WHITAKER THINKING | 2007-06-30
The example below, Hardric's "transition from Petty politics to Racial Politics" represents EXACTLY what I am trying to produce here.
Someone made a joke about whitakerism since I object so much to a Wordist Whitakerism. But as I was on the trip to New York playing possum in the back of the van, someone said something and then said proudly, "Now THAT'S Whitaker thinking!"
I realized that what I am trying to get to here is Whitaker thinking. A Whitakerism would exclude OTHER thoughts, as Wordism always does. But Whitaker thinking can be used by an evolutionist or a creationist, by either of just about any two sides in a discussion.
Hardric gave a new phrase to Whitaker thinking. But if you USE Whitaker thinking, you will realize that the LAST thing I want to claim is that my thinking is NEW.
Gravity was OLD when Isaac Newton was born. Ask anyone doing the work building the pyramids and he would have said, "Yes, I did notice gravity from time to time." The Law of Displacement was in action when the only things floating on earth were on hot lava, but Archimedes came up with that explanation for floating ships billions of years later.
Occam's Razor, that one should look for the first and simplest cause first, was in operation when the first nerve cell appeared on earth. But when the brain got a certain size, they began seeking complicated solutions first. Occam's Razor is the basis of Western science, but it is also a return, literally, to horse sense.
Whitaker thinking is no substitute for knowledge or experience. It is an ADDITION.
The gravitational system of Newton is SIMPLE, but it is not EASY. Europe's greatest minds were still finding its implications and working out its mathematics for a century afterwards. You can state the Laws of Physics in a few sentences, but it takes a little longer to become a physicist.
Whitaker thinking is probably a subset of Occam's Law in social areas. But its implications goon and on, and it is not based on faith. When a subject comes up, you can try it. If it doesn't fit, screw it. Don't try to cram the universe into it.
I am going to try to give some of the basic rules of Whitaker thinking. I am sure it took Occam a long time to figure his objections to Scholastic Philosophy down to one sentence, and I am not even sure HE is the one who did it.
SOME rules of Whitaker thinking are:
1) WHY did that person say ANYTHING? We know to ask that about commercials, but we seem to go blank about it in everyday life;
2) LISTEN to what a person says and SEE all the assumptions he is making. For two generations we have heard people demand immigration into ALL white countries and ONLY white countries all our countries. We have heard the question asked routinely asked, "Is Eastern Europe READY for immigration YET?" But only with Bob's Mantra did the IMPLICATIONS of this thinking get targeted.
There are lots more. Some are below, and I will be going into more with more specificity. But by now I should NOT be doing this ALONE.