"The sleep of reason gives birth to monsters"
(Francisco Goya, 1797)
The great Confucius once said that teaching without thinking is useless, but thinking without teaching is dangerous. And it's clear why. A collection of information without thinking about it has no value. But it is also foolish to think if you do not have information on the problem. But what if you have a limited amount of information and base your reasoning on incomplete knowledge? Then, then, about such a person it is quite possible to say that he is sleeping and dreaming. Indeed, in a dream, our brain also functions and even sometimes quite well, remember at least the same Mendeleev with his table, and many others. But still, much more often we see in a dream something completely different, rather delirium than reality, an unprecedented combination of experienced impressions.
Here he is - "Sad Reptilian".
In a dream, a person does not think accurately, he is captured by the play of his own imagination, but in the same way he can be captured by the attractive images of his imagination arising from incomplete knowledge. So, Alexander Kazantsev in his youth came up with an electromagnetic gun, made its model and even made his way with it to an appointment with Sergo Ordzhonikidze. “You are picking out all the upholstery for me,” he said after firing a nail into the wall and immediately ordered to help the young inventor. What should I have said? "Go young man and learn!" Because at that time such a weapon could not really be created. There are only problems with it today, but already in the 30s it was only suitable for the novel "The Burning Island".
Now I am working on the textbook "PR-design and PR-promotion", and this information just "fell" into the topic. There will be a chapter - “PR-promotion with the help of bronze and silver. But it's bad that there won't be any pictures. But … they can be placed here and clearly show that the "imperishable" made of bronze and silver attracts attention and, accordingly, arouses interest in the object of the award. I would present such a sculpture by the Penza sculptor Igor Zeynalov as a sign of high achievements to our … politicians. So as not to be arrogant! After all, Trotsky also achieved a lot …
Today it has gotten somewhat worse. Knowledge is acquired very easily. But their volume has increased many times over. Therefore, the labor of mastering them is difficult. And as you know, there is nothing more contrary to human nature than hard work. Spend years reading tons of books? What for? When you can read just one book! Explore all 104 Egyptian pyramids? There will be neither time nor money. Therefore, we will see only one, but the big one.
For achievements in the field of chemistry, you can award such a Mendeleev!
Consider a slab in a pyramid tomb in a temple in Palenque? So you have to fly to Mexico for 13 hours. It is troublesome, and expensive, and most importantly - for the sake of what, when everything is on the Internet. Moreover, there are two types of images. One is banal, the other is interesting. It remains to choose. And if you choose “interesting”, then you save both energy and time, but then you have to admit and then assert that this is an image of an astronaut in a rocket, and everything else is nothing but an attempt by bad scientists to hide the truth. And then it turns out that there are people in your environment who have never even heard of anything like this, so your incomplete knowledge is all the same to them as the Academy of Sciences. It is clear that it is pleasant to feel a sense of your own worth, as well as attention to your own person. There is such a thing as exhibitionism, but there is also intellectual exhibitionism, and what can be done in the age of the Internet - nothing!
And this Churchill is also a politician, but only for beginners!
When the Chinese want to wish you the worst, they say: what would you like to live in times of change! Because traditions break down, culture dies, and a new one appears, but it breaks out very slowly. Let's count a little: a century, as sociologists say, is the life of three generations. Moreover, these three generations had to live in conditions of stability. That is, if serfdom in Russia was abolished in 1861, this meant that only by 1961 could there have been a complete replacement of the feudal paternalistic consciousness and its characteristic culture. What happened? The revolution of 1917 was made by the children of yesterday's slaves and … what kind of consciousness and culture did they have and what did they bring to the cities during the industrialization?
Finally, by 1991, at least some semblance of a new culture had formed and - bang - again the collapse of everything and everyone and everything again anew!
And this is a Robespierre Bell. "For whom the Bell Tolls? He's calling for you!"
So it is not surprising and discord in the closets and vacillation in the minds. Today in Russia the psychological climate is the same as in Russia at the beginning of the century and … the same distrust of official science, the same "search" for deep roots, "the ultimate truth." And the same flourishing of pseudoscience. Stories about all sorts of secret societies ruling the world are becoming very popular, since it is simply incomprehensible to the average mind of the man in the street how his world, yesterday so strong and reliable, could break. So "digging the Black Sea" against this general background of such fabrications is just nothing more than an insignificant detail. It is difficult to resist this, because there are always more fools than people who are truly literate and reasonable.
So today, within the framework of the forum "Scientists Against Myths - 5", which was organized by the portal "Anthropogenesis.ru" and the Foundation "Evolution", a solemn ceremony of awarding the creators of the most popular pseudoscientific theories with the title of Academician of the Runic Academy of Pseudosciences and the original prize was held. sculptures of a sad but very cute reptilian.
The VRRunic Academy of Pseudosciences or VRAL is a project of the Anthropogenesis.ru scientific and educational portal and the Evolution Foundation. This "prestigious" organization, whose members by choice become people who "have made an outstanding contribution to Russian pseudoscience." Well, and the readers of popular scientific electronic resources are engaged in the election of candidates for academicians by means of Internet voting. At the same time, anyone can nominate one or another VRAL. Moreover, neither the personality of the scientist himself nor the subject of his research has any meaning: it can be businessmen, writers, parapsychologists, HIV dissidents, people with advanced degrees, and simply those who spread pseudoscientific ideas. All have the same chance of "success."
This is, of course, a prize to physicists!
The procedure for awarding the title of academician of pseudoscience consists of several stages. In the semifinals, candidates are nominated in specially created groups in popular social networks, for example, Vkontakte and Facebook. Then the jury, which includes the organizers of the portal and invited experts, selects the most popular candidates in the amount of 10 people, and votes for the finalist. The election of the academician is taking place at a ceremony within the framework of the Scientists Against Myths forum. The finalists, who received the second and third places, are awarded the title of Corresponding Member of VRAL, and the main winner is awarded a diploma of the Honorary Academician of the VRRunic Academy of Pseudosciences and the main prize of the forum - the "Sad Reptilian" statuette. Its design was developed by the talented sculptor Nikita Makletsov, and it depicts a brooding alien reptilian sitting on top of an Egyptian pyramid, on the basis of which the inscription “Scientists are deceiving” is made.
You don’t know anyone like this to Dracula. But handsome, dog!
Why and where such a design comes from does not require much explanation. After all, today everyone knows that without the help of green-skinned scaly aliens from Space, the Egyptians would simply not be able to build pyramids.
The first presentation of the Honorary Academician VRAL award took place in 2016. Then the satirist Mikhail Zadornov (in the nomination for love of the etymology of the Russian word), and of course Anatoly Fomenko, the author of the pseudo-historical fundamental work "New Chronology", were announced as Corresponding Members of VRAL. Well, the winner, awarded the title of academician, then became Irina Ermakova, the main activist of the Russian anti-GMO movement, who claims that genetically modified products were actually created by some alien civilization for the destruction of people. Ernst Muldashev, Igor Prokopenko, Valery Chudinov and a number of other equally outstanding supporters of various pseudoscientific theories were also among the top ten semifinalists.
"Sweet couple". Again, who should I give this to? Is that at the corporate convention of condom manufacturers?
And just recently, on October 21, 2017, the next forum "Scientists Against Myths - 5" was held, where for the second time the titles of the "Lying Academy of Sciences" were awarded. The jury included Stanislav Drobyshevsky, a Russian anthropologist and popularizer of science, TV and radio host Ivan Zatevakhin, astrophysicist Boris Stern and a number of others. The jury gave lectures exposing the false and pseudoscientific theories that are multiplying today like mushrooms after rain. They also talked about the secrets of the Caucasian dolmens, the myths coiled around the culture of ancient Babylon, and the UN expert on the assessment of environmental changes Nikolai Dronin made a report on the "worldwide conspiracy of climatologists." According to the results of the vote, the title of "Honorary Academician of VRAL" with the presentation of "Reptilian" was received by Grigory Alfeyev (Metropolitan Hilarion), for his "invaluable contribution to the introduction of theology into the Russian education system" and even more so - in 2016 he also headed the Joint Dissertation Council on Theology … Last year's candidate, Igor Prokopenko - Deputy General Director of the REN TV channel, author and producer of a number of sensational projects, also reached the final. Olga Kovekh, the main ideologist of HIV-dissident groups, who refuses to recognize HIV, viral hepatitis, the Ebola virus, and the benefits of vaccination, became the finalist # 3.
A ready-made prize for all lovers of musical folklore!
So even in this way, the scientific community and all reasonable Russians celebrate the heroes of the "dope trade for the people." However, first of all, our common mentality is to blame here, it is not for nothing that Pushkin wrote in his tragedy "Boris Godunov" - "And she feeds on fables!" “She” is the rabble, and despite all the revolutions and changes, we, unfortunately, still have enough of it. The cultural level and the degree of wealth of our fellow citizens will change, and the demand for all these subverters of science will dissipate like morning fog under the sun!
P. S. But still remember that all this is not written "just like that." "And at gunpoint." In fact, scientists really hide everything and this is how they deal with everyone who brings them to clean water. O-o-o, a-a-a, o-o-o-o-o!
