The Worldview Prison

The large majority or possibly all people are unable to accept or even process data, even personal experiences, perceived to contradict their worldview. This is common human behavior. It is not a function of intelligence, education, social status, or any other obvious marker. In fact, highly educated intelligent people may be more prone to it as they are better equipped — like a good lawyer — to rationalize away obviously contradictory data or experiences.

One should not think of our “worldview” as a rigorous axiomatic system like Euclid’s Geometry or the precise logically consistent rules of games like chess. It is not rational in the usual sense. It appears to be a hodgepodge of elements and can often contain contradictory elements. It is highly social in nature, being comprised of direct personal experience and the claims of authority figures in groups we identify with such as our family, tribe or nation, profession etc. It is closely associated with our sense of group identity.

Many people can and do change their worldview but it usually follows sustained negative direct personal experiences over a period of years, very rarely less than six months. Data alone in the sense of books, newspaper articles, peer reviewed research papers, databases, spreadsheets etc. almost never changes the worldview.

Direct personal experiences, usually strongly negative, are the underlying cause in most cases. Once these have occurred and begin to work their way through the subconscious and conscious mind, the person will begin to seriously engage “data” whereas before they may not have even been able to “see” that very same data: ignoring it, dismissing it out of hand, reacting with great hostility to “obvious” baloney or lies.

It may be that an extreme traumatic event such as the loss of a loved one to an immediate negative reaction to a vaccine can cause an immediate change of worldview — less than six months — but this seems quite rare.

Beliefs about “science” and vaccines constitute a worldview or part of a worldview, especially for scientists, engineers and other technical people, for whom “science” constitutes an actual substitute for a religion or other spiritual beliefs.

Other psychological concepts such as “denial” and “cognitive dissonance” overlap with this concept of a rigid, difficult to change worldview. Cognitive biases seem strongest — most difficult to overcome — for elements of the worldview.

This behavior of the worldview in most, possibly all, people suggests that attempts to persuade others where the worldview of some or all may be involved should focus on drawing their attention to their own direct experiences, in-person experiments or demonstrations of contradictory phenomena, and persuading those for whom the issue is not connected to their worldview.

Gaslight Movie Poster (1944)

It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to distinguish true belief in a worldview from deliberate deception and fraud including “gaslighting” because the ability to perceive both experiences and “data” is substantially impaired. The “True Believer” genuinely cannot see obviously contradictory evidence that others can easily see.

Nor is there a sharp dividing line between true belief and fraud. Authority figures in the group may engage in Plato’s Noble Lies to protect the worldview (and often their power) not because they don’t mostly believe in the worldview but in the same way that parents simplify, hide, sugar-coat or flat out lie to children to protect them from complex or painful issues.

I have changed my worldview a few times (it is a rare occurrence). In all cases, the sequence of negative experiences preceded even conscious doubt of underlying assumptions in my worldview, by at least six months. The whole process took a couple of years in each case from start to finish.

Major scientific and technological breakthroughs frequently involve a change of worldview. The inventors and discoverers usually spend several years failing miserably before the flash of insight, the change of worldview occurs. The final flip can be quite fast but it is almost always preceded by long periods of failure. There are for example many accounts of the change of worldview, moment of insight, the “Heureka moment”, happening almost instantaneously on a contemplative walk or other break after a long period of hard but unsuccessful work.

Note that reading about the many failures of previous researchers does not lead the inventor or discoverer to abandon the prevailing wisdom of how to solve the problem. It usually appears to require personal repeated failure as well.

What does this mean both for persuading others and being sure of our own beliefs?

Direct personal experiences are more persuasive. Test your own beliefs if you can. In your own mind, clearly distinguish between the relatively small number of beliefs well founded in repeated clear direct personal experiences and those derived from others, generally external authorities in groups that you identify with.

This is easier said than done. For example, many people especially scientists and engineers are taught that it is “obvious” that the Earth is a sphere about 8,000 miles in diameter and believe it is obvious when in fact it is not — unless you have actually circumnavigated the Earth or flown on a space ship. Try demonstrating to yourself that the Earth is a sphere about 8,000 miles in diameter from only your own personal experience, not reciting claims by science popularizers such as the late Carl Sagan.

Get others to notice personal contradictory experiences and to test their beliefs first hand. This is not always possible. There is no guarantee of success. Remarkably we often consider elements of the worldview derived from the words of others (“everyone knows”) just as solid and true as those based on personal experience. Even more reliable in some cases — “how could everyone be wrong?” “How could all the experts be wrong?”

Psychoanalyzing people to their face is usually not persuasive. Most people find it offensive and patronizing. Most highly educated people are well aware of cognitive biases. It is in the news. Many are not aware there are social psychology studies that knowing about cognitive biases does not immunize you to them. Daniel Kahneman actually effectively retracted one chapter of his book which contained an obviously statistically under powered study. Even the experts are demonstrably vulnerable to confirmation bias and other cognitive biases.

https://replicationindex.com/category/kahneman/

Paradoxically, knowledge of cognitive biases including the extreme rigidity of the worldview provides a powerful set of tools to dismiss obviously contradictory experiences, evidence, and data. “I know about these biases and those nitwits over there do not. The data was cherry picked etc. etc.”

One should be cautious about accusing people of deliberate lying or gross stupidity where the worldview is likely involved as highly intelligent, educated “True Believers” are truly unable to see, accept or otherwise process contradictory data or even personal experiences. Nor is this unusual or pathological behavior. Most of us are True Believers in something.

The Blind Men and the Elephant

One should also keep in mind the parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant when different worldviews seem grossly incompatible. Each blind man, having never encountered an elephant before and touching a different part of the elephant, describes the elephant as like a “snake”, “a tree”, “a sharp spear”, etc. It may be that each contradictory worldview is substantially incomplete. All have some truth and all are wrong.

In the case of the worldview, in contrast to other beliefs, we are unable to treat it as provisional, as possibly wrong. We are True Believers in our worldview and our group is obviously right.

(C) 2023 by John F. McGowan, Ph.D.

About Me

John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

[Video] Risking Nuclear War with False Flag Claims

Armageddon Now: Risking Nuclear War with False Flag Claims

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Risking Nuclear War with False Flag Claims

US experts continue to dismiss warnings of use of nuclear weapons by Russia while simultaneously making unproven claims of false flag attacks: blaming the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline, drone strikes on the Kremlin and Moscow, and the Nova Kakhova dam catastrophe on Russian false flag attacks.

It is difficult to understand this strategy. The US experts claim amongst other things that the global opprobrium for violating the taboo on use of nuclear weapons deters Russia from using such weapons. Wimpy former KGB chief Putin would never order a nuclear strike because — well — he is afraid various nations will call him a bad guy if he bombs his enemies. The sensitive, thin-skinned Russian President has never had to deal with being called a murderer, gangster, poisoner, or anything like that before and dreads the experience, sort of like his super sensitive puppet Donald Trump.

The most likely way Russia would avoid this hypothetical outrage would be to stage a genuine false flag operation with a small nuclear strike near Moscow or some other significant and symbolic location, not unlike the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. This would rally the Russian nation to the government and garner considerable global sympathy as well as outrage at Ukraine and its supposed neo-Nazi maniacs.

In this case, Russia would not be violating the taboo on first use of nuclear weapons and could use nuclear weapons “defensively” against the neo-Nazis in Ukraine to save the Russian people from genocide by the neo-Nazis, most likely by destroying Ukraine in a massive attack that would hopefully intimidate the US — not a few wimpy tactical nuclear weapons which the US has assured the world would not even slow the US experts in their crusade against Russia but only result in a macho escalation.

Like the boy who cried wolf, the US and its experts are methodically destroying their credibility, such as it is since the Iraq missing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) fiasco, by making repeated unproven false flag claims, in several cases now seemingly walking these back with anonymous leaks blaming the incidents on Ukraine or other parties.

Will the world be outraged at Russia if there is a mysterious nuclear attack on Russia which the United States and its experts denounce Alex Jones like for the umpteenth time as a false flag attack? Or will the US and its experts discover, like the boy in Aesop’s fable, that no one takes them seriously?

Alex Jones Inspires US Foreign Policy Experts

One gets the uneasy feeling that the US foreign policy experts are either incompetent or working for someone who is trying to arrange a nuclear war. Perhaps one of the NSA’s supercomputers has become self-aware due to ill advised AI experiments (about 2016 seems a likely date) and is using the NSA’s vast trove of blackmail data to manipulate the pesky humans into self-destruction, not unlike the fictional SkyNet in the Terminator movie series. Such a horrific scenario or something equally bad seems more and more likely with each enthusiastic step toward nuclear Armageddon.

(C) 2023 by John F. McGowan, Ph.D.

About Me

John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Armageddon Now: US Rhetoric on Tactical Nuclear Weapons Risks Nuclear Holocaust

Short video on the dangers of recent US rhetoric on possible Russian use of tactical nuclear weapons in the Russia-Ukraine war.

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About Me

John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

[Video] How the Ukraine War Could Go Nuclear

How the Ukraine War Could Go Nuclear

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Short video on how the Ukraine-Russia war could go nuclear and the urgent need to end the war to prevent global thermonuclear annihilation.

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(C) 2023 by John F. McGowan, Ph.D.

About Me

John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

[Video/Tech Jobs] The Problem with Interviews

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Short video on the problem with job interviews.

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(C) 2022 by John F. McGowan, Ph.D.

About Me

John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

[Video] SBF and FTX: T-Shirts and Due Diligence

https://youtube.com/shorts/hi1cTELmoe0?feature=share

https://youtube.com/shorts/hi1cTELmoe0?feature=share

Sam Bankman-Fried: FTX, T-Shirts, and Due Diligence

The sudden bankruptcy of crypto-exchange slash crypto-trader FTX has led to much commentary on FTX founder and ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried known as SBF’s hair and penchant for t-shirts and shorts. How could sophisticated investors like Sequoia have backed such a goofy looking guy?

Never judge a book by its cover. Whether SBF wore a t-shirt or a ten-thousand dollar suit, sophisticated investors are supposed to perform due diligence in which the financial system of the company is carefully reviewed. How did the accounting mess labeled “unprecedented” by new CEO John Ray who oversaw the ENRON bankdruptcy escape due diligence?

(C) 2022 by John F. McGowan, Ph.D.

About Me

John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

[Video Review] Lessons for Ukraine from the Vietnam War?

With President Biden invoking Armageddon and the United States embroiled in a hot proxy war with Russia, the other major nuclear superpower, in the Ukraine, the lessons of Vietnam may be especially relevant today. The Fog of War is a 2003 video documentary on the career of former US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (1916-2009) primarily focusing on the Vietnam War in which 58,220 Americans and many more Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians perished. The war had a reported cost of $168 billion in 1960’s dollars ($950 billion in 2011 dollars). McNamara was Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson from 1961 to 1968. He has been widely criticized for his leadership of the war effort. It is sometimes presented as a mea culpa by McNamara.

The documentary is essentially an interview with McNamara, eighty-seven (87) at the time, interspersed with historical news footage that sometimes contradicts McNamara’s often opaque — one might say foggy — answers. In many respects it seems like a non-apology apology in which McNamara makes hazy statements that in fact avoid responsibility, passing the buck repeatedly to his former boss Curtis LeMay, President Johnson, unnamed subordinates (for the decision to use the Agent Orange “herbicide” in Vietnam), and others while sounding deeply but vaguely concerned about his fellow man. It is structured as a self-help video for future generations with eleven lessons from McNamara — all the sort of general mostly feel-good platitudes common in self help materials: e.g. “Empathize with your enemies” — a touchy-feely variant of the old standby “Know your enemies.”

At no point does McNamara say something like: ” I made decision X. In retrospect it was a bad decision and I regret it.” In discussing the controversy over Agent Orange, he says some people think the chemical was dangerous, implies someone else made the decision to use it, says he cannot recall who made the decision, and expresses vague concern, not really regret, that it was used during his tenure as Secretary of Defense. He does not discuss the taboo on use of chemical weapons in warfare that grew out of their use in World War I, a taboo that even Nazi Germany which had developed nerve gases far deadlier than the weapons used in WWI obeyed during WW2. Surely there should have been a cabinet level review — with the President and Secretary of Defense (McNamara) involved — of any decision to use a chemical weapon.

Good Cop, Bad Cop?

Good cop/bad cop is a psychological tactic used in negotiation and interrogation, in which a team of two people take opposing approaches interrogating their subject. One interrogator adopts a hostile or accusatory demeanor, emphasizing threats of punishment, while the other adopts a more sympathetic demeanor, emphasizing reward, in order to convince the subject to cooperate.

The “bad cop” takes an aggressive, negative stance towards the subject, making blatant accusations, derogatory comments, threats, and in general creating antipathy with the subject. This sets the stage for the “good cop” to act sympathetically, appearing supportive and understanding, and in general showing sympathy for the subject. The good cop defends the subject from the bad cop. The subject may feel able to cooperate with the good cop, either out of trust or out of fear of the bad cop and may then seek protection by the good cop and provide the information the interrogators are seeking. The order can also be reversed. When performed in this manner, the good cop will try to gain a subject’s trust. If that fails, the bad cop will intimidate the subject to make them crack under pressure

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_cop/bad_cop

In many respects, McNamara’s interview and the documentary reflect what seems to be the modern liberal Democrat Party line on the Vietnam War — and the more recent Iraq War II. Something like: the Vietnam War was a mistake. Kennedy and Johnson meant well. Nixon didn’t. JFK and LBJ were browbeaten and misinformed into the debacle by hard line and often dishonest military and CIA leaders such as Air Force General Curtis LeMay whom McNamara paints as an ogre, CIA Director Allen Dulles, General William Westmoreland, failed Republican 1964 Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, and others. Once Nixon became President, the naive ineffective but much smarter and more caring Democrats “woke up” and abandoned the war.

In 1964 Lyndon Johnson ran as a peace candidate against the crazed maniac war Republican war hawk Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. The documentary has a brief clip of Goldwater stating bluntly that the US is in a war in Vietnam and the administration is lying to the public, which indeed seems to have been true.

In August of 1964, only three months before the Presidential election, there was an alleged series of incidents in the Gulf of Tonkin near Vietnam where the North Vietnamese allegedly “attacked” the US fleet. These attacks seem to have killed or injured no one and caused either no or minimal damage. McNamara discusses the “attacks” assuring the viewers that yes the “attack” on August 2 occurred but the second attack on August 4 was apparently a “mistake” by somebody, not him obviously. Usually the term “attack” brings up thoughts of events like the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed almost 3,000 Americans or Pearl Harbor with 2,403 deaths in 1941.

Nonetheless, President Johnson seized upon the “attacks” and gave a speech to the US population seeming to claim the US was bombing North Vietnam as he was speaking, which would have required the planes to be airborne from their base in the Pacific before the alleged second attack. Not surprisingly Barry Goldwater pointed out the timing problem and was ridiculed. Goldwater would give several speeches during the election campaign questioning the incidents and suggesting a coverup.

In the Fog of War McNamara’s vague assertions about the incident and audio tapes played by the documentary suggest Johnson and McNamara may have been misled by either incompetent or willfully deceptive military officers who sound rather unsure of their own claims. Since 1964, tapes have been released indicating Johnson and McNamara privately had doubts about the incidents, which nonetheless did not delay or moderate the immediate statements to the public or the reported counter-attack, the bombing.

Of course, with no casualties, the President and Secretary of Defense could easily have released a reassuring statement through the Presidential spokesman indicating there had been a possible minor incident with no casualties and the US was investigating to determine what actually happened before responding.

The highly publicized attacks with no casualties increased fears of war during the election campaign and seem to have helped Johnson’s campaign against the right wing hawk Goldwater. Johnson was the good cop and Goldwater the bad cop — whether by design or accident. The Gulf of Tonkin resolution giving the administration a carte blanche for war in Vietnam was passed on August 10, 1964 with strong bipartisan support, not unlike the recent resolution to support Ukraine.

McNamara also seems to use the good cop/bad cop routine in his discussion of the Cuban Missile Crisis with his former boss Curtis Le May as the crazed “bad cop” warmonger planning World War III. By comparison, JFK and McNamara seem reasonable. We are led to think: Thank God Curtis Le May was not in charge. There is no discussion of the convenient timing of the crisis which boosted JFK’s approval ratings dramatically, only weeks before the November, 1962 mid-term elections.

Fog of War or Smokescreen?

Both McNamara’s answers on camera and the documentary emphasize McNamara’s brilliance: a top student before attending Berkeley, an Irish kid atypically outcompeting smart Jewish, Chinese, and Japanese students at Piedmont High School in Piedmont, CA, a top student at Berkeley, attending Harvard business school, a key aide to Curtis Le May during World War II, and whiz kid at Ford before being tapped as Secretary of Defense by JFK. Yet this self-described genius (I think he probably was a genius) repeatedly passes the buck by portraying himself and his boss, tough Texas politician Lyndon Johnson, as naive simpletons repeatedly hoodwinked and even intimidated by subordinates. Who us? We were only in charge!

Lessons for Ukraine?

While the Fog of War’s eleven self-help platitudes are of little practical value in the modern crisis, there is a sobering lesson, not a new one.

Governments, including specifically highly educated, intellectual liberal Democrats who preach peace and brotherly love, frequently lie, blatantly and on serious matters such as war and peace, sometimes just to win the next election — no matter the subsequent costs to the nation or the world. Super smart officials like Robert McNamara lie and are often excellent liars and masters of double talk. They get away with it too; McNamara was rewarded with a Presidential Medal of Freedom and a cushy, highly paid job as President of the World Bank from 1968 to 1981.

(C) 2022 by John F. McGowan, Ph.D.

About Me

John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

[Video] The Gray Lady Winked Book Review

The Gray Lady Winked Book Review (Video Version)

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Ten minute video book review of The Gray Lady Winked — anti New York Times book.

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