tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7520310366597866036.post2462072994008298235..comments2024-02-21T02:24:27.384-08:00Comments on Necessary Facts: Confronting Post-Modernism and ConservatismMichael E. Marottahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14402515044482988601noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7520310366597866036.post-79325621688973777552011-09-15T18:26:16.085-07:002011-09-15T18:26:16.085-07:00Sociologists (especially criminologists) have iden...Sociologists (especially criminologists) have identified many kinds of differential association and differential learning and differential reinforcement to show how we learn from those around us. Only some few people ever break free from that. Marxism is easy to accept because we hear so much of it from so many sources - greed is bad; businesses cheat people; Wall Street versus Main Street; etc, etc. That said, I have had good professors, who, while Marxists, were intellectually fair and honest, and dismayed by those who seemed unwilling to get behind or beyond their own accepted beliefs. Those, professors, too, where within that minority of individuals who seek beyond the given.<br /><br />You will find an essay here on NecessaryFacts, "When Evidence is Not Enough." We tend to accept experts who agree with us, to accept them as experts because they agree with what we want to believe.Michael E. Marottahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14402515044482988601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7520310366597866036.post-65905492804037624112011-08-26T18:04:05.933-07:002011-08-26T18:04:05.933-07:00I think that for most people, what they believe co...I think that for most people, what they believe comes from the adults they grew up with as a default, but they are largely regurgitating what their elders have told them until they begin thinking for themselves.<br /><br />I remember having many conversations where I simply repeated the opinions of my parents and professors. I regarded everything they said as truth until well after college, when I became interested in figuring out how the world works on my own.<br /><br />I think some people never move from accepting expert opinions to thinking for themselves, and professors like mine, teaching Marxist economics, are a danger to those people. Most people accept the opinions of experts as fact for their entire lives.Stone Glasgowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00545401735030232324noreply@blogger.com