Re: LIMITS TO BRAINS

On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, Jay Hanson wrote:

> I had intended the following twelve step program for the Neoclassicals, but
> Mr. Spectors was kind enough to reminded me that the Marxists need it too:

These sociobiology preachers are truly amazing.  This one recommends a
twelve-step program to help rid others of their intellectual addictions
while remaining in complete denial about the cult they've joined.  See
Hanson's attempt to accuse Spectors of dogmatic argumentation and his
weasily effort to avoid answering Till's question (about the
mechanism which transforms genes into mind) by demanding that Till
publish refutations to every article that he (Hanson) has ever read.   

Come to think of it, maybe Hanson's not all wrong.  Maybe he is
genetically predisposed to recommend treatment for others that he would do
well to try out on himself first.  This trait seems to be common to
sociobiologists.  I am particularly thinking of one Derek Freeman, who has
made a career out of trying to debunk Margaret Mead and with her the
entire field of cultural anthropology.  His "proof" consisted largely of
misrepresenting Mead's position, intimation that she skewed her
findings to reflect her sexually deviant life-style, and reference to a
new sociobiological paradigm, never even outlined, which is supposed to
supercede all cultural theories.  To make a long story
short, U.S. anthropologists rejected Freeman's revolution.  Seeing the
results of his life's work fall on such unreceptive ears, 
Freeman, making the very rational inference that the US anthropological
establishment is composed of brainwashed commie queers, has decided to pen
a tome wherein he intends to subject the anthro establishment to
Festingerian analysis (they continue to adhere to their prophesy even when
it has been exposed as fradulent by empirical evidence)... 

I sincerely doubt that Freeman even remotely suspects that "When Prophecy
Fails" may just apply to his own crusade.  Just like it never enters 
Hanson's mind to try some of his own medicine.  But then, perhaps the
possession of the sociobiology gene precludes the possession of the irony
gene.  

-- 
Boris Stremlin
bc70219@binghamton.edu