Sherlock Holmes fans among us will recognize the words immediately, as two notes might suffice for others in ‘Name That Tune.’ The words were spoken by Holmes in ‘Sign of the Four,’ when Holmes was talking with Watson about the difficulties he experienced when his primary and chosen outlet for creativity - solving obtuse criminal cases - was blocked or absent.
Dr. Watson had just given Holmes a small problem to examine, hoping to keep him from taking another dose of cocaine. Holmes solved it, Watson accused Holmes of guessing, to which Holmes replied:
No, no: I never guess. It is a shocking habit, destructive to the logical faculty.
(Again, that quotation is from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's '
Sign of the Four.')
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And, then, in A Study in Scarlet, Holmes says:
It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment.
And, yet, we belong to a species where that is solicited, indeed, encouraged at every turn. There are polls everywhere we turn. Emails asking us to support a stance or a position on anything. Sides-taking. Support this team or that. And that’s before the politicians get started, particularly the conservative ones. They care nothing about the logical faculty. If they can get emotion into the mix, for them, so much the better.
Ego engagement. Ego investment. The whole world trolls. If they can get us to engage, they can steer us in any direction they wish. Because they know our ‘buttons.’ They have the ring through our nose, and the leads to turn it. So there is something to be ‘won’ and ‘lost’ in every exchange. Win, win win! Fight, fight fight!
There are things I care about. The sensibilities of the institution of marriage are not among them. Marriage cannot be offended, it cannot be hurt, it requires no protection. One cannot ‘lose’ if people one dislikes (hates!) get married. Unless, of course, one believes one can. Then one can lose.
The problem there is that the ‘loss’ isn’t to the issue. It is to those seeking to manipulate for political advantage, to those ‘trolling’ for our hearts and minds. It is to those soliciting ego investment where none should happen. Shocking habit, indeed!
How do you deal with attempts to solicit your ego involvement, with attempts to manipulate you through your morality?
Pre-publication diary edit -
Okay, diary is already queued and I am just about to post, when this came to me, a diary I’ve intended to write for years now.
To give an example of how things may be used to manipulate, here is a quick video clip from a movie most of us know.
Here, the film’s hero is looking for a ‘hook’ with which he can manipulate the townspeople for commercial advantage. (In my opinion, this film gave ideas for some of the conservative manipulation strategies we fight so hard against today.) His cohort Marcellus (‘Marce’) has been scoping the town for some time, for raw material to be used in the plot to separate the townspeople from their money.
He took what was new, a pool hall in town, and using that, stirred the people into a totally reactive frenzy! Magical to watch!
But, as you can see, it did not take him long to involve their egos, and then to lead them anywhere he wanted.
Just so is it done in our political world today.
On to tonight's comments! Formatted by
brillig!
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything
without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do
not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From Village Vet:
On Mark Sumner's snarky diary about conservatives being correct, deh makes an observation.
From kalmoth:
Nominating pico for a devastating but fair description of the limitations of online discourse. From mconvente's diary on food labeling.
Top Mojo for yesterday, January 18th, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary FAQing Top Mojo.
1) How? by enhydra lutris — 112
2) I am so sorry by War on Error — 88
3) You are a poor guesser... by Jerry Nelson — 86
4) Its ok . Just remember to love your loved ones by lightarty — 80
5) Devastating. by Eileen B — 78
6) Yesterday we got a new kitty! by Brahman Colorado — 76
7) GROUNDHOG DAY WITHOUT THE LAUGHS by Superpole — 75
8) I just skimmed your diary by Scott in NAZ — 74
9) Here's the central point of the article by Dallasdoc — 73
10) Ummm by RiotLibrarian — 72
11) People are beginning to get that we're being by Phoebe Loosinhouse — 71
12) Start with.... by leftykook — 70
13) #sekritarmy turns above & beyond knob up to 11. by jwinIL14 — 69
14) OK, so it's time to take the offensive. by JamesGG — 66
15) we spnd every second like its a thousand by lightarty — 66
16) Even if there were... by CharlieHipHop — 65
17) In the end, by lipris — 65
18) Exactly, What Was Young Tamir Rice Allowed to by Gooserock — 64
19) Without comment by Ojibwa — 64
20) Attenshun! by kerflooey — 63
21) I don't think parents should be mocked by ivorybill — 62
22) FBI's "created" all but 4 major terrorist acts... by bobswern — 62
23) Shaker Ahmed by Lib Dem FoP — 60
24) the infuriating thing is the way these statements by janefordean — 59
25) Your statement .... by eastvan — 58
26) Beautifully done! by rl en france — 57
27) Living in Germany where 6 yr olds walk to school by peterfallow — 57
28) Oh, I think he's bein all metaphorical 'n' all. by dadadata — 55
29) How triethylborane works by Dogs are fuzzy — 55
30) You're close to my kids' age- by gramofsam1 — 55
Top Pictures for yesterday, January 18th. Click any image to be taken to the full comment. Thank you
jotter for the image magic!