You will notice that it is easy to find something to study “scientifically” that we all like to do. On the surface this ever present effort makes a lots of apparent rational sense. People like to eat or do this or that. We have to have oodles of studies that examine the potential effects and consequences of our desires and habits.
Truth or Consequences
If you like to eat cheese and sour-dough French bread with your favorite vintage, you might presumably want to know if this is good for you. Few of us appear to really want to know. Rather we prefer to continue to act as though we don’t know.
This is part of the Human Gravity.
I contend we individually and corporately recognize the power of our own illusionary thinking.
Most people freely admit they know when they are being lied to.
People also know that the world is not ordered in any convenient way.
Yet these consensual actualities continue to confound pollsters of every ilk.
They Tell Me…They Tell Me Not
You may notice that we now get so many of these helpful studies released from so many sources that most of us must stop paying attention or become overwhelmed by the counter-intelligence. You might call this effect a “Babel of Joy” or as I like to name it…
The Joy of Spite
We still eat known junk food. Today we celebrate the fast and then feast traditional holidays with ever increasing orgies of continuous conspicuous consumption. Maybe you notice that Halloween, Christmas and Easter are now the nation’s sweetest holidays followed closely by Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is supposed to falling on the sweetness chart. Black Friday starts at dawn and long before the afternoon football game begins.
I suppose we can say,
“What goes on in the mall stays in the mall?”
The fact that we seem to not want to pay attention to these dubious scientific benefactors doesn’t stop the studies of course. Why? These efforts are counter-intelligence. By in large, we as taxpayers and consumers pay for this pseudo-scientific game of purported and outward good intention coupled with accusation. The intention is supposed to make the oft twisted science and bad statistical analysis worthwhile.
How do we judge the bogus?
You might thoughtfully acknowledge that by definition human intention has nothing to do with the realities that are purported to be in question. We know conclusively that our preconceptions distort scientific study. Well-designed scientific studies employ methods that attempt to eliminate this bias. The bias none-the-less always exists. The behavior of the studiers still effects the rats.
The Twisted Who
If the study is by implication or direct assault coupled with accusation(s) you can bet the study is counter-intelligence – The other word for this is propaganda. At the moment this is not a politically correct word – propaganda we associate with the words of our enemies in war. The newer, more correct, and thoroughly modern term is spin. Spin is supposed to imply there is no associated and identifiable enemy involved.
A convenient artifice of neutrality.
Can we agree this is more illusionary and wishful thinking?
If the study is objective, the actions of the people acting in the study will be accounted for and those appropriate and significant details will be documented and accessible. Not only the results of the study are issued but the backend data and analytical methods employed will be supplied. The Who is as important as the What and the How.
You Don’t Believe This But It’s true
If the study makes suppositions from simple economic or scientific “facts” unsupported by raw data the odds are its conclusions will be off by orders of magnitude.
In other words, regardless of the who, what, when, why, and how most constructed studies of a statistical nature are incorrect or grossly wrong most of the time.
But why?
We tend to ignore what we cannot or do not see.
We misconstrue the reality that probability often has little to do with fact.
How often likely is this sad state of affairs going to be true? I’ll repeat it - Most of the time. These studies simply only often serve to justify bad behavior and condone further the acts of propaganda.
As we discover time and time again, the smartest and best educated people are equally as likely to lie and bend the facts with the “best” of intentions.
I must point out we should pay heed of how often this immoral behavior is coupled with the…
Voice of the Accuser
Evil is as evil does.
The eyes to see and the ears to hear that isn’t rocket science. Given that, the only affordable and verifiable cure for the dilemma voiced by the Accuser seems to be prayer and thanksgiving.
We can all be very thankful to God this simple miracle of the Human Gravity works by design.