[Mind's Eye] Re: What is happening to you?

oh .. i missed this post..didnt see it.. i ask What is happening to
other people all the time.... but in case of trying to understand
economics..i often put the question as.. whats happening in the
world.. how do i figure in this.... or do i figure in this?....

On Nov 14, 4:33 am, gabbydott <gabbyd...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Can it be that this a generation thing? I mean, the question used to be
> "How are you?" and then one started discussing the weather. This "what is
> happening to you/ to others" has this artificial dualism to it, which I
> understand Molly doesn't appreciate either. And the next generation's
> question is, where is the link to the stream.
>
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 1:40 PM, archytas <nwte...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Pat might just be interested in this -
> >http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-collapse/
> > - which is very clever stuff on physics I found I could only handle in
> > parts.  My brain is much less capable in both maths and being bothered
> > with deep riddles these days.  I play only as an amateur.  There's
> > some sort of argument in this stuff that allows a realist view of
> > macroscopic space-time - i.e. that the moon is where it is without
> > anyone looking and our old chestnut tree crashes to the ground as
> > likely when we aren't looking - that is consistent with quantum-level
> > theorising.
> > I'm a tropical fish realist - if I want to know about, say, India on
> > the ground, I'd ask Vam or people with direct experience I've actually
> > worked with.  If more than interest was at stake, I'd go.  Even
> > reading, incidentally, indicates that standard 'white people's
> > histories' I soaked up from Hollywood-BBC are false.  I tend to like
> > my climate science from climate scientists, not the guff from
> > Hollywood-BBC.  It's hard to get stuff from the 'horse's mouth', and
> > of course even when one can, there remain problems of knowing enough
> > to understand - as a minute with the link above will indicate.  I
> > often find little to distinguish the academic and presumably accurate
> > material and, say, some of the barking on Epistemology.  I tend
> > towards the experts in science.
>
> > This general attitude of mine does not extend to politics and
> > economics.  Here I find the experts vapid, generally untrustworthy and
> > speaking in code or some sort.  The dominant dross in economics since
> > I started teaching it has been broadly neo-classical and so vapid it's
> > models ignored debt.  You can find the criticism and a more realistic
> > model in the work of Steve Keen who puts his work out free.  This is
> > the model I teach - though I take a more narrative-behavioural line
> > based on the question 'what's happening to you'?  Quite a few of my
> > undergrad and postgrad students find this so unusual that they start
> > to look like shock and awe victims.
>
> > The follow up question (the first is more difficult than any quantum-
> > waffle) is 'what is happening to other people'?  Towards the end of
> > 101 we might get to whether current economics as actually described in
> > textbooks in a manner similar to that in books about keeping tropical
> > fish describe how to keep the fish.  Such matters can broaden out into
> > how a science research programme has a core and periphery (Lakatos,
> > Kuhn) and allows evidence and explanation to change these.
>
> > One can point to much information that demonstrates economics only
> > works for a small proportion of people, but the idea is to let people
> > get on with their own enquiries.  You may be surprised how few respond
> > well to this.  Steve Keen's lectures are all available free on line I
> > tell them - why waste £9K a year getting them from a bum like me?
> > Some of the kinder answers involve me being a teacher, but teaching
> > people to think for themselves.  Some of them turn me into a very good
> > teacher.  I fail with loads.  They demand instruction.  You'd think
> > more people would want to explore knowledge,but there don't seem to be
> > many.  And I have to say, on first sight of me, most struggle with
> > both the first questions.  I'll repeat them in that patronising manner
> > of teacher training:
>
> > 1. what is happening to you?
> > 2. what is happening to others?
>
> > I can, of course, put the answers in statistical form.
>
> > 1.you're being screwed.
> > 2. they're being screwed.
>
> > Comments by free thinkers more than welcome!- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -