Resistance from outside and in own ranks

 

In his YouTube contribution “Das Kapitalozän” (the capitalocene), Harald Lesch reports on how people deal with nature, in particular: on the tremendous influence of anonymous investors who use their funds for the purpose of increasing profits where a return on investment can be expected as soon as possible. If this goal is pursued consistently, collateral damage will occur, which will only be recognized by detours or with time delay. At the moment of inspection, the income has long been booked and the investor does not have to pay for the damage he indirectly causes, but the general public. It is part of the procedure to subsequently deny the cause and effect principles in order to wriggle out of any liability claims and prepare the terrain for the repetition of the process. If this could not be done reliably, numerous investments would only be costly and unreasonable from the expectation of profit. To increase efficiency, corruption and political influence are often seen companions, and wherever the strategic intent can be exposed, the crimes are talked down with terms such as "Mogelpackung", ger. for a package that seems to contain more than it contains, or "Schummel-software". Both expressions "Mogeln" and "Schummeln" derive from the behavior of children cheating in a game. The purpose of increasing the amount of money spent as if we were dealing with a global casino is opposed to all other meaningful content. The definition of meaning is therefore crucial.

In her book: "Lost in Math", Sabine Hossenfelder reports on bias in natural science, which means that existing worldviews and ideas influence the initial situation and thus the premises of researchers. In history, it was often clearly stated religious reasons; today, as she notes, it is increasingly aesthetic parameters such as those of beauty, elegance and symmetry. Sabine Hossenfelder observes the same biases in other disciplines such as psychology and sociology. The real problem, she explains, would lay  deeper, namely in the organization of scientific research in general, and this is exactly where the observations of the two physicists intersect. In both cases, it is a matter of filtering content according to non-scientific criteria.

But one after another: let's first circle around the sphere of influence outlined by Harald Lesch. It can be described as an instrumentalization of science by financial means. Here is an example: With preference, investments are made in drug research that allows maximum profits. Basic research, on the other hand, does not promote profitability and is often declared to be in the responsibility of the state so that it can be financed from tax funds. The (tax-) paying and skimming is therefore assigned to different groups of people. This can also be observed during the deposit process itself, keyword: tax evasion.

Analog preferences can be seen where there is an option for military-strategic advantages through the gaining knowledge - a consequence of the arms race.

In order to encircle the sphere of influence mentioned by Sabine Hossenfelder, we have to ask where we find the cause of the bias that  leads to the inefficiency of scientific work. Inefficiency is to be understood here in terms of a delayed gain of knowledge, even stagnation in purely technical, not in financial terms. If it is true that the real problem lies in the organization of scientific research, i.e. in the framework conditions created, what Hossenfelder assumes, the two observations would be interlinkable, which will become clear below.

Since man is always the recipient of what he looks at, it is inevitable that he will take his own personality with him everywhere. Where it proves to be beneficial, it does not bother anyone, where it is an obstacle, attention is required. Therefore, there is a lot of psychology in every conceivable field of activity and even the choice of it often has psychological reasons. The question must therefore be whether we can ever work out enough distance from ourselves to be able to turn to any subject without bias, for we can turn to a self-chosen task in a different way than an imposed one, especially since there is still something like talent. It turns out to be useful to admit our own subjectivity rather than just claim that we would already have overcome it. The whole describes a conscious, serious effort, not an attainable goal.

The following lines present a simple example that does not require special technical knowledge to follow the course of the presentation.

The starting point for the Western theory of harmony is a simple physical experimental arrangement: a string is stretched onto a monochord and the beginning and the end of the swinging length are limited with the help of movable bars. History shows that the Greeks were able to physically describe the carefully observed phenomena very precisely, whereas the early Christians viewed them through their own glasses and recognized divine messages in them. The illogic of the interval names reveals the intentional reference to the Holy Scriptures to this day.

In the Age of Enlightenment, those symbolic references were abandoned and one concentrated on seperate and independent disciplines, without changing the names, because the Greek names still reflect the Greek way of thinking - the Latin names the post-Christian-Roman ones. When Novalis reports on the necessity of the arts "to be completely with themselves", he demands their independence and thereby ignores their physical and theological penetration. Again we are dealing with separete glasses that try to show the arts in the light of their own aesthetic legality. None of this is wrong, but no glasses can make the phenomenon recognizable in its full size and relevance to cultural history.

Much of it has been transferred to the natural sciences, think of the harmony of the cosmos, which has been mentioned since Pythagoras. Due to the need for a correlation between cause and effect, this is not part of scientific methodology! In addition, Sabine Hossenfelder shows the recognizable endeavor to be able to take a confirmation as a reward for the correctness of the procedure from the research object itself, which gives the discoverer something that triggers feelings of happiness, because ugliness would not be a fair equivalent for all the work. Those who cannot admire their work see themselves as poor and there is still a lot of admiration for the Creator and omnipotence in the history of the disciplines, especially in music, where the consonance of prim and octave represented the A un Ω - and also in Astrophysics, where you have to deal with unimaginable sizes. For this reason, the researching viewer thinks of something sublime in view of his short lifespan, which can rub off on the connoisseurs and / or discoverers. The naming of the comet Schoemaker-Levi 9 and spreading the ashes of Eugene Schoemaker on the moon may serve as an example. People identify with what they live with passion.

Neutrality would be immune to it. In addition, the "image of God" itself shows a largely symmetrical construction and recognizes itself as beautiful. Unbiasedness is different, if only because our own body consists of atoms and molecules. The independence that we strive for spiritually contrasts with a total dependence and substance identity in the material. This is one of those insights that may be ugly but are true. Nature does not allow independence from it, only the spirit resists it. Religions offer a way out, but not without influencing the mode of thinking.

By now it should be known that the evaluation criteria for beauty change over time, that they have a highly subjective character and that we have been culturally inoculated wit them. Research should free itself of this, but this is more difficult than expected. In art science one knows the practice of tearing apart what is found to be beautiful and praising the ugly. This forces to take a completely different perspective and critically question the statements just made.This forces one to take a completely different perspective, to critically question the statements just made and often leads to moments of surprise similar to the awareness of an optical illusion or a fad.

With regard to the theory of harmony, the connections are obvious,  but the author encounters widespread rejection with his cultural-historical finds, because content that can contain truth even if it arises from the theological source of knowledge which does not correspond to the spirit of the times. Here we observe a bias of a completely different kind: a change from the factual to the personal, because suddenly the decision criterion is who made the statement. In which music lessons is for example mentioned Aurelius Augustine's book on music? Is such censorship responsible?

Something similar could be said about the rejection of polydisciplinary work. If you are not familiar with this procedure, you will not be able to get out of a new training phase over a longer period of time. For very understandable reasons, Sabine Hossenfelder supports the need for interdisciplinary scientific mobility. Blinders promote the ability to concentrate on a certain point, but blind out neighboring areas. How can relationships be recognized then? But what, if especially these allow access to the subject? Even more! What by definition was seen as all-encompassing (ancient Greek καθολικός Catholicikós 'all-encompassing') can only be understood, rediscovered and proved omnidisciplinarly. Here we are dealing with bias against the method, comparable to a craftsman who has only learned to use one material and one tool.

In the age of digitization, music is effortlessly accessible and consumed according to the principle of personal favor - not far from the concept of beauty. Only what millions of people like is also of commercial interest if only because of the appendable advertising. Looking into history and thinking about regularities - about the importance of consonance, for example or about the theological-ethical content - is left to few specialists, whi sitting in libraries make no contribution to current sales. In this area, the arts are therefore often declared to be “breadless”, which is actually supposed to mean that those who seriously deal with them don't deserve something to eat. Therefore, parents warn their children if they develop according interests and often force them into other professions. This means that we are again dealing with glasses in the sense of a specific point of view and, moreover, with open discrimination.

The one has long been mixed with the other. There was talk of an intersection. Commercial interest in art is also expressed by the $ 450 million spent on Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, but it is not the art but the prestige that was worth the sum. Would the term prestige even be conceivable without a psyche? Science, on the other hand, is a disruptive factor, especially where it shows the absurdity of the dream of constant growth on a limited spherical surface. The call "Unite behind the science" is linked to the encouragement to free yourself from the grasp of psychological constellations, to release the mind to freedom and to give it the authority to change your own life, i.e. specifically, to be interested in overall balance and not just in self-relevant things. To a certain extent - because survival requires taking from the whole - that would be both conceivable and feasible.

As the following blog posts show, harmony is the greatest adversary of all strategic thinking, be it economic or military, because it attacks the principle as such and is not limited to individual examples, but puts all of them together. In addition, it juxtaposes profit maximization with ethical thinking and acting and thus criticizes the global casino. It hits a nerve wherever it prevents admiration from the pecuniary forays, because that is the sense of prestige that would be unthinkable without an appreciative environment.

That is why the new insights that are not so new - because what are 2500 years! - are kept small, so small that it is not even worth considering them, let alone integrating them into the curriculum. The first rhetorical figures of rejection are always ignorance and mutual understanding of the unworthiness of the critically coming. Only then will the index, the censorship, the spread of fake news and the active fight be used because there is a lack of useful counter-arguments and the power structures should be preserved at all costs. A field of activity for sociologists - especially for those with strong nerves. With freedom of thought, ome would at least combine an accepting environment.

Since the theory of harmony remains true to its own principles, it comes unarmed, is physically weak and therefore regularly inferior - the main reason for the constant interruptions in the development of civilization. Not that the framework conditions are to be blamed for the failure of the people, only the proponents of harmony are, by definition, not able to defend their views, nor to enforce them. Max von Pettenkofer took up this aspect in one of his poems:

 

"Ich fühl's, ich bin nicht für die Welt geboren 

"I feel I'm not born for the world

Ich könnte sonst sie nehmen, wie sie liegt.

Otherwise I could take it as it is.

Hätt' nie an Traumgestalten mich geschmiegt

Would never have nestled on figures of dreams

An die mein Herz unrettbar nun verloren.

To whom my heart is now irretrievably lost.      

 

Zu sehr verweichlicht hab' ich meine Ohren

I've softened my ears too much

Mit sanften Melodien sie nur umwiegt;

Flattered them with gentle melodies

Wie falsch! Ein wildes Kampfgeschrei durchfliegt

How wrong! A wild shout of battle flies through

Die Welt, und Harmonie ist Trauer der Thoren."

The world, and harmony is mourning of the fools."

 

This point of view is very reminiscent of the knight of the sad figure who followed his ideals and fought against windmills, with an arming that from the former point of view had to be regarded as ridiculous. In the eyes of society a mentally confused.

In a similar way, marginalized researchers can recognize themselves in the mirror of numerous media and internet comments, or in the mirror of ignorance of political decision-makers, who sometimes clearly express: "Politics is fight. Who is looking for harmony has to search another profession." (Norbert Blühm)

Historians in particular highlight the repetition processes. It is precisely these repetition processes that ensure that the thoughts of a Cervantes and a Pettenkofer remain up-to-date. 

To change the situation would require a reorientation of society. For the individual an opportunity without chances. However, given the current state of the world, the theory of harmony gives the saying: "If you don't want to hear, you have to feel!" completely new sense and new weighting, because nature has an enormous potential of force majeure. The way there has long been taken. It has the certainty of a mathematical fact that a goal cannot be achieved as long as the opposite is mostly pursued.

 

Aurelius Belz 2020