You are extremely lucky

Re-reading Epidemics and Society by Frank Snowden. I was rather surprised by how much of the details I didn't really remember, probably because I didn't want to.  If you were born before the late 19th Century, in various times and places you would have been quite likely to contract bubonic plague, smallpox, cholera, typhus, tuberculosis, malaria, and any number of other diseases which, without effective treatments -- and there weren't any -- are appalling, horrific, tortuous beyond description and if you are one of the typically 50% or often fewer who survive, likely to leave you permanently scarred or disabled.

Before the neolithic, that is before widespread practice of agriculture and permanent settlement, the risk of infectious disease was probably lower for most people, but when it happened, you were screwed. Once people gathered in cities, which were for millennia foul beyond anything you can imagine, things got much, much worse. The Black Death killed half the population of Europe and it destroyed society. You don't want to know what untreated cholera is like. I won't dwell on the horrors Snowden recounts, but take my word for it, we're talking really ugly and evil, and it was just the common fate of humanity.

Let's stipulate that Homo sapiens has been around for 300,000 years, and that we aren't worried about Homo erectus. That means that if you had been born in any of the previous 299,900 years, this would have been your likely fate. We live in truly miraculous times, but we seem to have no appreciation for it. So just think about it.

Wednesday Bible Study: Making the case for an estate tax

Chapter Two is interesting in a couple of ways. The speaker amasses immense worldly wealth -- including slaves and sex slaves, by the way, but that's perfectly normal -- and finds it gives him no pleasure in the end. He decides that wisdom is better than folly, but what difference does it really make since we are all mortal. Finally, he worries that the inheritor of his property will be unworthy of it. 

All those obscenely rich people who are funding the Trump campaign because they don't want to pay taxes and they don't want their estates to be taxed either should probably read this. 

2 I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. ² “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?” ³ I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.

⁴ I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. ⁵ I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. ⁶ I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. ⁷ I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. ⁸ I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem^[a] as well—the delights of a man’s heart. ⁹ I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

¹⁰ I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
    I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
    and this was the reward for all my toil.
¹¹ Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
    and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
    nothing was gained under the sun.

Wisdom and Folly Are Meaningless

¹² Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,
    and also madness and folly.
What more can the king’s successor do
    than what has already been done?
¹³ I saw that wisdom is better than folly,
    just as light is better than darkness.
¹⁴ The wise have eyes in their heads,
    while the fool walks in the darkness;
but I came to realize
    that the same fate overtakes them both.

¹⁵ Then I said to myself,

“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
    What then do I gain by being wise?”
I said to myself,
    “This too is meaningless.”
¹⁶ For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;
    the days have already come when both have been forgotten.
Like the fool, the wise too must die!

Toil Is Meaningless

¹⁷ So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. ¹⁸ I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. ¹⁹ And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. ²⁰ So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. ²¹ For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. ²² What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? ²³ All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

²⁴ A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, ²⁵ for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? ²⁶ To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Footnotes

1. Ecclesiastes 2:8 The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.

Alternate theories

Actually not mutually exclusive, but synergystic. Our friend Chucky, inspired by "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" by Isabel Wilkerson, notes that:

"Nobody wants to be the person, or part of the group, that is at the bottom of the pecking order. Trump tells folks that there are creatures at an unbridgeable distance below them who they will always be superior to. They're brown, and other dark skin shades, and their goal is to turn the tables on the white population. Once you buy that message being able to accept his warts just moves you farther into the club. You can't argue with them because he is talking directly to their lizard brain, buried under the one we think defines us."

 

This is reminiscent of Lyndon Johnson's observation: "I'll tell you what's at the bottom of it. If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.

 

So yes, but we can still ask why people need people to look down on. Amanda Marcotte in Salon points to the right-wing freakout over Doug Emhoff's daughter Ella, who is a model and fashion designer, and Tim Walz's son Guz, both of whom are white (well, if Jewish counts as white). 

 

Last week, Ann Coulter and other Republican bottom-feeders grossed normal people out by mocking Guz Walz for getting emotional during his dad's speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC). The insults didn't just prove that the self-appointed protectors of "family values" wouldn't know a loving family if they saw one. It was a reminder that the Trump campaign's strategy continues to be appealing to ugly, bitter people with a message of resentment.  . . .

 

Harris' family has drawn ire, as well. Especially her stepdaughter, 25-year-old model and designer Ella Emhoff, whose creativity, beauty, and easygoing love for her family has sent many on the right into paroxysms of rage. The daughter of Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, triggers the incel-minded online right by being a Brooklyn hipster who rejects the tiresome conservative rules for how women are allowed to dress or behave. In response, Donald Trump's fanboys are in a total meltdown, unable to accept the existence of a woman who doesn't care what they think of her. And they can't hide that they're furious that she looks great doing so. In the real world, Ella Emhoff, who graduated from Parsons School of Design and has a modeling contract with IMG, is being declared "a fashion icon" for her effortless pairing of high fashion with her quirky tastes. 

Despite his pretensions to speak for the majority, Hanania, a major contributor to Project 2025, is yet another MAGA weirdo. In the past, he's denounced "race-mixing and sneered about the "ugly, secular and barren White self-hating and Jewish" women he believes are betraying their feminine duties to be obedient helpmeets whose only ambition is having lots of children. “Women simply didn’t evolve to be the decision makers in society,” he wrote in one piece, arguing “women’s liberation = the end of human civilization.” His comments echo the much-panned, repeated griping of Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, that childless women are "miserable cat ladies" and "sociopaths."

 

So yeah, there's racism, but there's also all those pathetic men out there who can't stand the idea of independent, empowered women. Obviously they aren't going to vote for Kamala Harris but I'm hoping there aren't enough of them.

 

Sunday Sermonette: Why bother?

As promised, I'm sparing you the remaining drivel of Proverbs. The book known in English as Ecclesiastes is more interesting. The title is the Latin transliteration of the Greek translation of the Hebrew word קֹהֶלֶת , Kohelet, which  means something like "the person addressing an assembly," i.e. teacher or preacher. However, oddly, it is a feminine form. Scholars, who assume the speaker must have been a man, have struggled to explain this. The structure implies that an unnamed person has transcribed the preacher's words, who then summarizes at the end.

Although Kohelet is traditionally said to be Solomon, as with Proverbs and everything else attributed to him that is fanciful. Based on linguistic considerations, the book was written between 450 and 180 BCE, long after Solomon's death. It's inclusion in the Tanakh is rather puzzling as it seems to constitute a rejection of faith. Apologists explain this in various ways, e.g. perhaps we are to interpret it as a cautionary bad example. Whatev. The literary quality is certainly better than most of what we've encountered so far. Here's the first chapter. The KJV is more familiar, which translates what is given here as "meaningless" as "vanity." But that can be confused with a different meaning of the word -- unhealthy self-regard -- so the New International Version is more accurate, if less poetic. Chapter 1 rather reminds me of Hamlet's soliloquy of despair. The speaker seems very depressed. Again, theologically this is highly heretical.

1 The words of the Teacher,^[a] son of David, king in Jerusalem:

² “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
    says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
    Everything is meaningless.”

³ What do people gain from all their labors
    at which they toil under the sun?
⁴ Generations come and generations go,
    but the earth remains forever.
⁵ The sun rises and the sun sets,
    and hurries back to where it rises.
⁶ The wind blows to the south
    and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
    ever returning on its course.
⁷ All streams flow into the sea,
    yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
    there they return again.
⁸ All things are wearisome,
    more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
    nor the ear its fill of hearing.
⁹ What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;
    there is nothing new under the sun.
¹⁰ Is there anything of which one can say,
    “Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
    it was here before our time.
¹¹ No one remembers the former generations,
    and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
    by those who follow them.

Wisdom Is Meaningless

¹² I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³ I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! ¹⁴ I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

¹⁵ What is crooked cannot be straightened;
    what is lacking cannot be counted.

¹⁶ I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷ Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

¹⁸ For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
    the more knowledge, the more grief.

Footnotes

1. Ecclesiastes 1:1 Or the leader of the assembly; also in verses 2 and 12

Mystery solved?

As my 2 1/2 long time readers know well, I have been profoundly puzzled by the appeal of Cheeto Benito. He is, as far as I'm concerned, the most repulsive, loathsome, vile and foul person imaginable. Also stupid, ignorant, and a pathological liar. Yet he is an object of worship, mostly by people who call themselves Christians. What is going on here?

Well, I think I know. I have a neighbor -- well, neighbor out here is a relative term, he's about a mile and half away. He has a really nice old farmhouse, built in the 1820s, right on the corner of a scenic town road and the main state road that runs north and south through town. He obviously has money because he restored the house when he bought it, a substantial project that involved among other things jacking the house up to replace the sills. (Back in those days they usually built the houses right by the side of the road so everything was visible to passersby.)

A couple of weeks ago, he hung a flag right next to his front door. This is what it says:

        Trump

        2024

Fuck Your Feelings

Imagine putting that right next to your front door, by the side of a well-traveled road, for all to see. Obviously he doesn't want the neighbors stopping by with a zucchini bread and he isn't looking to borrow a cup of sugar himself. Nope. He hates humanity. That's what he wants everyone to know. So now it all makes perfect sense. Trump hates humanity too. They're kindred spirits.  Apparently there are more people in that category than I had thought. It's sad.

Wednesday Bible Study: Food for Fools

I said I wasn't going to present the rest of the proverbs, but I couldn't resist Chapter 26. It almost seems to be a parody. Actually, I think it might be. Anyway it's pretty funny.

26 Like snow in summer or rain in harvest,
    honor is not fitting for a fool.
² Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow,
    an undeserved curse does not come to rest.
³ A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey,
    and a rod for the backs of fools!
⁴ Do not answer a fool according to his folly,
    or you yourself will be just like him.
⁵ Answer a fool according to his folly,
    or he will be wise in his own eyes.
⁶ Sending a message by the hands of a fool
    is like cutting off one’s feet or drinking poison.
⁷ Like the useless legs of one who is lame
    is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
⁸ Like tying a stone in a sling
    is the giving of honor to a fool.
⁹ Like a thornbush in a drunkard’s hand
    is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
¹⁰ Like an archer who wounds at random
    is one who hires a fool or any passer-by.
¹¹ As a dog returns to its vomit,
    so fools repeat their folly.
¹² Do you see a person wise in their own eyes?
    There is more hope for a fool than for them.

¹³ A sluggard says, “There’s a lion in the road,
    a fierce lion roaming the streets!”
¹⁴ As a door turns on its hinges,
    so a sluggard turns on his bed.
¹⁵ A sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
    he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth.
¹⁶ A sluggard is wiser in his own eyes
    than seven people who answer discreetly.

¹⁷ Like one who grabs a stray dog by the ears
    is someone who rushes into a quarrel not their own.

¹⁸ Like a maniac shooting
    flaming arrows of death
¹⁹ is one who deceives their neighbor
    and says, “I was only joking!”

²⁰ Without wood a fire goes out;
    without a gossip a quarrel dies down.
²¹ As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire,
    so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife.
²² The words of a gossip are like choice morsels;
    they go down to the inmost parts.

²³ Like a coating of silver dross on earthenware
    are fervent^[a] lips with an evil heart.
²⁴ Enemies disguise themselves with their lips,
    but in their hearts they harbor deceit.
²⁵ Though their speech is charming, do not believe them,
    for seven abominations fill their hearts.
²⁶ Their malice may be concealed by deception,
    but their wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.
²⁷ Whoever digs a pit will fall into it;
    if someone rolls a stone, it will roll back on them.
²⁸ A lying tongue hates those it hurts,
    and a flattering mouth works ruin.

Footnotes

1. Proverbs 26:23 Hebrew; Septuagint smooth

Truth and partisanship

So we finally get around to the question. Why has vaccine denialism become almost exclusively a province of the right wing and the Republican party? This began to happen before the Covid-19 pandemic, but that was when it moved decisively into the Alex Jones/Joe Rogan/MAGA camp. Donald Trump actually tried to take credit for development of the Covid-19 mRNA vaccines at a rally, and got booed by his own cultists, so he quickly gave up on that idea.*

 

A major impulse for this was the move by the right to seize ownership of the word "liberty" by rejecting all measures to protect public health, including masking, not having large indoor gatherings, distancing, and of course vaccination. Any efforts by government to require, or even encourage these measures were portrayed as totalitarian oppression. This only works, however, if you leave out the part of the picture where you're, you know, making people sick and killing them. People in the ICU on ventilators don't enjoy a whole lot of liberty, and people with long-term or permanent disabilities form long covid have their liberty greatly impaired. So the only way to make your story cohere is to promulgate your own alternative facts.

These came in various iterations and combinations. The whole thing is a hoax, the virus is no more dangerous than the common cold, or it doesn't even exist. The symptoms are actually caused by radio waves from 5G cell towers. Or (and perhaps simultaneously), the virus can make people sick but all you have to do is take horse deworming pills or a common anti-malaria drug, but they're covering it up because they want to seize control over our lives. The vaccines don't work, and they have horrific side effects. Also they contain a microchip so that Bill Gates can track your movements, and they selectively sterilize white people . . . 

You get the idea. But in fact the Republican war on science goes back decades. Madhusudan Katti, writing for Scientific American, draws the link between Republican denialism and Donald Trump's rhetorical strategies specifically, and creationism. Biblical fundamentalists are an essential part of the Republican constituency so science denialism was necessary before Covid-19 came along. But the real Republican constituency, the one that matters to politicians, is the wealthy donor class, including the fossil fuel industry and other polluters. The party denies the reality of anthropogenic climate change because they get their money from the people whose obscene wealth depends on it, and also because it blows up their phony Free Market™ ideology. The same goes for other environmental regulation, and public health in general. Katti has a few things to say that are worth reading, but I'll give you one excerpt:

Coined by the National Center for Science Education’s founding director Eugenie Scott in 1994, the Gish gallop takes its name from the creationist Duane Gish, who frequently challenged biologists to debates about evolution. His tactic consisted of talking fast and with confidence, bombarding opponents with falsehoods, non-sequiturs and enough cherry-picked factoids to confuse the audience. Scientists debating him faced the challenge of sifting half-truths from outright lies and finding the right evidence to refute them systematically, all within the few minutes allowed in response. Which effectively meant that when the bell went off, the Gish gallop left the scientist “stumped” and Gish declaring victory for creationism. Such a spectacle leaves the audience less informed than they were before the debate, all at the hands of a debater whose only goal is to discredit their opponent and “win” the debate.

The migration of the Gish gallop from creationist’s patter onto the presidential debate stage, and increasingly onto news opinion pages nationwide, exemplifies a dangerous debasement of honest dialogue in American life. That both the public and its leaders pass over, or applaud, this kind of dishonesty on the highest political stage shows how integrity has taken a back seat to “winning” power in politics, business and the so-called “culture wars,” and now shrouding us in a fog of disinformation.

 

Well, I'm still in the Reality Based Community.

*Actually he developed the vaccine personally, in his own laboratory in the White House basement, using his very stable genius qualities.

Sunday Sermonette: A question of attribution

Although the new book following the Egyptian contribution apparently started in the middle of the previous chapter, the introduction is provided here in Chapter 25. Again, the only explanation I can give for these odd divisions is that they are based on the length of the scrolls available at the time this was compiled, presumably during the Babylonian exile. 

 

The introduction claims that these are proverbs composed by Solomon, compiled during the reign of Hezekiah. According to Kings and Chronicles, Hezekiah was the 13th King of Judah and Solomon was the second, which would mean, a fortiori, that somehow these sayings of Solomon had survived for a couple of centuries before they were written down. That seems absurd. What seems most likely to me is that the attribution to Solomon and Hezekiah was just intended to give the work prestige. To the priests who presumably created this, Hezekiah is one of the most respected kings because he restored religious orthodoxy, reestablished the pilgrimage festivals, and purged the land of idols. 

 

He was also one of the most important military leaders of Judah. During his reign, the Neo-Assyrian empire under Sargon destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel, and he then successfully resisted the siege of Jerusalem by Sargon's son Sennacherib in 701 BCE, which is why the Jewish people exist today. However, he probably benefits from my inclination not to give him credit for these proverbs, because they are distinctly unimpressive as wisdom. Much of Chapter 25 is about the respect due to kings, which would be rather self-serving. Some of it is difficult to comprehend, like verse 24, which is apparently so important that it is a repeat from Chapter 21. Apparently somebody involved in all this had an unhappy marriage.

Anyway, as before, I'm not going to make you read all of the rest of this. We'll some up next time, then move on to Ecclesiastes, which is certainly more interesting.

25 These are more proverbs of Solomon, compiled by the men of Hezekiah king of Judah:

² It is the glory of God to conceal a matter;
    to search out a matter is the glory of kings.
³ As the heavens are high and the earth is deep,
    so the hearts of kings are unsearchable.

⁴ Remove the dross from the silver,
    and a silversmith can produce a vessel;
⁵ remove wicked officials from the king’s presence,
    and his throne will be established through righteousness.

⁶ Do not exalt yourself in the king’s presence,
    and do not claim a place among his great men;
⁷ it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here,”
    than for him to humiliate you before his nobles.

What you have seen with your eyes
⁸     do not bring^[a] hastily to court,
for what will you do in the end
    if your neighbor puts you to shame?

⁹ If you take your neighbor to court,
    do not betray another’s confidence,
¹⁰ or the one who hears it may shame you
    and the charge against you will stand.

¹¹ Like apples^[b] of gold in settings of silver
    is a ruling rightly given.
¹² Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold
    is the rebuke of a wise judge to a listening ear.

¹³ Like a snow-cooled drink at harvest time
    is a trustworthy messenger to the one who sends him;
    he refreshes the spirit of his master.
¹⁴ Like clouds and wind without rain
    is one who boasts of gifts never given.

¹⁵ Through patience a ruler can be persuaded,
    and a gentle tongue can break a bone.

¹⁶ If you find honey, eat just enough—
    too much of it, and you will vomit.
¹⁷ Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house—
    too much of you, and they will hate you.

¹⁸ Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow
    is one who gives false testimony against a neighbor.
¹⁹ Like a broken tooth or a lame foot
    is reliance on the unfaithful in a time of trouble.
²⁰ Like one who takes away a garment on a cold day,
    or like vinegar poured on a wound,
    is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.

²¹ If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
    if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
²² In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head,
    and the Lord will reward you.

²³ Like a north wind that brings unexpected rain
    is a sly tongue—which provokes a horrified look.

²⁴ Better to live on a corner of the roof
    than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

²⁵ Like cold water to a weary soul
    is good news from a distant land.
²⁶ Like a muddied spring or a polluted well
    are the righteous who give way to the wicked.

²⁷ It is not good to eat too much honey,
    nor is it honorable to search out matters that are too deep.

²⁸ Like a city whose walls are broken through
    is a person who lacks self-control.

Footnotes

1. Proverbs 25:8 Or nobles / on whom you had set your eyes. / ⁸ Do not go
2. Proverbs 25:11 Or possibly apricots

A brief detour on the anti-vax route

The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) has revoked the certification of two physicians for promoting Covid-19 related disinformation. They lead an organization called the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance, which promotes ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19 and also supplements to treat what it calls "vaccine injury." The two physicians, Pierre Kory and Paul Ellis Marik called the ABIM disciplinary proceeding "an attack on free speech." That's just as ridiculous as everything else they appear to believe. (Or possibly they're just in it for the money.)

Here we have the usual misconstrual of the concept of free speech from people who spout nonsense and lies. The First Amendment constrains the government. The ABIM is a private organization, and they can establish their own criteria for who and what they endorse. Their mission is to assure the appropriate practice of medicine, based on evidence. The evidence is incontrovertible, that ivermectin is completely useless in treating Covid-19. That's a fact, not an opinion, and it is not subject to legitimate controversy. They could equally well claim that an effective treatment is to swing a dead cat around your head three times and bury it under a rock in the light of the full moon. Also, that "supplements" can treat "vaccine injury" is a completely invented concept with no basis in evidence or reality.

Loss of board certification, unfortunately, doesn't mean they can't still practice medicine. It would limit their employment opportunities, but I assume they don't care about that because they're making money off of their scams. Which means it isn't hard to explain why they purport to believe in nonsense, or have actually convinced themselves of it. What is harder to explain is why these particular preposterous lies remain attractive to a large segment of the public -- especially so since we now do have real effective treatments. 

The only explanation seems to be that a certain demented orange idiot once endorsed the claim, and there are millions of people for whom that is a an unshakeable foundation of belief. Okay, but why is that? It's turtles all the way down. Anyway, that does set up the next post.

The Anti-Vax Insanity

While it isn't too hard to explain why much of science denialism happens, the anti-vaccine conspiracy theories -- once largely bipartisan but now strongly associated with the far right fever swamps -- are rather puzzling. During most of the 20th Century, the medical profession enjoyed growing prestige and profound respect for its expertise. A high point was undoubtedly development of the polio vaccine by Jonas Salk, announced in 1955. Endemic polio had struck terror throughout the country and the world, and Salk gained heroic status. Vaccines were developed for other dread scourges, notably measles, mumps and rubella, and the centuries long campaign against smallpox culminated with its eradication from the earth in 1980. (Polio has nearly been eradicated but pockets remain in war zones and areas of civil unrest, where vaccination campaigns face severe obstacles.)

 

Vaccination was nearly universally accepted as a miracle of science. Whereas it was once taken for granted that anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of children would die or suffer severe injury from infectious disease, parents had the expectation that all of their children would survive to adulthood for the first time in human history. So what happened?

 

We can trace the modern anti-vax conspiracy movement to a British physician named Andrew Wakefield, who with several colleagues published  paper in The Lancet in 1998 claiming a link between the Measles - Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. The paper was based on a series of only 12 cases and the conclusion would have been dubious in any case, but in fact the research was fraudulent. 

 

It was later discovered that Wakefield had been funded by lawyers who planned to sue the manufacturer. The Lancet retracted the paper in 2010, with the concurrence of most of the co-authors who claimed Wakefield had duped them. Wakefield's medical license was subsequently revoked. Nevertheless the damage had been done. Uptake of the MMR vaccine fell sharply. A movement sprang up of parents of autistic children who, desperate to find a cause for their children's difficulties, made Wakefield into a hero and refused to believe the nearly universal condemnation of Wakefield by the medical profession. (Wakefield actually moved to the U.S. and became a leader of the anti-vax movement.)

In 2005 the execrable Robert F. Kennedy Jr. published an article claiming that thimerosal, a preservative found in a few vaccines (though largely removed after 2000) was a cause of autism among other health problems, and furthermore that public health officials knew this and were covering it up. This was a complete fabrication. Although the publishers retracted the article after it was thoroughly debunked, Kennedy has since expanded his claims to bring into question vaccination in general. His motive, apparently, has been simply to make a name for himself. He craves notoriety above all else, and this is how he gets it. The charisma surrounding his family gave him credibility he had not otherwise earned in any way.

So, essentially, you had a couple of con artists exploiting a lie to win fame and fortune, but there wasn't any particular political polarization around it. Kennedy in fact was more influential with people who considered themselves liberals, and the main villain followers saw in this was the pharmaceutical industry. I will be the first to criticize, nay excoriate the pharmaceutical industry, as long-time readers of this blog know well, but in this particular area they are largely above reproach. (Vaccines aren't particularly profitable, on the contrary they eliminate opportunities for future profit.)

However, with the Covid-19 pandemic the conspiracy theory migrated decisively to the far right precincts of Alex Jones, Q-Anon, and the Republican party in general. We'll discuss that next.

 

 

Wednesday Bible Study: More tautology

The transcription of the Egyptian text ends at verse 22, whereupon we get a new work, the origin of which is unknown. I have to say that the Instruction of Amenope goes downhill here -- it pretty much degenerates into "Good is good, bad is bad." The Further Sayings of the Wise don't start off a whole lot better -- judge fairly, be industrious. Well, okay.

Saying 20

24 Do not envy the wicked,
    do not desire their company;
² for their hearts plot violence,
    and their lips talk about making trouble.

Saying 21

³ By wisdom a house is built,
    and through understanding it is established;
⁴ through knowledge its rooms are filled
    with rare and beautiful treasures.

Saying 22

⁵ The wise prevail through great power,
    and those who have knowledge muster their strength.
⁶ Surely you need guidance to wage war,
    and victory is won through many advisers.

Saying 23

⁷ Wisdom is too high for fools;
    in the assembly at the gate they must not open their mouths.

Saying 24

⁸ Whoever plots evil
    will be known as a schemer.
⁹ The schemes of folly are sin,
    and people detest a mocker.

Saying 25

¹⁰ If you falter in a time of trouble,
    how small is your strength!
¹¹ Rescue those being led away to death;
    hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
¹² If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,”
    does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
    Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?

Saying 26

¹³ Eat honey, my son, for it is good;
    honey from the comb is sweet to your taste.
¹⁴ Know also that wisdom is like honey for you:
    If you find it, there is a future hope for you,
    and your hope will not be cut off.

Saying 27

¹⁵ Do not lurk like a thief near the house of the righteous,
    do not plunder their dwelling place;
¹⁶ for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again,
    but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.

Saying 28

¹⁷ Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
    when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice,
¹⁸ or the Lord will see and disapprove
    and turn his wrath away from them.

Saying 29

¹⁹ Do not fret because of evildoers
    or be envious of the wicked,
²⁰ for the evildoer has no future hope,
    and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.

Saying 30

²¹ Fear the Lord and the king, my son,
    and do not join with rebellious officials,
²² for those two will send sudden destruction on them,
    and who knows what calamities they can bring?

Further Sayings of the Wise

²³ These also are sayings of the wise:

To show partiality in judging is not good:
²⁴ Whoever says to the guilty, “You are innocent,”
    will be cursed by peoples and denounced by nations.
²⁵ But it will go well with those who convict the guilty,
    and rich blessing will come on them.

²⁶ An honest answer
    is like a kiss on the lips.

²⁷ Put your outdoor work in order
    and get your fields ready;
    after that, build your house.

²⁸ Do not testify against your neighbor without cause—
    would you use your lips to mislead?
²⁹ Do not say, “I’ll do to them as they have done to me;
    I’ll pay them back for what they did.”

³⁰ I went past the field of a sluggard,
    past the vineyard of someone who has no sense;
³¹ thorns had come up everywhere,
    the ground was covered with weeds,
    and the stone wall was in ruins.
³² I applied my heart to what I observed
    and learned a lesson from what I saw:
³³ A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest—
³⁴ and poverty will come on you like a thief
    and scarcity like an armed man.

Crank magnetism

I've been reflecting of late on science denial and pseudoscience. Obviously there are some recent phenomena that have particularly inspired me, for example the ludicrous RFK Jr. and anti-vax in general, the climate emergency, the resurgence of creationist demands on school boards. These attract overlapping constituencies, hence the phrase crank magnetism, coined by the redoubtable Orac. However, although there is shared susceptibility, I think there are a couple of different underlying causes.

Climate denialism is like tobacco and lead. Denial of the dangers of burning fossil fuels, smoking tobacco, and putting lead into children's bodies were all very well-funded conspiracies by psychopathic rich people who put their already obscene wealth ahead of the health and lives of hundreds of millions of people or, in the case of climate denialism quite possibly the future of civilization. There is no place in hell low enough for them.

However, that does not explain creationism or anti-vax, among some other popular denialisms. (Remember HIV denial? That seems to have faded out.) There aren't any extremely powerful financial interests behind these. But they don't have much in common either. I think there are two different things going on.

Regarding creationism, it was always an uphill struggle for Darwin to replace the Bible. Religion had deeply entrenched cultural power, and it also has psychological appeal that evolution does not, at least to many people, though not to me. Apparently it's just uncomfortable for many to think that humans arrived on the scene by accident, that we're nothing special and the world wasn't made for us. I don't know why the idea of God is comforting to people, if he's good and merciful he obviously isn't powerful, and vice versa. But that's an argument for another day. (It's called the theodicy problem, BTW, and despite libraries full of books trying to solve it, it's impossible.) 

But I think something more has happened in the 20th Century, as the physicists' understanding of the universe grew ever deeper, more complicated, and more strange to our intuition. Relativity and quantum theory are not only difficult to understand, but they violate the way our brains have evolved to make sense of the world. There's no denying the technological miracles science has brought us, and it happens to be true that the GPS depends on relativity theory for its precision, and the chips that make our phones and our computers and our cars function depend on quantum theory. However, none of this requires a fortiori that the universe be 13.8 billion years old.* That requires a very long chain of observation and logic. However, if you trust the observations and understand both theories and do the math, it's what you have to conclude.

I think to most people 21st Century physics just seems, to the extent it's comprehensible, absurd, and otherwise just gobbledygook. It's just a lot easier and more comforting to believe the old, simple story they taught you in Sunday school. That doesn't explain the anti-vax movement, however, which I'll get to next.

*Actually there's a newly proposed theory that it's actually quite a bit older, which tries to account for some puzzling observations by the James Webb Space Telescope. But it's definitely not any younger.

Sunday Sermonette: A few random bizarre thoughts

The wisdom of ancient Egypt continues. Like the Hebrews, the Egyptians recommended beating children and apparently had a major hangup about seductive women. I suspect, actually, that the composer of the previous book of proverbs had read this and was in large part inspired by it. Some of these sentiments I can agree with, others I can't, others are just plain weird. The writer obviously had experience with alcoholism, whether he was in recovery himself or is referring to people he knows. So we know that was a problem in ancient Egypt, and presumably in Judah as well.

 

BTW, for readers of the English translation of the Vulgate, this has actually gone through one additional translation. 

Egyptian->Aramaic->Hebrew->Koine Greek->Church Latin->English. While the Egyptian version is extant, I doubt any of the translators have looked past the Hebrew. And of course the social context of the original was very foreign to us. So what exactly some of this meant originally, or why the writer thought it important enough to include, is not fully knowable. Make of it what you will.

Saying 7

23 When you sit to dine with a ruler,
    note well what^[a] is before you,
² and put a knife to your throat
    if you are given to gluttony.
³ Do not crave his delicacies,
    for that food is deceptive.

Saying 8

⁴ Do not wear yourself out to get rich;
    do not trust your own cleverness.
⁵ Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone,
    for they will surely sprout wings
    and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

Saying 9

⁶ Do not eat the food of a begrudging host,
    do not crave his delicacies;
⁷ for he is the kind of person
    who is always thinking about the cost.^[b]
“Eat and drink,” he says to you,
    but his heart is not with you.
⁸ You will vomit up the little you have eaten
    and will have wasted your compliments.

Saying 10

⁹ Do not speak to fools,
    for they will scorn your prudent words.

Saying 11

¹⁰ Do not move an ancient boundary stone
    or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
¹¹ for their Defender is strong;
    he will take up their case against you.

Saying 12

¹² Apply your heart to instruction
    and your ears to words of knowledge.

Saying 13

¹³ Do not withhold discipline from a child;
    if you punish them with the rod, they will not die.
¹⁴ Punish them with the rod
    and save them from death.

Saying 14

¹⁵ My son, if your heart is wise,
    then my heart will be glad indeed;
¹⁶ my inmost being will rejoice
    when your lips speak what is right.

Saying 15

¹⁷ Do not let your heart envy sinners,
    but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord.
¹⁸ There is surely a future hope for you,
    and your hope will not be cut off.

Saying 16

¹⁹ Listen, my son, and be wise,
    and set your heart on the right path:
²⁰ Do not join those who drink too much wine
    or gorge themselves on meat,
²¹ for drunkards and gluttons become poor,
    and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

Saying 17

²² Listen to your father, who gave you life,
    and do not despise your mother when she is old.
²³ Buy the truth and do not sell it—
    wisdom, instruction and insight as well.
²⁴ The father of a righteous child has great joy;
    a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him.
²⁵ May your father and mother rejoice;
    may she who gave you birth be joyful!

Saying 18

²⁶ My son, give me your heart
    and let your eyes delight in my ways,
²⁷ for an adulterous woman is a deep pit,
    and a wayward wife is a narrow well.
²⁸ Like a bandit she lies in wait
    and multiplies the unfaithful among men.

Saying 19

²⁹ Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
    Who has strife? Who has complaints?
    Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?
³⁰ Those who linger over wine,
    who go to sample bowls of mixed wine.
³¹ Do not gaze at wine when it is red,
    when it sparkles in the cup,
    when it goes down smoothly!
³² In the end it bites like a snake
    and poisons like a viper.
³³ Your eyes will see strange sights,
    and your mind will imagine confusing things.
³⁴ You will be like one sleeping on the high seas,
    lying on top of the rigging.
³⁵ “They hit me,” you will say, “but I’m not hurt!
    They beat me, but I don’t feel it!
When will I wake up
    so I can find another drink?”

Footnotes

1. Proverbs 23:1 Or who
2. Proverbs 23:7 Or for as he thinks within himself, / so he is; or for as he puts on a feast, / so he is

Thought experiment

Let us suppose that a reporter asked Kamala Harris a question about Donald Trump's, oh, let's say second wife Marla Maples. In our hypothetical, Harris responds by saying that she knew Marla Maples very well, in fact they were in a helicopter together that crash landed. They thought it might be the end for both of them. Maples then told her many bad things about Trump, Harris won't say what exactly.

Let us then suppose it turns out this was not true. Not at all. Kamala Harris was never in a helicopter with Marla Maples. She was once in a helicopter with Rula Lenska, that had a hard landing. Rula Lenska never met Donald Trump and would have had nothing to say about him. Would this possibly affect the Harris candidacy for president? Would the corporate media talk about nothing else for a week? Would voters decide that Kamala Harris must be either a pathological liar or a nut job and couldn't possibly serve as president? What do you think?

Wednesday Bible Study: Enough of this drivel

 I've decided that there's no point in making you read this dreck twice a week. You get the idea. You can read the entire Book of Proverbs here: BibleGateway. Just enter Proverbs [#] in the search box to read whatever chapter you like. I recommend selecting the New International Version.

What I'll do now is jump ahead to chapter 22. As I've explained, Proverbs is really an anthology, so this is the next included work, largely a translation of an Egyptian work called The Instruction of Amenope, composed some time in the second millennium BCE. It probably reached the Hebrew scribes via Aramaic, so what you are reading was written in Egyptian, translated to Aramaic, translated again to Hebrew, and then translated to English. 

The chapter divisions are arbitrary -- probably caused by the length of the available scrolls. The new book actually begins with verse 17. As you can see, the first 16 verses are more of the same inane two liners. The Egyptian material seems a bit more substantive, although the Just World Fallacy sneaks in here as well.

22 A good name is more desirable than great riches;
    to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.

² Rich and poor have this in common:
    The Lord is the Maker of them all.

³ The prudent see danger and take refuge,
    but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

⁴ Humility is the fear of the Lord;
    its wages are riches and honor and life.

⁵ In the paths of the wicked are snares and pitfalls,
    but those who would preserve their life stay far from them.

⁶ Start children off on the way they should go,
    and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

⁷ The rich rule over the poor,
    and the borrower is slave to the lender.

⁸ Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity,
    and the rod they wield in fury will be broken.

⁹ The generous will themselves be blessed,
    for they share their food with the poor.

¹⁰ Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife;
    quarrels and insults are ended.

¹¹ One who loves a pure heart and who speaks with grace
    will have the king for a friend.

¹² The eyes of the Lord keep watch over knowledge,
    but he frustrates the words of the unfaithful.

¹³ The sluggard says, “There’s a lion outside!
    I’ll be killed in the public square!”

¹⁴ The mouth of an adulterous woman is a deep pit;
    a man who is under the Lord’s wrath falls into it.

¹⁵ Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,
    but the rod of discipline will drive it far away.

¹⁶ One who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth
    and one who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty.

Thirty Sayings of the Wise

Saying 1

¹⁷ Pay attention and turn your ear to the sayings of the wise;
    apply your heart to what I teach,
¹⁸ for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart
    and have all of them ready on your lips.
¹⁹ So that your trust may be in the Lord,
    I teach you today, even you.
²⁰ Have I not written thirty sayings for you,
    sayings of counsel and knowledge,
²¹ teaching you to be honest and to speak the truth,
    so that you bring back truthful reports
    to those you serve?

Saying 2

²² Do not exploit the poor because they are poor
    and do not crush the needy in court,
²³ for the Lord will take up their case
    and will exact life for life.

Saying 3

²⁴ Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person,
    do not associate with one easily angered,
²⁵ or you may learn their ways
    and get yourself ensnared.

Saying 4

²⁶ Do not be one who shakes hands in pledge
    or puts up security for debts;
²⁷ if you lack the means to pay,
    your very bed will be snatched from under you.

Saying 5

²⁸ Do not move an ancient boundary stone
    set up by your ancestors.

Saying 6

²⁹ Do you see someone skilled in their work?
    They will serve before kings;
    they will not serve before officials of low rank.