This is a simple rule that solves problems but won't appeal to arrogant people. Of course, someone else thought of this long before me and called it "positivism."
Today, while researching Quercetin, I also did a small research on ineffective cancer treatments through Wikipedia's redirection. Is Quercetin ineffective against cancer? I don't know, and the source Wikipedia provided has been deleted anyway. It doesn't matter, because I was ultimately redirected to an interesting page listing things I'd never thought of. Among things that weren't quite clear whether they were torture or treatment, I came across an interesting image. The interior of a wooden cabin completely lined with metal. Inside, there was an office chair that made this strange sight even more incongruous, along with a flowery cushion.
While poking around asking "What is this?", I encountered the concept of "Orgone." This Orgone energy was apparently the idea of a psychoanalyst named William Reich, who was initially a Marxist but later drifted quite thoroughly into spiritualism. I didn't examine it deeply, but generally, Orgone energy taken from the sun reaches its peak during sexual orgasm. This Orgone energy with spiritual properties is good for the human soul and also for the human body; it heals cancer and helps with AIDS. If I'm mistaken, I hope William Reich followers will excuse my error.
Of course, transitioning from a thoroughly materialist thought like Marxism to such a spiritualist idea must have been quite difficult.
The cabin I described to you is also a type of Orgone machine. He thought that materials containing contrasts like metal - wood - fabric would concentrate the Orgone in the environment, and hoped that by shutting people inside this, they would heal. This is how we treat cancer and such.
The main idea: There's a magical energy out there, and that energy will accumulate and heal you.
The bottom line is, I'm generally an intellectual agnostic who doesn't reject anything based purely on knowledge. I don't use the word agnostic in the sense of belief, but to express that I hesitate to make definitive judgments about ideas based purely on knowledge. So I would say there might be something called Orgone, perhaps something similar might have existed. Therefore, I inevitably determine my judgments based on the quality of secondary and tertiary sources. I don't know if this is correct, but it hasn't misled me much.
My mini internet research on Orgone led me to a site called "Cosmic Healing" and I read something roughly like this:
"These networks and such... They've taken us very far in terms of communication, but they emit bad energy. In fact, they enslave us with an electrical energy that destroys people. Go get an Orgonite made of natural stones and copper in an unclear pyramid shape. Convert bad energy into Orgone. We actually sell Orgonites too, have a look if you want."
My final judgment on Orgone: Charlatan business. As a secondary source, it was terrible - I ended up on a site that doesn't even have basic knowledge about what wireless networks are. It sent me a clear enough "stay away" message. Still, I aesthetically liked these Orgonites. If I see one for my desk, I'll buy it. I think this could become an art form in its own right.
This Orgone business reminded me of the judgments I had previously made about both Astrology and fortune-telling.
Let's go with Astrology, everyone's favorite topic to bash. Let me throw some dirt myself. We learned that I'm someone with Capricorn rising, Sagittarius sun, and since the rising ruler is in the 3rd house, I'm very suited to communication and processing information tools, but since the rising ruler Saturn is also in Aries, I'm probably someone suited to producing something new. (I confess... I haven't missed this ear-scratching artificial jargon at all.)
My astrological analysis predicts that I'm an angry but cold-blooded, somehow workaholic man. It requires me to perform all my behaviors within this framework. Naturally, the confusion about why I perform a particular behavior increases quite a bit.
Those who know will know, my neighborhood Bakırköy has recently been under a terrible beggar invasion. The shopkeepers are fed up. There are literally three beggars controlling one street. Even when eating chicken döner, a beggar comes out and eyes the last 50 lira in my pocket, saying "For God's sake, give alms." Like the shopkeepers, I'm fed up too.
If one day I went out and scolded one of the beggars, saying "Enough! What is this? You won't even let a man eat chicken döner," how would various minds interpret this?
Orgone/Reiki/Various spiritual energy practitioners: This person is quite merciless and loveless due to lack of good energy. Under the influence of intense negative energy, he directed his own restlessness toward a poor beggar.
Astrologer: His Mercury Sagittarius making a triangular angle with Saturn Aries adds a harsh, authoritative tone to his speech, and since he's in the fire group, he expresses himself more fearlessly and directly. Since Mercury Sagittarius makes a square angle with the Moon Virgo in the 8th house, the empathy he establishes with the lower classes has tensed him, and such a scene emerges.
Ordinary guy: The guy must be fed up with seeing beggars.
Even if I don't know who's telling the truth, the only useful comment comes from the ordinary guy. The problem, more than things being wrong or right, is the thorough muddying of the information needed to take action. That is, only the ordinary guy can give a message like "Because A happened, B occurred, and C needs to be done to fix it." The good thing is that the ordinary guy's idea of "C needs to be done to fix it" can also produce quite workable results. Metaphysicists, on the other hand, not only muddy the main message but also make it impossible to think of a solution.
What's even worse is that metaphysicists have also monopolized establishing logical relationships of the "if so, then this" type about a subject. For example, to make the interpretations that an astrologer makes, you must take astrology education, pass their exams, and obtain a certificate. Of course, this doesn't work for me, a guy who finished open education in three years just out of laziness. Moreover, because I'm ignorant, I can't oppose the person expressing this knowledge. I can only say "Wow, how you enlightened me," because he caught me completely off guard by approaching the subject from an angle I never considered.
Let's leave this topic here. Let's move on to Indians. I understand how that terrible system that continues its effect in India even today was established, but I couldn't understand how it was sustained for centuries. There's nothing like this. Capitalism pyramid, which is the biggest criticism of Western civilization, is definitely not such a thing. Although there are definitely points you cannot reach in Capitalism, there's no system rigid enough to keep you permanently in misery. It offers you hope and you see that some people really come from the bottom and get rich. The caste system is not like this. It makes you accept that the one at the bottom can never get rich, should not get rich, will not even have a home, and deserves this.
The reason can be easily understood in the flow of this writing. Even though there's a very clear problem, a thought mechanism that would prevent this problem from being solved objectively has also been adopted. Karl Marx's objectivity of "If you live like a dog, you go and rebel like a gentleman" hasn't worked in India for centuries because completely different mechanisms that blur examining the situation, making decisions, and stop taking action have been involved. What you think of as "The man has to live on the street, how bad" can become "I have to live like this due to things I don't understand and don't need to understand" for the Indian experiencing that ordeal.
So a mechanism like "Because A happens, B occurs, the solution should be C" is your only weapon that enables you to stand against injustices. What enables the monster we call Capitalism to at least provide the opportunity for advancement within itself is also this. The moment you're aware of the situation as it is, you start being able to do something and seek your own rights. This mechanism can be rendered inoperative by unknown metaphysical effects that are said to create a third effect outside of cause and effect.
What's your choice? To be dulled to the point where you can't understand what is what, or to be able to express what is, plain and clear?
Actually, I've personally witnessed that people engaged in these metaphysical pursuits are seriously arrogant people. Instead of embracing the truth as it is, in all its nakedness, people caught up in the arrogance of "I can know more than you" engage in these metaphysical pursuits to look down on others. The aim of these people is to always declare themselves as people to be consulted. They also turn you into people who cannot think and are in need of guidance. While they can see, you cannot see the hidden truth. Even if you learn the Astrology techniques whose expertise method is unknown and where everyone has different opinions, this reality gap between you won't close because there will always be a difference in intuitive and spiritual awareness.
Therefore, people's abandoning all metaphysical thinking and being able to establish cause-and-effect relationships in all their nakedness has created a great revolution. At the simplest level, science has emerged. Science's only weapon, from chemistry to psychology with its endless scope, is this simple weapon.
Don't underestimate the simple. The whole thing about that mystical device you call a computer is that it can treat everything as numbers, whether sound or image, and process them quickly. Yes, simple numbers.