Some superstitions - recognisable, and hidden
Like Science - eg impact of false HRT Study warning cancer
To what extent are your superstitions working for you?
Heuristics and humility regarding knowledge
Good and bad fairy-tales
What you do and what you think about it
Whatever gets you through the night
We all need superstitions
Faith as an alternative to cynicism
Faith in your own human system
Faith in our project of a viable habitat
The Good Place - it's impossible to be "Good"
The system is fundamentally bad
The challenge is bigger than all of us
And that is why we need faith in a higher power to sustain us
Links:
Fundamentalism as a superstition about text:
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/a/armstrong-battle.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
On the placebo effect:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mental-health/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect
On a scientific Truth that turned out to be untrue - HRT and cancer -
https://www.nursingtimes.net/clinical-archive/cancer-clinical-archive/study-linking-hrt-to-breast-cancer-was-wrong-26-01-2012/
William James (Philosopher and psychologist)
On pragmatism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James#Pragmatism_and_%22cash_value%22
On the Variety of Religious Experience (Wikipedia preçis)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James#Philosophy_of_religion
Timothy Morton:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Morton#Ecological_theory
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