Jacques Derrida was a philosopher (that I’m not a fan of) who you may have never heard of. Derrida is one of the architects of corrupt modern society and an intellectual vandal who brought a sledgehammer against civilization.
He created a very insidious virus — not a literal virus but a very viral idea; a mind virus, an intellectual contagion. And ideas are powerful, aren’t they?
His idea, to summarize, was that civilization must be burnt down. Completely. That civilization was utterly corrupt to its core and, like a house hollowed out by termites, should just be burnt down to the ground.
He had what was likely a very traumatic childhood growing up as a French Jew in Algiers during World War two. Obviously, his brain had some major malfunctions yet he had that Jewish verbal intelligence, the capacity to craft persuasive prose, and a bit of French charm and swagger.
He was the father of deconstructionism, which is quite possibly the worst idea ever.
He believed that virtually everything about civilization was bad and beyond saving.
Democracy and republicanism were terrible and had to go.
The church and religion were terrible and had to go.
The family and the way we raise children were especially terrible and had to go.
Science and mathematics were terrible and had to go.
Even rationality and logic were terrible and had to go.
He wrote 40 books that contain all sorts of egregious inconsistencies and contradictions. His response, when confronted with this, was that rationality and logic were at the core of this evil system of oppression (aka civilization) and that he would not be constrained by them.
And in a world traumatized by the Second World War, many fertile minds bought what he was selling. He was a tremendous influence on many schools of thought that arose in the second half of the 20th century; post-modernism, cultural Marxism anthropology, feminism, social sciences, literary interpretation, applied linguistics, etc.
His mind virus found a powerful ally of convenience in the KGB. After World War Two communist spies successfully infiltrated the inner sanctums of power in Western countries. The KGB worked very discretely to infiltrate and place those infected with the virus into positions of influence in academia, government, media, and Hollywood, and the virus spread.
Now that you know about this virus, you’ll see it everywhere
Out in public on the streets, on TV, at your workplace, and at your school - it is prolific. If you turn on the news right now, you won’t need to watch long to see unwitting disciples of Derrida still hellbent on burning civilization to the ground.
Less conspicuously, the virus has had a terrible yet hidden effect on the integrity of science.
The sad truth is that some domains of science have abandoned logic and reason just like Derrida did.
We dream of this Star Trek world where we can live as long as we like in perfect health, and travel to stars; where all disease and widespread poverty will be eradicated. A world of true abundance for all may be a world where unborn babies will have their genes CRISPR edited so that they have +120 IQs.
However, the reality is that we will never reach that world if Derrida’s virus continues to spread, infect, and corrupt the sciences. If his odious idea virus out-competes rationality, logic, and empiricism we can count on the future being a cruel, dark, and savage experience for seven, eight, nine, or maybe even ten billion human beings.
This is why I’ve begun a video series that’s a whole lot more practical about how we can tell the difference between bad science and good science.
This week I addressed the question: What is Pseudoscience?
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The Worst Idea Ever