Everyday Erinyes #279

 Posted by at 1:26 pm  Politics
Aug 152021
 

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”

With several of our strongest contributors having conflicts (everyone’s fine, fortunately), and so many current videos being fun, I thought I would feature a fun piece for the Furies this week. And geomythology, for any one who loves old stories, is a whole lot of fun. And yet, it can also be practical. Note that the Moken people in Thailand used myth to save lives as recently as 2004.

Geomythology is a new field, established only fifty years ago, and only now getting its very first textbook (not coincidentally, written by the article’s author.) Sure, we’ve known for a long time that ancient peoples interpreted natural events to mythological causes. But with regard to recurring events, like Apollo’s chariot of the sun miving across the sky, or Zeus’s sieve-like urinal explaining rain, that’s simply commonplace. Looking at singular events, or at least at uncommon events, it’spossible to run them by reality and possibly understand our ancestors better.
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Dinosaur bones became griffins, volcanic eruptions were gods fighting – geomythology looks to ancient stories for hints of scientific truth

A mythical creature born of a misinterpreted fossil?
Akkharat Jarusilawong/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Timothy John Burbery, Marshall University

Everyone loves a good story, especially if it’s based on something true.

Consider the Greek legend of the Titanomachy, in which the Olympian gods, led by Zeus, vanquish the previous generation of immortals, the Titans. As recounted by the Greek poet Hesiod, this conflict makes for a thrilling tale – and it may preserve kernels of truth.

The eruption around 1650 B.C. of the Thera volcano could have inspired Hesiod’s narrative. More powerful than Krakatoa, this ancient cataclysm in the southern Aegean Sea would have been witnessed by anyone living within hundreds of miles of the blast.

aerial view of Santorini Caldera
The massive eruption of the Thera volcano more than 3,500 years ago left behind a hollowed out island, today known as Santorini.
Steve Jurvetson, CC BY

Historian of science Mott Greene argues that key moments from the Titanomachy map on to the eruption’s “signature.” For example, Hesiod notes that loud rumbles emanated from the ground as the armies clashed; seismologists now know that harmonic tremors – small earthquakes that sometimes precede eruptions – often produce similar sounds. And the impression of the sky – “wide Heaven” – shaking during the battle could have been inspired by shock waves in the air caused by the volcanic explosion. Hence, the Titanomachy may represent the creative misreading of a natural event.

Greene’s conjecture is an example of geomythology, a field of study that gleans scientific truths from legends and myths. Created by geologist Dorothy Vitaliano nearly 50 years ago, geomythology focuses on tales that may record, however dimly, occurrences like volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and earthquakes, as well as their aftereffects, such as the exposures of strange-looking bones. These events appear to have been, in some cases, so traumatic or wonder-inducing that they may have inspired preliterate peoples to “explain” them through fables.

I’ve just published the first textbook in the field, “Geomythology: How Common Stories Reflect Earth Events.” As the book demonstrates, researchers in both the sciences and the humanities practice geomythology. In fact, geomythology’s hybrid nature may help to bridge the gap between the two cultures. And despite its orientation toward the past, geomythology might also provide powerful resources for meeting environmental challenges in the future.

Moken children play on the beach, with small boats tied up in the shallows
The legend of a monster wave told by the Moken people gave them a leg up during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP via Getty Images

Passed-down tales that explain the world

Some geomyths are relatively well known. One comes from the Moken people in Thailand, who survived the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, a catastrophe that killed some 228,000 people. On that terrible day, the Moken heeded an old tale about the “laboon”, or “monster wave,” a legend passed down to them over countless campfires.

According to the fable, from time to time a people-devouring wave would surge and move far inland. However, those who fled to high ground in time, or, counterintuitively, put out into deeper waters, would survive. Following the legend’s advice, the Moken preserved their lives.

Other geomyths might have started as explanations for prehistoric remains that didn’t readily map onto any known creature.

The Cyclopes, the tribe of one-eyed ogres that terrorized Odysseus and his crew, might have sprung from the findings of prehistoric elephant skulls in Greece and Italy. In 1914, paleontologist Othenio Abel pointed out that these fossils feature large facial cavities in front, from which the trunk would have protruded. The eye sockets, by contrast, are easily overlooked on the sides of the cranium. To the ancient Greeks who dug them up, these skulls might have seemed like the remains of monocular, humanoid giants.

The seemingly fanciful griffin – the eagle-headed, lion-bodied hybrid – might have a similar origin story and could be based on the creative misrecognition of Protoceratops dinosaur remains in the Gobi Desert.

Still other geomyths may point to natural events. Indigenous tales tell of “fire devils” that flew down from the Sun and plunged to Earth, killing everything in the vicinity when they landed. These “devils” were probably meteors witnessed by Aboriginal Australians. In some cases, the tales anticipate findings of Western science by decades, even centuries.

people on small boat and raft setting up scientific equipment
Researchers set up monitoring equipment at Africa’s Lake Nyos that will sound an alarm if carbon dioxide levels become dangerous again.
Louise Gubb/Corbis Historical via Getty Images

Numerous African folktales ascribe mischief to certain lakes, including the lakes’ apparent ability to change color, shift locations and even turn deadly. Such legends have been corroborated by actual events. The most notorious example is the “explosion” of Cameroon’s Lake Nyos in 1986 when carbon dioxide, long trapped on the bottom, abruptly surfaced. Within a day, 1,746 people, along with thousands of birds, insects and livestock, were suffocated by the CO2 cloud the lake burped up. Lakes are sometimes associated with death and the underworld in Mediterranean stories as well: Lake Avernus, near Naples, is mythologized as such in Virgil’s “Aeneid.”

Animal encounters may inform other geomyths. Herodotus’ “Histories”, written about 430 B.C., claims that dog-sized ants guard certain gold deposits in regions of East Asia. In his 1984 book “The Ants’s Gold: The Discovery of the Greek El Dorado in the Himalayas,” ethnologist Michel Peissel uncovered Herodotus’ possible inspiration: mountain-dwelling marmots, who to this day “mine” gold by layering their nests with gold dust.

Fanciful stories that feed into science

Geomythology is not a science. The old stories are often garbled or contradictory, and it’s always possible that they preceded the real events that today’s researchers link them with. Imaginative pre-scientific peoples might well have dreamed up various tales out of whole cloth and only later found “confirmation” in Earth events or discoveries.

Yet as noted, geomyths like the griffin and Cyclopes arose from specific geographical regions that feature remains not found elsewhere. The likelihood of preliterate peoples first inventing tales that then somehow corresponded closely to later fossil finds seems like a stunning coincidence. More likely, at least with some geotales, the discoveries preceded the narratives.

Etruscan pottery with black figures blinding the cyclops with a spear
Pottery from the fifth century B.C. depicting the blinding of a Cyclops.
DEA/G. Nimatallah/De Agostini Editorial via Getty Images

Either way, geomythology can serve as a valuable ally to science. Most often, it can help to corroborate scientific findings.

Yet geomyths can sometimes go further and correct scientific results or raise alternative hypotheses. For example, geologist Donald Swanson argues that the Pele legends of Hawaii suggest that the Kilauea volcanic caldera was formed considerably earlier than previous studies had indicated. He alleges that “volcanologists were led astray” in their research on the caldera’s age “by not paying close attention to the Hawaiian oral traditions.”

Though focused on the past, geomythology may also help to set future scientific agendas. Today’s researchers might become familiar with myths that feature weird creatures or extreme weather, and then examine the stories’ places of origins for geological and paleontological clues. Such tales might provide invaluable links with real occurrences that took place long before there was a scientist around to record them. Indeed, such stories could have endured precisely because they memorialized a traumatic or wrenching incident and were thus passed down from one generation to the next as a literal cautionary tale.

Creating geomyths today for future generations

Another exciting area for geomythical study is not just the researching of old myths but the creation of new ones that could alert future generations of potential dangers, whether these peoples might live in tsunami-prone regions, near nuclear waste sites like Yucca Mountain, or in some equally risky area.

warning sign for radioactive waste
What if, millennia from now, no one can read or understand a sign like this?
Department of Energy – Carlsbad Field Office, CC BY

Nuclear waste can remain radioactive for mind-boggling amounts of time, in some cases up to many tens of thousands of years. While placing warning labels on deposits of radioactive materials seems sensible, languages morph constantly and there’s no guarantee that present-day ones will even be spoken, let alone be understandable, in the distant future. Indeed, even stranger to contemplate is the extinction of the human race, an event that some philosophers see as potentially closer than we might think. How, if at all, might we warn our distant progeny or, beyond them, our eventual post-human successors?

[Insight, in your inbox each day. You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter.]

Creating notification systems that persist throughout time is an area in which myths could be useful. Famous tales often last for many generations, sometimes proving more durable than the languages in which they were first told or spoken. Indeed, C.S. Lewis wrote that one hallmark of myth is that it “would equally delight and nourish if it had reached [us] by some medium which involved no words at all – say by a mime, or a film.”

Because they are less tied to language than literature is, myths may be easier to transmit across cultures and time. The oldest one currently on record is an Aboriginal tale concerning a volcano; it may be 35,000 years old.

Geomythology could thus contribute to a linguistic field known as nuclear semiotics, which grapples with the problem of warning distant generations about hazardous waste. An intentionally created geomyth might preserve and transmit crucial information from the nuclear age to our descendants, with considerable effectiveness.The Conversation

Timothy John Burbery, Professor of English, Marshall University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, now if only you could find a way to interpret modern delusions in such a way as to bring them, and the people who hold them, into reality. I know that’s a tall order.

The Furies and I will be back.

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Aug 102021
 

Yesterday I got my grocery delivery and put all the perishables away – probably today I’ll put away the toilet paper and glue, and the bottled beverages. If I have room. I also placed an order for a new noise generator, because the one I have has been, for the last couple of nights, starting and stopping unpredictably which interferes with my sleep.  I’m aware it may not be the machine but the cord – but I can’t check that out without moving my mattress and I haven’t felt up to that. Besides, they are not terribly pricey. I just got a class action settlement which will cover it twice over (and you know how skimpy they are LOL.)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Reuters – Prehistoric cave paintings in Spain show Neanderthals were artists
Quote – Pigments were made in the caves at different times up to 15,000 and 20,000 years apart, the study found, and dispel an earlier suggestion that they were the result of a natural oxide flow rather than being man-made. “The importance is that it changes our attitude towards Neanderthals. They were closer to humans. Recent research has shown they liked objects, they mated with humans and now we can show that they painted caves like us,” he said.
Click through for story.   I always like to stick up for the Neanderthalers. I’m convinced our worst traits as a species are not from them, but from ourselves.

Former Acting A.G. Jeffrey Rosen May Be Trump’s John Dean
Quote – Following the closed-door testimony, Senator Blumenthal stated that Rosen “discussed previously reported incidents, including his interactions with Mr. Clark, with the Senate Judiciary Committee. He called Mr. Rosen’s account ‘dramatic evidence of how intent Trump was in overthrowing the election.'” Additionally, Senator Blumenthal said that Rosen “presented new facts and evidence that led him to believe that the committee would need to answer ‘profound and important questions’ about the roles that individuals in Mr. Trump’s orbit played in the effort to undermine the peaceful transition of power.”
Click through for train of thought. Of course it’s pure speculation, at best an educated guess. But it would be nice.

LA Times – Why are vaccination rates so low? We found the worst county in each state and asked the politicians
Quote – Among the mayors who supported vaccination, the dominant sentiment was that they had done all they could to raise the rates and were never going to succeed.
Click through if you like, The response rate was low, and those who answered, asnwered exactly as you would expect. But the chart is interesting. I had to turn off my ad blocker, so I put the chart into a Word documebt (and I can make a pdf from it in seconds if that is preferred) and can send it easily.

Food for Thought – I like the way he conceptualizes.

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Jul 112021
 

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”

This article presents material of importance – and it is presented in such a way that I don’t have to think too much about being confident it is good information and sharing it accordingly. That’s a very good thing when I have just lost essentially three days of preparation time. See what you think about it.
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Science denial: Why it happens and 5 things you can do about it

Are you open to new ideas and willing to change your mind?
Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Barbara K. Hofer, Middlebury and Gale Sinatra, University of Southern California

Science denial became deadly in 2020. Many political leaders failed to support what scientists knew to be effective prevention measures. Over the course of the pandemic, people died from COVID-19 still believing it did not exist.

Science denial is not new, of course. But it is more important than ever to understand why some people deny, doubt or resist scientific explanations – and what can be done to overcome these barriers to accepting science.

In our book “Science Denial: Why It Happens and What to Do About It,” we offer ways for you to understand and combat the problem. As two research psychologists, we know that everyone is susceptible to forms of it. Most importantly, we know there are solutions.

Here’s our advice on how to confront five psychological challenges that can lead to science denial.

Challenge #1: Social identity

People are social beings and tend to align with those who hold similar beliefs and values. Social media amplify alliances. You’re likely to see more of what you already agree with and fewer alternative points of view. People live in information filter bubbles created by powerful algorithms. When those in your social circle share misinformation, you are more likely to believe it and share it. Misinformation multiplies and science denial grows.

two seated men in discussion
Can you find common ground to connect on?
LinkedIn Sales Solutions/Unsplash, CC BY

Action #1: Each person has multiple social identities. One of us talked with a climate change denier and discovered he was also a grandparent. He opened up when thinking about his grandchildren’s future, and the conversation turned to economic concerns, the root of his denial. Or maybe someone is vaccine-hesitant because so are mothers in her child’s play group, but she is also a caring person, concerned about immunocompromised children.

We have found it effective to listen to others’ concerns and try to find common ground. Someone you connect with is more persuasive than those with whom you share less in common. When one identity is blocking acceptance of the science, leverage a second identity to make a connection.

Challenge #2: Mental shortcuts

Everyone’s busy, and it would be exhausting to be vigilant deep thinkers all the time. You see an article online with a clickbait headline such as “Eat Chocolate and Live Longer” and you share it, because you assume it is true, want it to be or think it is ridiculous.

Action #2: Instead of sharing that article on how GMOs are unhealthy, learn to slow down and monitor the quick, intuitive responses that psychologist Daniel Kahneman calls System 1 thinking. Instead turn on the rational, analytical mind of System 2 and ask yourself, how do I know this is true? Is it plausible? Why do I think it is true? Then do some fact-checking. Learn to not immediately accept information you already believe, which is called confirmation bias.

Challenge #3: Beliefs on how and what you know

Everyone has ideas about what they think knowledge is, where it comes from and whom to trust. Some people think dualistically: There’s always a clear right and wrong. But scientists view tentativeness as a hallmark of their discipline. Some people may not understand that scientific claims will change as more evidence is gathered, so they may be distrustful of how public health policy shifted around COVID-19.

Journalists who present “both sides” of settled scientific agreements can unknowingly persuade readers that the science is more uncertain than it actually is, turning balance into bias. Only 57% of Americans surveyed accept that climate change is caused by human activity, compared with 97% of climate scientists, and only 55% think that scientists are certain that climate change is happening.

man with book looking off into distance
How did you come to know what you know?
ridvan_celik/E+ via Getty Images

Action #3: Recognize that other people (or possibly even you) may be operating with misguided beliefs about science. You can help them adopt what philosopher of science Lee McIntyre calls a scientific attitude, an openness to seeking new evidence and a willingness to change one’s mind.

Recognize that very few individuals rely on a single authority for knowledge and expertise. Vaccine hesitancy, for example, has been successfully countered by doctors who persuasively contradict erroneous beliefs, as well as by friends who explain why they changed their own minds. Clergy can step forward, for example, and some have offered places of worship as vaccination hubs.

Challenge #4: Motivated reasoning

You might not think that how you interpret a simple graph could depend on your political views. But when people were asked to look at the same charts depicting either housing costs or the rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over time, interpretations differed by political affiliation. Conservatives were more likely than progressives to misinterpret the graph when it depicted a rise in CO2 than when it displayed housing costs. When people reason not just by examining facts, but with an unconscious bias to come to a preferred conclusion, their reasoning will be flawed.

Action #4: Maybe you think that eating food from genetically modified organisms is harmful to your health, but have you really examined the evidence? Look at articles with both pro and con information, evaluate the source of that information, and be open to the evidence leaning one way or the other. If you give yourself the time to think and reason, you can short-circuit your own motivated reasoning and open your mind to new information.

Challenge #5: Emotions and attitudes

When Pluto got demoted to a dwarf planet, many children and some adults responded with anger and opposition. Emotions and attitudes are linked. Reactions to hearing that humans influence the climate can range from anger (if you do not believe it) to frustration (if you are concerned you may need to change your lifestyle) to anxiety and hopelessness (if you accept it is happening but think it’s too late to fix things). How you feel about climate mitigation or GMO labeling aligns with whether you are for or against these policies.

Action #5: Recognize the role of emotions in decision-making about science. If you react strongly to a story about stem cells used to develop Parkinson’s treatments, ask yourself if you are overly hopeful because you have a relative in early stages of the disease. Or are you rejecting a possibly lifesaving treatment because of your emotions?

Feelings shouldn’t (and can’t) be put in a box separate from how you think about science. Rather, it’s important to understand and recognize that emotions are fully integrated ways of thinking and learning about science. Ask yourself if your attitude toward a science topic is based on your emotions and, if so, give yourself some time to think and reason as well as feel about the issue.

[You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors. You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter.]

Everyone can be susceptible to these five psychological challenges that can lead to science denial, doubt and resistance. Being aware of these challenges is the first step toward taking action to meet them.The Conversation

Barbara K. Hofer, Professor of Psychology Emerita, Middlebury and Gale Sinatra, Professor of Education and Psychology, University of Southern California

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, the synod of the Lutheran Church in which I was raised (the Missouri Synod) was, heaven knows, narrow minded enough in many ways (unlike, for instance, the ELCA, which is quite progressivee), but somehow I managed to learn growing up that God no longer speaks directly as he did in and through the Bible, and a big part of why not is that, having discovered science and the scientific method, we are now able to make our own discoveries about his wonderful creation, and no longer need to be spoon-fed, like children, with visions such as St. Peter’s vision in Acts 10 (a vision which, if correctly interpreted, OUGHT to inform all Christians that LGBTQIA people are just fine, thanks, and are not any kind of junk.) Sadly, that’s not the message that science deniers are getting today from their churches, parents, even teachers. Of course that’s not the whole problem, but it definitely contributes. If you ladies, or anyone reading this, have any suggestions on how to deal with that, I’m listening.

The Furies and I will be back – on our new day.

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May 102021
 

Glenn Kirscher – The “Fox-itis” defense

Now This News – hanky alert

Founders Sing – I Can’t Live If Livin’ Is Without You

Puppet Regime

Funny 911 calls animated

@sock_puppet_masterWhat do you do? ##911 ##outrageous911 ##police ##cops ##animation ##foryou♬ original sound – Sock Puppet Master

Beau “Let’s talk about space mushrooms and news cycles….” You may not need a lesson in how to read news … but, in case you know smeone who does…

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Apr 272021
 

Meidas Touch – Depressing – nothing that we didn’t know (or strongly suspect), but now, confirmation.

Really American

The Republican Accountability Project – and here’s the link to the Report Card – https://accountability.gop/report-card/ (Mine got an “F” – no surprise)

The Damage Report – The lying is no surprise, though the apology is

Now This News – Super (Pink) Moon At least this is not depressing. (It also isn’t pink, and the brightness is not due to air pollution.)

Robert Reich – Voting Rights

Beau on Montana’s new law and a Republican “change of heart”

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Apr 012021
 

Now This News … How petty… How Republican.

Now This News – Infrastructure Plan, Readers Digest version. No, it’s not enough, but it’s a heck of a good start.

Really American, now crediting Chip Franklin (makes sense to me)

OwlKitty vs. Godzilla. Short dialog at the beginning: “We need OwlKitty to stop what’s coming.” After that, just some sound effects and a little purring.

How could I post a video thread today with out a prank? And this one is epic – an epic fail, that is.

Beau on checking OFM’s science homework

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Mar 312021
 

Meidas Touch – Of course, this is not evidence….

Really American

Ring of fire – The weirdness never stops with Republicans, does it.

Also Ring of Fire – empty Greene is calling this “The Mark of the Beast” – or, more specifically, “Biden’s Mark of the Beast.”

Rocky Mountain Mike – maybe not his best, but that’s a high bar to have to meet, and it’s very pertinent.

Do Octopuses Dream?

This is 6:25, and if you don’t have time for the whole video, don’t even start. I honestly don’t think his answer is the only answer, but I do think it should be included – broadly and decisively.

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