Great article on the differences between idealogues / intellectuals and scientists / engineers. This article, IMHO has a lot to say about the current political gridlock in the US (let's face it, we're really seeing continuous showdowns and posturing by two opposing ideologies rather than any amount of pragmatism being applied to solve some of the huge problems facing this country), as well as any number of other topics. Does anyone else see a parallel with different approaches to teaching martial arts? A trap many traditionalists fall into is getting locked into what "should" work based on imperfect information passed down through multiple hands, or becoming obsessed with the perfection of the appearance of a technique rather than pressure testing their hypotheses in a more realistic venue... essential becoming a martial arts intellectual in this context rather than an engineer. I am not bashing traditional martial artists here (& am one myself), and understand that many do various forms of pressure testing (although what constitutes a valid pressure test or a realistic venue is open to debate). I do think that all of us need to practice our martial arts with an approach closer to that of a scientist or engineer, and validate or invalidate the ideas and techniques we are given to the best of our ability.
A most entertaining article indeed I have to say - much enjoyed it, tho I must now go to put a higher shine on my "posture of sustained indignation" :chuckles:
I think the error falls in trying to label people "this" or "that", an ideologue or a scientist, or an engineer, and pretending that their world view is specific with no overlap and no gray areas. I think that is not realistic nor accurate. I would be very surprised if these people didn't share some amount of commonality in their views. But pigeon-holing them makes it easy to say, in essence, "those people failed because they are stupid". I'd say the truth of the matter is that there are a whole lot of variables that go into this and it's not so simple and easy to analyze as people would like it to be. My gut tells me that people like to demonize. In most cases it simply isn't appropriate nor accurate.
It seems like he's saying idealists= bad and scientists= good. So idealists like Mahatma Ghandi, Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, these people are bad? I think this article was written to increase the divisions between people even more.
Well, I dunno. I'm an intellectual, and an engineer. I mean, scxience says that eugenics works, but would you really wanna? Some people just have too much time to think on their hands.....123
