Recorded February 2019. Tony Rucinski and Peter Hitchens discuss political ideologies and other cultural issues in UK society today. Peter Hitchens is a …
This idea that if you have a better educated electorate, they might make better decisions eg when voting. That just isn't true.
For one thing, it's an oversimplification. Levels of intelligence (measured how) or education don't stop people making egregious mistakes in their thinking. GroupThink, and this associated quasi-religious attitude to politics seem to make fools of anyone. Experts still make mistakes in their own disciplines, and they make even more stupid errors when they stray outside their areas of expertise.
The amount of education/cleverness it takes to figure out what's going on when everyone is using political language, where we have no good way of predicting, where people have different aims in the first place and when most of the debate is a red herring – is vast. I'm not sure many people can really do it. The Guardian weekly publishes material by Oxbridge educated hacks who must have attended their tutorials, but then seem to have forgotten intellectual rigor as quickly as they could manage it.
I'm not close enough to the academic world to really say but the standard of the teachers certainly does seem to me to have plummeted – or at least the Groupthink (again) worries me greatly, along with some fantastic intellectual hubris
Everyone with a voice sneered at how stupid Brexiteers were, but having talked to them I wonder if they didn't show rather more intuition about what the EU was trying to do and what it meant for us. About trade deals they don't know enough, but who does actually know what is going to happen there? Economists' predictions are about as reliable as the weather forecast, it's not comparable to Physicists and engineers who can predict forces so accurately that we've sent space modules spinning round a comet 3 times before landing on it. There's just no comparison. They don't know what is going to happen
Damn, I know some people hold Peter Hitchens in slightly less regard then his brother, but each year this man provides a more interesting perspective that parallels his brothers. His thoughts on politics in Britain are really quantifiable when examining politics on a global scale.
Peter Hitchens was the one who woke me up about the Tories and democracy. I thought the Tories if they had the right leader could be good, jbut even people like Rees-Mogg are weak on Islamists.
The "uneducated mass" of Britons show as much good sense as highly educated elites, often more. Professors, Doctors, Readers rarely transfer their learning successfully – see Richard Dawkins' attempts to wade into metaphysics to see someone out of their depth while claiming to have both feet firmly on the bottom. Education does not of itself provide wisdom, especially Oxbridge PPE degrees which provide a shoe in to political life. If anything, Brexit illustrated how inoculated voters are to the blandishments of intellectuals.
NOTE: Please turn on the captions from 40:00 until 57:00 (they've been manually typed so they're correct) because there is a break in mic audio and picture from one of the cameras due to technical issues. We apologise for the drop in audio and viewing quality this causes.
I'm reading The Phoney Victory by Peter Hitchens. I would recommend it to anyone tired of the WW2 mythology and propaganda and who wants an honest, objective account of Britain's participation in the war.
I really think PH is a true genius. This was a really good interview – I greatly enjoyed hearing the answers. Thanks
sack the sound man
That was brilliant. Always love hearing what he has to say 🤙🏾
20:35
Peter is a legend
This idea that if you have a better educated electorate, they might make better decisions eg when voting. That just isn't true.
For one thing, it's an oversimplification. Levels of intelligence (measured how) or education don't stop people making egregious mistakes in their thinking. GroupThink, and this associated quasi-religious attitude to politics seem to make fools of anyone. Experts still make mistakes in their own disciplines, and they make even more stupid errors when they stray outside their areas of expertise.
The amount of education/cleverness it takes to figure out what's going on when everyone is using political language, where we have no good way of predicting, where people have different aims in the first place and when most of the debate is a red herring – is vast. I'm not sure many people can really do it. The Guardian weekly publishes material by Oxbridge educated hacks who must have attended their tutorials, but then seem to have forgotten intellectual rigor as quickly as they could manage it.
I'm not close enough to the academic world to really say but the standard of the teachers certainly does seem to me to have plummeted – or at least the Groupthink (again) worries me greatly, along with some fantastic intellectual hubris
Everyone with a voice sneered at how stupid Brexiteers were, but having talked to them I wonder if they didn't show rather more intuition about what the EU was trying to do and what it meant for us. About trade deals they don't know enough, but who does actually know what is going to happen there? Economists' predictions are about as reliable as the weather forecast, it's not comparable to Physicists and engineers who can predict forces so accurately that we've sent space modules spinning round a comet 3 times before landing on it. There's just no comparison. They don't know what is going to happen
Damn, I know some people hold Peter Hitchens in slightly less regard then his brother, but each year this man provides a more interesting perspective that parallels his brothers. His thoughts on politics in Britain are really quantifiable when examining politics on a global scale.
Thank you for this interview. I enjoyed it very much. Get him on once a week! 😉
Peter Hitchens was the one who woke me up about the Tories and democracy. I thought the Tories if they had the right leader could be good, jbut even people like Rees-Mogg are weak on Islamists.
The audio makes this unbearable to watch.
Always great to hear a new interview with my favorite obituarist.
Import a American education system and see the results
Dumbing down on a grand scale !
If the interviewer hates Wales so much why live there? bizarre liberal
Put the microphone(s) nearer to the people speaking
Good interview. Please invest in better audio recording equipment.
The awesome Peter Hitchens I could listen to him for hours.
The "uneducated mass" of Britons show as much good sense as highly educated elites, often more. Professors, Doctors, Readers rarely transfer their learning successfully – see Richard Dawkins' attempts to wade into metaphysics to see someone out of their depth while claiming to have both feet firmly on the bottom. Education does not of itself provide wisdom, especially Oxbridge PPE degrees which provide a shoe in to political life. If anything, Brexit illustrated how inoculated voters are to the blandishments of intellectuals.
Whenever I feel depressed and hopeless, I can always count on Mr Hitchens to cheer me up.
Hitchens with the “Big L” reference! Either my cup of tea has been spiked with hallucinogenic drugs or the Simulation is mocking me!
Yeah, whatever.
Got yourself another sub
NOTE: Please turn on the captions from 40:00 until 57:00 (they've been manually typed so they're correct) because there is a break in mic audio and picture from one of the cameras due to technical issues. We apologise for the drop in audio and viewing quality this causes.
I'm reading The Phoney Victory by Peter Hitchens. I would recommend it to anyone tired of the WW2 mythology and propaganda and who wants an honest, objective account of Britain's participation in the war.