The Moon At The Top Of The List
I am a big fan of The Gurometer. I actually appreciate some of the people on the list above—Nassim Taleb, and of course, Carl Sagan.
In the below we discuss a few themes and characteristics that we have identified as being common among the secular guru set. We distinguish secular gurus from gurus that promote ideologies or worldviews that are primarily spiritual or religious in nature. By guru we refer to the standard definition of “an influential teacher or popular expert” but our specific focus tends to be the subset of gurus who make liberal use of ‘pseudo profound bullshit’ referring to speech that is persuasive and creates the appearance of profundity with little regard for truth or reference to relevant expertise. The recurring characteristics identified collectively trend towards negative traits, so a high score on the gurometer could be regarded as identifying ‘bad’, potentially exploitative gurus who produce ersatz wisdom: a corrupt epistemics that creates the appearance of useful knowledge, but has none of the substance. The characteristics identified have not been empirically validated but are based on our personal assessments. Taken together, they help us in the task of spotting gurus in the wild.
I have nothing against people of faith, but I am not a Reverend Moon fan—such vanity gives me the creeps. At any rate, even if you disagree with Reverend Moon’s placement on that list, The Gurometer is still an excellent addition to your Baloney Detection Kit. It might help you navigate the idiotic lies and shallow ideas that greedy, narcissistic goofballs force-feed us daily.
“Ah, man, the bull shit piled up so fast in Vietnam you needed wings to stay above it.” — Captain Willard
(Publicity, Public Relations, Advertising, Punditry, Preaching, Propaganda)
The only way to get away with not continually developing decent critical thinking skills is to be an ascetic and renounce the world as far as possible or surrender to whatever floats your boat. Let’s hope the “company store” will hold for a while longer; eventually, we will all have to face the circumstances of our addictions (broadly speaking.)
Some of us have had a good run and can be thankful for having experienced the best possible worlds.
Utopia will never come into the possession of Homo Sapiens. Utopianism is a fashion and dream deployed by despots and con artists. Whether "protopianism" can become a fashion needs defining. The age-old philosophies and arguments will remain—people will continue to fight over what, why, and how questions. The tools for "mind control" are more sophisticated and powerful than ever, and we are still the same people we always were, so old wine in new wineskins or visa-versa, whatever is new is old again, or whatever is old is new again.
Qui Bono?
Who will be the next King? What new church will arise from the ashes of stochastic circumstances? Our illusion of agency will be as strong as ever as we stumble into the future with our beliefs propping us up. There will always be those who profess to know the absolute truth, and still, people crush children with bombs with reasons and justifications for all.
