The other evening I was watching a rather good TV bio of the Virgin wunderkind (not so much of a kid anymore) Richard Branson. I love “rags-to-riches” stories at the best of times, and while Branson was not really a “rags” case — comfortably middle-class, rather — the fact remains that he built the Virgin conglomerate from nothing into what it is today. And he wasn’t schooled, much, because he’s severely dyslexic and this in no small part caused him to leave school at age 16 and never look back.
And now he’s gone and cocked it all up.
You see, he’s bought into the nonsensical “climate-change-we’re-all-gonna-diiiieeeee” philosophy hook, line, sinker and rod, as have so many successful people of his ilk.
And I can’t help thinking that it’s because he’s uneducated. Now granted, in today’s world such stupidity can and has sprung from the academe (not to mention other Marxist ideologues), but that’s beside the point.
You see, without a proper education, someone like Branson is more likely to be swayed by plausible-but-still-nonsensical arguments, especially when uttered and backed by “experts” (scientists, doctors, academics, whatever) because uneducated people always give more credence to these mountebanks than the latter deserve.
This is why so many wealthy people buy into stupidity — they’ve been so busy making money that they’ve ignored a substantial amount of the real world (whether political, sociological, scientific or academic) unless it has a specific impact upon their business.
It’s also why the wealthy buy into the arrant bullshit as propagated by the World Economic Forum (WEF), because they feel as though only they have the power to move the lumpenproletariat (that would be you and me) into a direction that they feel is the “proper” way, regardless of whether the way is actually proper or not (mostly not, as it turns out). Add to this the naked and unashamed thirst for power by the usual Socialist assholes (most politicians) — who, by the way, already have the power to make the wealthy a lot less wealthy — and you have the hopeless naïveté of people like Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey who think that simply throwing money (their own money, to give them some credit) at a health- or education problem in the Third World is going to solve that problem, when they’ve never read Kipling’s White Man’s Burden poem (or if they have, they’ve misunderstood its actual meaning — that lack of education, again).
And just to be clear: when I say “education”, I mean it in its Nockian sense. Many of my Readers, for example, are highly educated despite not having university degrees; and many more have university degrees but have educated themselves way past their academic discipline. I was able, for example, to see right through the forecasting nonsense of the Greens, despite not (yet) having a university degree because I had earlier learned how algorithms work — and more importantly, how they are tested. When you realize that not one of the near-term doomsday prognoses of the Greens has come even close to being fulfilled, you will understand why their latest climate-change warnings are all pointed away from the near-term and towards times decades or more hence. (Traditionally, algorithms have had a terrible time in making long-term predictions because of the instability of the world in general, but that’s been conveniently and deliberately ignored by the climate doomsayers.)
Which is why Richard Branson and his cohorts have bought into the Green nonsense completely — they have no idea why (or even that) the forecasts won’t come true, but because “scientific consensus” says they will, they believe them.
They’re as gullible as the fools who bought products from snake-oil salesmen or Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop (serious overlap), but unlike the aforementioned, who buy the products for their own benefit, the Bransons believe that their wealth will help them become world-saving philanthropists.
Idiots.
A lot of “elites” buy into this nonsense because it insulates them from the pitchforks and torches. Meanwhile they’re free to go about living the good life because they’ve bought themselves good will with the marxists. [for example, see Al Gore and his $15K electric bills on his Tennessee mansion(s)]
Absolutely. Its a way to say, “I’m here now lock the door behind me.” They embrace this shit because it creates a much higher barrier for someone else to enter “their” world.
I read once that that was the objective of the income tax; keep the nouveau riche down. They have only gotten more creative and devised more complex techniques in the intervening century.
That term “scientific consenus” gets on my last nerve. Science is not done by consensus. When the Nazis published “100 Scientists Against Einstein” to refute the Jewish science of Relativity, Einstein asked “Why did they need 100? If I’m wrong one would be enough.”
Mark D
As I recall that quote, he said that one lab assistant could be enough. No need to give ego boost to a “Scientist.”
>>”You see, without a proper education, ” … ANYONE … “is more likely to be swayed by plausible-but-still-nonsensical arguments.”
Is this not the key argument justifying universal education at public expense? To foster a people resistant to demagogues and thus capable of self rule through democratic means?
And if one has recieved a SABOTAGED education, one will believe oneself to be proof against such propaganda, while actually being rendered MORE VULNERABLE to it.
Is this not the actual effect of universal education at public expense? A peopled fostered to be susceptible to manipulation to political effect, thus rendering rule through democratic means a tool to someone else’s end?
I believe, O Geeky One, that you passed over the VERY important “Nockian” qualification of “education”.
When Thomas Jefferson talked about an “educated” populace, he was referring to an education such as he and the other Founders had acquired.
Today’s Education Establishment would have the Founders reaching for the muskets, again.
It makes sense if you think of the difference between “an education” and “Education”
as knowledge and experience vs credentials.
I watched the same Bio. My main take away was – Just how is it that he is not six times dead yet???
Yes – he was not a victim of the British class based school system, but he is clearly not stupid. He seems to have a talent for identifying opportunity and the gift of good timing ( some people call that luck ) and the ability to identify loyal staff. His “street smarts “, motivational and self promotional abilities are without question.
Ok — maybe he is “uneducated” but that seems to a plus for him , not a negative. He succeeded because he didn’t listen to the “experts” who told him that can’t possibly work. His only problem is that occasionally those experts get it correct. But i’ll bet the end will at least be spectacular.
The more I see what passes for education today, the more I am convinced that the industry will “educate” people only enough to be good little drones. I’m sure the education systems throughout western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky etc were only vigorous enough to teach children to become coal miners when they were old enough to take their grandfather’s job. I’m sure this was repeated in numerous other areas such as Detroit to become assembly line workers at automobile manufacturers etc.
Colleges have largely become indoctrination factories that saddle their graduates with crippling debt so they can only afford some dreadful hovel in a city and dependent on public services such as buses and subways.
Science and mathematics education in our country is woefully inadequate. American history and Western Civilization is taught as an embarrassment rather than the blessing that it is. The predominant religion in the west has been torn down so that there is less competition with the government.
In engineering school back in the 90s there was very little politics in the classroom. It simply did not fit into the discussions in Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, materials, design etc. Even urban development didn’t include politics. When I changed careers for healthcare about twenty years later, the “professors” never passed up an opportunity to denigrate one party and their ideology while extolling the virtues of collectivism.
JQ
“… not one of the near-term doomsday prognoses of the Greens has come even close to being fulfilled, you will understand why their latest climate-change warnings are all pointed away from the near-term and towards times decades or more hence.”
When making predictions, be sure to make them for at least 50 years in the future. That way, when they don’t come to pass you won’t have to answer for them because you’ll probably not be around.
And second, how can anyone think the long term climate predictions are accurate when the weather can’t be accurately be forecast more than a day or two in advance?
Never let schooling get in the way of your education. I believe that has been attributed to Mark Twain
JQ
I read once that that was the objective of the income tax; keep the nouveau riche down. They have only gotten more creative and devised more complex techniques in the intervening century.