What's a Logiczombie?
What is a LogicZombie?
- Source
This essay deals with very important aspects of our daily life. Not only speakers, news anchors, politicians and people you generally expect to see facing a camera. This affects YOU and ME and all the normal people, the "average Joe" so to speak. Lets talk about the attention grabbing title I know it looks like the name of the latest RPG aimed at math lovers. Its two words- Logic & Zombie. The definitions according to the Cambridge Dictionary are
Logic: a particular way of thinking, especially one that is reasonable and based on good judgment
Zombie: creature that is a dead person who has been brought back to life, but without human qualities
It is apparent that these words represent opposing qualities, but today this is normal- Decaf Coffee, Non Alcoholic Beer, bottled spring water, war for peace, etc. It is with great difficulty that I have held back comments on the criminal idiocy of politicians. The point is this term is well made for the times and can mean either - People/ situation where human beings act bereft of logic Or Persons in an emotionless pursuit to think and see logically. You do understand that both these definitions arise from the fact that we encounter such unreasonable people and situations that are impossible to explain and require counter with dispassionate and unbiased logic to get to the facts.
We might as well define LogicZombie as a the person who goes for facts and reason to cut through the bullshit in front of him. It is a rare species, and many parties want it extinct- Journalists making fake headlines or twisting the facts, politicians who are compulsive liars and utterly selfish, dictators, Tech companies And Enforcement agencies that want your every detail exposed, all the time for their cameras and microphones, inept bureaucrats, etc. the list is pretty long, believe me.
OK before we can talk of the LogicZombie phenomenon as a defense rising out of the society who is tired of being fooled into making illogical and self-harming decisions which affect our daily life (as stated in the beginning) let us look at some really bad shit that could have been avoided had there been a company of LogicZombies active among us. The easiest way is to look at our political leaders. Why politicians? They have been lying so hard and fast recently the social science experts have termed our time as infected by - Post-Truth Politics and it has gotten worse.
The Nazi propaganda against Jews being anti-national and for the Aryan supremacy theory
The reasons for the Vietnam war
The Chernobyl disaster cover-up
Watergate scandal
The propaganda of WMDs in Iraq
Banks being bailed out with Billions of dollars worth of "help" for The Good Of The Common Man and stability of the Global Economy
By the list above I do not mean that the politicians are the worst liars. Take the medical and pharmaceutical industry as another example in dire need of LogicZombies. Today the world faces an unprecedented epidemic- a man made plague- the Opioid addiction. Everybody from the manufacturers to the dealer associations, industry councils, doctors, news people, marketing agencies and even scientists putting forward statistical surveys have been proven Liars; making easy money by duping patients was the aim. Sorry; Is the aim. It is still spreading and the companies are now making drugs to wean people off opioid addiction- more money.
LogicZombies were there always, only they were isolated people fighting for what is right, to bring out the truth. Our need has progressed to a level requiring a response of a whole new type, thanks to the internet and the social media. With unregulated content coloring our thoughts everyday via the dozen social media platforms and messengers on our phones, to reach the truth is no easy task. We need to leverage the same easy reach of the social media for finding out the truth. You can take your pick of causes- Anti-War, Vegan food, Obesity epidemic, child deaths, Apartheid, Banking Monopolies, etc. And then CONTRIBUTE your bit of truth, if not that- vocal support for the LogicZombie, if not that- anonymous endorsement, if not that- donate money.
The time for action is now. There are no by standers in this context- only willing victims; humans are prone to such behavior- like a doctor smoking cigarettes.
I should have named this article: What is a LogicZombie and why is he/she here? but the contest has already named the piece - https://steemit.com/contest/@logiczombie/200-steem-essay-writing-contest-what-s-a-logiczombie To end with a famous quote:
- Wikipedia.com
They came first for the women,
and i didn't speak up because i wasn't a woman
(and they shouted at me that i must hate women, if i did)
Then they came for the mothers,
and i didn't speak up because i wasn't a mother
(and they shouted at me that i must hate mothers, if i did)
Then the came for the virtuous women,
and i didn't speak up because i wasn't a woman
(and they shouted at me that i must hate women, if i did)
And now we have ghettos of discarded, lonely women.
Man deserts they are called.
Where the children are FAR more likely to commit crime, go to jail, fail at starting a career, fail at finishing school...
"We don't need no man"
I always thought women in the modern developed world as more empowered and truly free as opposed to conservative cultures like mine- Asian.
You just made me think again! The first thing that my mind went to was my niece. She is studying to be a doctor. What kind of problems I am leaving for them to handle?
You can be imprisoned in mind in a wealthy western civilization and free spirited under an oppressive regime.
Remembering my mom.
It is disheartening to realize that our world will never get better. Oh, I suppose it could, but for that to happen, a tipping point will need to be reached: Enough people who simply will not allow things to continue as they are and who are willing to act need to act. Is writing a way to "act" against the status quo? I like to think so. I hope so.
You hope so, as well, it seems.
Keep on. I will, as well.
Curious how I got here, finally to this article. I started a little research work on steemworld.org, looked at my articles after tags, came across my article in 2017 about paradoxical interventions and a conversation with vimukthi in the comments section, where we still got along very well. Now I see that he has resteemed your article. And so I ended up here.
The internet is full of impulses and somebody I once heard worried many years ago say that this will increase and that people, now that they can write and spread blogs themselves, will write and spread a lot of crude stuff, they don't adhere to any journalistic ethos, don't orientate to any impulse thought over three times and will take back their finger from the vote button or thumb, that anyone who can read and write will do the same and that this will cause big problems for a society. I don't know, we are certainly already in the middle of this future. But I do not dare to make any predictions.
Where before only the media were reserved (classical television, radio and print) to spread the faulty, the propagandistic, the opportunistic, the badly researched, now everyone can do it. Whereby I would say, the German public television had a state positive order and there were some really very good investigative programs and really good quality journalism. Since we as educated citizens all know that ultimately everyone is corruptible, this knowledge should make us smart social media users, shouldn't it? First of all, we should think of ourselves as corrupt. In every respect. I know that I am corrupt exactly where I do not realize I am.
PR agencies and marketers were dependent on these media, today they hardly are anymore, you throw yourself on the social media channels.
But what I think and how your request to let deeds follow is a double-edged sword. All these topics you have mentioned are so overwhelming on their own, to see them enumerated together is from discouraging to emotionally stirring. Therefore no Logigzombie predicate according to my perception.
With me every blog, which carries itself with the term of the "truth" encounters medium to heavy skepticism.
off-topic:
Are you still writing for Finish the story?
Greetings.
I am still writing Finishthestory and We-write and other offerings @bananafish and @freewritehouse. This is my community now. And we miss you.
As for skepticism- its healthy only if its heavy. People who actually evaluate the statements they see or read before accepting them are the ones who reach the truth or at least as close as possible. I am fine with you even though I like to think I am not corrupted- yet. But yes the barrage of opinions and proddings is numerous and continuous. I just heard this example of why it is that we need to keep at it.
If I go out in the heavy rain and happen to fall in a ditch (pothole more likely). What will I do? I know the it is raining and I know there is muck all around. I will still get up and go home and wash. This will happen every time I fall. Same with being cheated by false news.
I am flattered that you remember me. I was not a very consistent participant of finish the story contests. I put my nose in it to try expressing in English but I will not reach my native tongues quality. Also, I miss the real drive for fiction. If it doesn't truly get me, than I stopp.
Oh, that's quite an insight:
How do you mean this?:
For looking at ones own corruptibility: you can see that in retrospective. I catch myself sometimes to have fallen for it when I look at past comments and exchanges and I ask myself deeply: Why have I done this, why have I said this? It was often enough without consciously realizing that I was either opportunistic or inwardly aggressive. That's a trap almost everyone falls into. Exceptions we only find in the Saints.
Your analogy is to my taste. Yes, we wash ourselves and should forgive the mistakes. Self guilt is probably one of the biggest social problems we have.
So good talking to a decent person. :D LOL
@erh.germany don't worry about the language come and write it is wonderful thing to create something new. About the Skepticism- I mean that if it is a deliberate approach then it is very useful.
Many times people become skeptics towards a thing due to popular opinion or bias. I will give you my own example; although I have read and heard lectures that being Vegan is a very healthy and Eco-freindly lifestyle I still find it difficult to digest. This bad opinion about going vegan is not because I have found vegans to be lying or that the doctors have twisted facts but personal taste- I am just biased towards schnitzel.
... Oh ... HaHa! Quite a term "biased towards Schnitzel".
And also I smile about that you find it difficult to "digest" the Vegan lifestyle.
Joke aside, I understand that you eat meat, right?
I would also say that I am biased towards Salami. I feel bad about it, actually. I changed so many things during my existence ... but eating meat I still do. Then I am telling myself: You won't change radically. It's a process that takes time. I set my priorities. Like I stopped traveling by plane since 8 years now. Don't have a car. Lowered Energy- and water-consumption. Sometimes I think that I live already in a future where those things will be rationalized. I feel that it's not a sacrifice. Actually it's a nice challenge and I keep thinking that scarcity is something that does me good. I can enjoy luxuries much more and more intense than ever. I feel sometimes sorry for people who suffer within consumption. They are "fed up" so to speak. Taking a shower is a luxury. I wonder how civilization got that far. It truly gives me wonders. That is an experience I never would have believed you I would perceive twenty years ago.
This is such a wonderful piece you have written. Make it a post on your account.
:) don't know. I sometimes thought doing that but then ... let's see.
Thank you.
Great post! I love the "call to action" tone.
There are currently 4 entries in the contest, I will distribute the prize (200 STEEM) when we have 10 entries.
Feel free to post another entry (or more) for the contest to earn a larger piece of the prize pool.
I've also written a #logiczombie post, bust too late for the contest :D :p
now I've seen ur post and like it very much. especially cuz ur vietnam war example, which was instrumentalised using the sunk-cost fallacy bias and biases are also mentioned in my post.. ;)
will now read your other post. :)