Against Politics

Toward a depoliticized society

Zinnlandia

Posted on | July 3, 2009 | Comments Off by Aschwin de Wolf

A recent blog post by Chip Smith at the Hoover Hog drew my attention to the writer Takuan Seiyo. In the archives of the author at the Brussels Journal I found a 2008 piece on the pathological political culture of the Pacific Northwest, or as the author calls it, Zinnlandia:

Behavioral psychology has names for various information perception and analysis biases, but at least fifteen of those would have to be added to encompass the depth and width of the Zinnlandian’s – let’s not beat around the bush – craziness. Take, among others, the Bias Blind Spot, add some Omission Bias and Selective Perception, leaven with white racial guilt propaganda. Whip that into a mixture of Belief Bias, Selective Memory, Bandwagon Effect, Déformation Professionnelle and Disconfirmation Bias. Pour the mixture into a pie shell made of Neglect of Probability, My Side Bias, Optimism Bias and Positive Outcome Bias, and bake for 30 years in an oven designed specifically by mainstream media and the educational system to make that kind of dough rise. Voilà!

Portland, Oregon is one of the most beautiful cities in the United States but the cultural marxism and economic illiteracy (producing astronomical unemployment rates, among other things)  that informs public policy here reflect a self-congratulatory obsession with planning and a bias against realism and common sense which the philosopher Michael Levin identifies  as the “skim milk fallacy” in his penetrating analysis of progressive thinking, How Philosophical Errors Impede Freedom (PDF).

Category: Arts & Living, Politics
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