PSI Blog 20180516 The Power of Knowledge and the Big Bang Theory
Thanks to Marilyn for the link to this wonderful essay on
what I first thought was a pretty odd topic:
On the other hand, I am always intrigued by much of the
crazy stuff people of the 21st century still believe.
Author Harry Dyer left us with a few good quotes:
“The level of discussion however often did not revolve
around the models on offer, but on broader issues of attitudes towards existing
structures of knowledge, and the institutions that supported and presented
these models.
Flat earthers are not the first group to be sceptical of
existing power structures and their tight grasps on knowledge. This viewpoint
is somewhat typified by the work of Michel Foucault, a famous and heavily
influential 20th century philosopher who made a career of studying those on the
fringes of society to understand what they could tell us about everyday life.
He is well known, amongst many other things, for looking at
the close relationship between power and
knowledge. He suggested that knowledge is created and used in a way that
reinforces the claims to legitimacy of those in power. At the same time, those
in power control what is considered to be correct and incorrect knowledge.
According to Foucault, there is therefore an intimate and interlinked
relationship between power and knowledge.
At the time Foucault was writing on the topic, the control
of power and knowledge had moved away from religious institutions, who
previously held a very singular hold over knowledge and morality, and was
instead beginning to move towards a network of scientific institutions, media
monopolies, legal courts, and bureaucratised governments. Foucault argued that
these institutions work to maintain their claims to legitimacy by controlling
knowledge.
In the 21st century, we are witnessing another important
shift in both power and knowledge due to factors that include the increased
public platforms afforded by social media. Knowledge is no longer centrally
controlled…”
Mine eyes are opened! This helps a lot to explain why
otherwise bright folks still believe Einstein’s 8 ad hocs we discussed last
week. It helps to explain many of the other wild imaginings of today’s regressive
physics in which Einstein’s “Untired Light Theory” leads directly to the imagined
expansion of the universe and its explosion out of nothing. The laws of physics
have been laid down: Believe this “scientific” fake news—or else.