Posted on 09/01/2011 7:40:15 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
NEW YORK — You might call it the cognitive divide — the split between an evidence-based worldview and one that is rooted in faith or ideology — and it is one of the most important fault lines in the United States today.
President Barack Obama called attention to the cognitive divide, and reminded us...when he chose the Princeton University economist Alan Krueger to lead his Council of Economic Advisers.
Mr. Krueger is a labor economist, and at first blush, that focus may seem the important part of his résumé......his mastery of data and his utter commitment to the truths it can be coaxed to tell.
...The president is an empiricist. He wants to do what works, not what conforms to a particular ideology or what pleases a particular constituency. His core belief is a belief in facts.
..Cass Sunstein:...“Above all, Obama’s form of pragmatism is heavily empirical; he wants to know what works.” Word crunchers found that the president’s 2009 inaugural address was the first one to use the term “data” and only the second to mention “statistics.”
....The divide between the empiricists and the believers is also the fault line between the highly educated, technologically adept super-elite and the squeezed and scared middle class. But those hoi polloi voters, who, in 2012, as they were in 2008, seem to be drawn to politicians with big ideas and strong beliefs, may also be responding to something even bigger than this cognitive divide.
We are today, as we were in 2008, living through an unprecedented crisis. The economies of the Western world are sick, and the international balance of power is shifting. To be driven by data is an admirable thing. But when you find yourself in dangerous and uncharted waters, there is no data to guide you.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
another puff piece on perhaps the most irrational, unscientific, completely innumerate president in history
No “perhaps” about it.
“The president is an empiricist. He wants to do what works, not what conforms to a particular ideology “
Secret liberal decoder ring says;
The sunbathing Kenyan lizard king is a lazy communist.
Looks like Obama has no “genius on loan from God.”
The ends justify the means.
The end is marxist control, which is control by the elite few.
Everything else is pragmatically chosen to get us there sooner rather than later. Destroying jobs and extending unemployment and welfare gives him lots of warm bodies to fill the streets. Destroying the dollar leads to a collapse of society and a collapse of any and all social organizations that might resist.
But folks claiming he is an empiricist such as this author, are trying to provoke cognitive dissonance. The unstated assumption is that his goal is a better America. It is not. You will go crazy if you try to believe that.
They've succeeded. Lol!
Good post.
The NYT’s is simply a paper that knows their target audience. They don't report the news, they are in the business of modern editorialized journalism and knowing their target audience, they engage in affirmation of opinions and feelings of this group that is willing to pay for this daily dose of feel good nonsense.
Yes.
The NYT is the outlet of “Way of the World” letters from Chrystia Freeland:
Chrystia Freeland is global editor at large at Reuters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrystia_Freeland
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/17/world/europe/17iht-letter17.html?pagewanted=all
“How is it possible?”
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Some people have little connection to reality, most of us seem to have our “DUH” moments when, as a former neighbor of mine used to say, “My brain jumps timin’” but some people can talk for hours and make no sense whatsoever and seem to be perfectly unaware of making no sense. These people usually seem to believe that they are the smartest persons around. Our government is now controlled mainly by people of this type.
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