Loading ...One of the best Substack writers IMHO
Great posts the past week….and every week for that matter. Thanks for all who brought them to our collective attention. It is difficult to get through them all.
The Goldtent site is like an information aggregator. Saves a lot of time trying to find articles.
“A Midwestern Doctor” has great insight and is very well read. He’s the type of person who likely forgets more than I know. I realize I need to read more philosophical and psychological theories. I am humbled by his knowledge. This piece took me an hour. I needed to look up the meaning of countless words. I’m not an abstract thinker so I am slower to comprehend. I understand numbers and making something with my hands. Luckily the iPhone has a built-in dictionary if you highlight the word.
If pressed for time go in at the heading “Denial of Reality” about 2/3 through. About a 15 minute read from there. I’m not discounting the beginning but he ties it all together after that. This should be taught in High School same as Civics and basic life skills which are not.
https://amidwesterndoctor.substack.com/p/the-psychology-of-totalitarianism
The comments are always entertaining 🙂
That was quite the read. Always good to read something well written (not to mention wide-ranging!!) and challenging my own perceptions.
On that front, a couple of points with which I would take issue. Others may not, but I do.
First, he mentions that he believes individuals (human beings, those funny male/female thingies) are innately good. I wonder if he has ever raised a child from birth? Human beings are incredibly self-centered, obnoxious, selfish creatures, mainly bent towards evil, not good. If his point was valid, we would not have to train children to share, be nice, obey their parents, be concerned about others, etc etc. This to me is so plain on the face of it that it defies logic to think otherwise. But such thinking got us into our current mess – and humanity’s historical messes. There is abundant research that illustrates man, left to his own, will pursue evil, not good.
Second, I was struck by this segment:
“Many of the approaches we have taken with modern technology have attempted to dominate a natural process to “improve it,“ yet over time have resulted in diminishing returns requiring greater inputs to maintain alongside a variety of disastrous secondary consequences. For example, modern monoculture agriculture initially boosted crop yields, but in the process destroyed the soil and continually requires more and more pesticides or fertilizers to support it.
This is highly problematic both because this approach significantly reduces the nutritional quality of the food that is grown (which I believe is one of the underlying causes of poor health within the society) and because it has made the agricultural inputs necessary to create food become a scarce and limited resource. The effects of these policies are best shown within Africa and India, where western NGOs (particularly the Gates foundation), convinced farmers to discard their traditional forms of agriculture for the more “advanced” agrochemical and GMO approach.
Many of those areas subsequently experienced famine or mass suicides of farmers and are now beginning to experience widespread famine due to the pandemic policies increasing the prices of agricultural inputs such as fertilizer. Had these areas maintained their traditional form of agriculture (or even improved it), none of that would have occurred.”
Just today I had a conversation with my son about the difference between European diets (NOT counting the wave of immigrant invasion, of course). The rampant obesity in America lies in the consumption of processed and basically empty food in excess. That does not happen in Europe, where obesity is considered an oddity. Having lived in both continents for long periods of time, it is patently obvious. So the poor nutrition in America has virtually zero to do with the assumed nutritional value decline of the food grown here. That idea is a red herring promoted endlessly by the “natural food” movement, among others.
The idea that somehow the amount of food needed to feed the world’s population is possible without fertilizer is another impossibility. The ones he claims (Gates among them) persuaded local farmers in Africa and third world countries to adopt heavy usage of fertilizer should require significant documentation. The mess in Sr Lanka is a direct result of not having fertilizer available which resulted in the tea crop – responsible for over 70% of that countries foreign exchange revenues – collapsing by 80%+. Imagine the main crop of a nation suddenly disappearing. Riots etc guaranteed. It was the green movement adopted by Sri Lanka’s government that cut off the flow of fertilizer, and guess who is behind the green movement?? Need I ask such questions.
Further, having spent time in Honduras, a country that is quite capable of feeding itself and exporting food IF IT HAD READY ACCESS TO FERTILIZERS instead languishes as a third world nation. Why? Because the government officials control the companies that import fertilizer and won’t allow any competition to come in and make fertilizer available to farmers who cannot afford the exploitive pricing by government cronies.
Anyway, my point is he makes some very sweeping statements that cry out for substantiation with hard data, and it brings into question is credibility.
Nonetheless, his points about the psychology of totalitarianism and it’s sources of origination are quite good and accurate.
Unfortunately, we are now dealing with at least two generations, maybe three, that have been thoroughly indoctrinated in feelings over fact, and opinion over truths. Not to mention creating hundreds of millions of absolute sissies and sickos in the process. If there ever was a justification for re-education camps these people are it.
Thanks for the post – I enjoyed the read a bunch, and it was great to see that speech by Charlie Chaplin once again. Classic!!
Thanks for the input. The first 2/3 was a tough read for me.
One other detail
“Just today I had a conversation with my son about the difference between European diets ….. The rampant obesity in America lies in the consumption of processed and basically empty food in excess.”
No one in my immediate family is obese. Both my kids are exceptionally athletic.
One of the reasons is that they both know how to cook AND WILL, so they aren’t dependent on convenience foods. That is probably an overlooked angle on what’s missing in the education of our young. Schools that don’t teach it, and parents that can’t teach it because they don’t know how either.
Substack is the best Idea in Journalism since the printing press
So many great content creators …working for themselves…uncensored and with no one to tell them what to write and no editors and no advertisers
Great concept
We should all support this format