- I come not to praise CSICOP, but to bury it! And I must
caution the reader, from the outset, that it is not *Skeptics* I have a
problem with or that I am merely bored with the rationality CSICOPians
only pretend to dispense... skeptics are not the issue, are in comparison
persons to be revered above all others, and are welcome company ... honored
team members... boon companions... the most interesting of us, the most
knowledgeable of us, and the ones to enlighten us the most! They are not
to be confused with scurrilous skepti-bunkies, ponderous pelicanists, or
insipid CSICOPians, the antagonists regarded in the rest of this
piece!
-
- It remains...
-
- ...A righteous pox on CSICOP, that "Committee for
the Serially Insentient Commitment of Obdurate Persons", a collection
of fringe flogging front-men and intellectually constipated imps of
anti-science!
Lately, their ranks swell with the even more deceitful and cross-purposed,
and their smug smirks of corn-fed contempt works its way through our
cyberspace
like an unhealthy mass worried uncomfortably through its electronic
bowels!
-
- A pox upon them, again! Verily!
-
- They are -not- what they vociferously portray themselves
to be! They provide for and nurture the informational void that the hapless
-only- attempt to fill, and then they complacently demonize these hapless
for their, many times, sincere attempts to address that unnecessary void
that CSICOPia founded and busily facilitates!
-
- They've duplicitously set themselves up as a clearing
house for hardnosed rationality and impartial science! They've populated
their ranks with lettered ringers of dubious veracity! They've cloaked
themselves in the too proud mantel of a convenient lap-dog science
engineered
to grind only the axes they contrive to grind! Axes of denial, Axes of
denunciation, and Axes of refutation...
-
- ...Axes well ground and then fatuously brandished like
righteous swords, I add, in an astonishing display of -arrogant- hubris
(disguised as humble piety), they proclaim their six point covenant with
the unwashed masses (they despise!), establish their thin veneer of
trustworthy
credibility, and publish their *balanced rational worldview* in a six point
plan of stated intent, the subject of this piece. That six point plan
is a fraud!
-
- Like most frauds it is anything but balanced, actually.
It is a canted mess of reflex denials, character assassinations, and
bald duplicity. Let's look at that six point covenant, then, and examine
each of the points in turn...
-
- CSICOP's first point is especially stalwart sounding...
fairly ringing with lofty ideals... nearly oozing good intentions, high
standards, and best practice...
-
- "1. Maintain a network of people interested in
critically
examining paranormal, fringe science, and other claims, and in contributing
to consumer education."
-
- One is immediately compelled to examine a *demonstrated*
lack of integrity for this aforementioned *network* of implied
efficaciousness.
Founded by Dr. Paul Kurtz, a man constitutionally unable to perceive a
difference between a UFO and a traditional leprechaun, this *network*
seems,
at first blush, to be a paragon of refined education, advanced experiential
acumen, and incisive brainpower!
-
- Predictably, as with everything -else- regarding CSICOP,
appearances can be deceiving. Consider the unrelated and immaterial
Doctor's
degrees of many of the CSICOPian principals, as in the case of Dr. Joe
Nickell, and the ridiculously canted, clearly assumptive and NON-networking
remarks he's made (among significant others) as if it were -he- (an English
major!) that would proscribe what -was- and what was -not- acceptable to
think about, for the rest of us! Dr. Nickell, sadly, is typical of the
kind of person closely associated with CSICOP. What *service* is provided
with this anti-network of canted expressions and immaterial persons?
-
- The (overwhelmingly male and so hormonally affected)
persons involved with CSICOP are a demonstrably canted lot decidedly
incapable
of balanced examination... if for no other reason than that there is so
-little- investigation actually going on! Indeed, the word investigation
is a component of the very acronym they use to identify themselves,
forgetting
that it is publicly touted that "investigation is the middle
name"
of your garden variety CSICOPian...
-
- Still, it refrains from same! CSICOP, instead, prefers
to portentously pronounce on what is "acceptable" thinking in
the form of scientific sounding dictates of dubious veracity, disingenuous
assumptive-ness, and biased incompleteness.
-
- At it's head... and as typified by its adherents near
that head, CSICOP is a conflicted entity driven only by the denial of
hostile
mal-educated ideologues and -not- a network of credible and balanced
persons
interested in critical examinations of anything but its -own- obtuse
agenda!
It is a network -only- of obstinate denial, conflicted cant, and obvious
bias! Verily, and at the last (?), the hapless consumer is -ill-
served!
-
- The CSICOPian second point is -another- insult to our
aggregate intelligence...
-
- "2. Prepare bibliographies of published materials
that carefully examine such claims."
-
- "Careful examination" of paranormal claims
is airily abandoned in the production of bibliographies heavily (even
admittedly!)
stacked with researchers who toe the CSICOPian party-line. Since the very
beginning (and as typified by the Dennis Rawlins imbroglio over the
"StarBaby"
paper) research critical *of* or in opposition *to* that CSICOPian
party-line
remain with convenient and very limited citation in these not so
efficacious
*bibliographies...* or why was "StarBaby" published in
"Fate"
and not in the "Skeptical Inquirer". Moreover, why can't Dr.
David Rudiak get a peer review for his Mogul Work in the same canted
rag?
-
- ...On to the third point:
-
- The third point would be more funny were it not for the
dire implications it makes regarding a complete and balanced research
-outside-
the cloistered CSICOPian paradigm CSICOP would promote and insists
upon...
-
- 3. -Encourage- research by -objective- and -impartial-
inquiry in areas where it is needed. (emphasis mine...)
-
- This is
rolling-on-the-floor-and-clenching-near-incontinent-cheeks-together
laughable! Where can your garden variety CSICOPian -not- be shown to be
-anything- but tediously -subjective- regarding every aspect of their
conduct...
and corrosive performance of same? Where is their *encouragement* possible
given their character assassinations and reflex research discriminations?
Their hoaxes and ringer placements? Their campaigns of ideological
suppression
and sponsor intimidation? Their bullying, their individual harassment,
and their tyrannous aggravation?
-
- How is a person with an alternative thought *encouraged*
in such atmosphere, or in the scurrilous actions of famous stage-clowns
like Penn and Teller who lied to their guests, otherwise misrepresented
their scurrilous intentions, and made them -all- look like, buffoons,
nut-bags
and public whackos? What manner of "Bull-Shit" (-Their- choice
of title, remember!) -is- that? CSICOP is -far- from 'objective', miles
away from 'impartial', and, decidedly NOT the -best- choice to decide where
'inquiry is needed.' They perform a treacherous disservice, at best, to
suggest that they do!
-
- The fourth point is key to the infrastructure of their
institutional infidelity and the transmission of its ignoble CSICOPian
meme!
-
- "4. Convene conferences and meetings."
-
- Oh... they do enough of that! Rest assured. They
encourage
all sorts of little splinter groups to grow up, clone-like, in their
image...
other busy imps to caper around the book-burning fire... harsh infernos
where reputations get burned at the stake and where the catechisms of the
jealous status quo are rehearsed in the flickering light and stinking
smoke...
-
- No, any resemblance to balanced "conferences and
meetings" is dissolved in the Ad Hominem attacks tendered at these
meetings, the derisive ridicule provided at these meetings, and easy
dismissal
of the opposition thinker at these meetings! Audiences are encouraged
to laugh and the provoking speaker is visibly pleased with the expression
of that laughter, it's been reported. ...Sounds more like a college frat
party, than a meeting of serious, hardnosed intellectuals.
-
- Clearly -- these meeting are *coven conferences*
described
by some as Scientistic "Inquisition" assemblies. Their purpose
is to dictate thought, proscribe their canted eschatology, and rehearse
their *approved* scripture. All hail Doctors Kurtz and Shermer, our
teachers,
leaders, and holders of the rational guiding light!
-
- Moving on, the fifth point proves that their intimated
balance is a self-admitted fraud!
-
- "5. Publish articles that examine claims of the
paranormal."
-
- Asked previously and answered! "Examine" how,
given that there is so little (if any) investigation, going on, to support
an examination! Besides, what further needs to be said than that their
publishing accomplishments include the churlish screeds of one Kal K.
Korff?
'Nuff said!
-
- The sixth and final point provokes in me a -keen-
astonishment
that a card carrying CSICOPian can -ever- behold his own reflection in
a mirror!
-
- "6. Do not reject claims on a priori grounds,
antecedent
to inquiry, but examine them objectively and carefully."
-
- What denatured and toxic "flapdoodle" is
this!
-
- "A priori" means:
-
- 1. Proceeding from a known or assumed cause to a
necessarily
related effect; deductive.
-
- A priori, flatly, suggests the exact -opposite- of a
process of going where the data might lead -- the aspiration of any -true-
scientist! The history of CSICOP is, again flatly, rich with the direct
antithesis of "following the data." They are patent
cherry-pickers
for evidence that supports their contentions and, by admission, dismissive
of evidence that -doesn't support their contentions. This is widely and
competently reported. So, in this sense they are -very- "a
priori"
when they very unctuously proclaim... they are not!
-
- A priori also means: 2a. Derived by or designating the
process of reasoning without reference to particular facts or experience,
or, b. Knowable without appeal to particular experience.
-
- The particular experience (or bias) of your friendly
neighborhood CSICOPian is very -much- a factor in their, so-called,
inquiry!
Claims are measured first with a rubric of: can that claim -first- be
*true* or not! That which is determined to be incapable of *truth*, to
begin with (by dictate of fiat), is -removed- from serious consideration
and airily ridiculed!
-
- "UFOs cannot exist," FIRST, so an inquiry
regarding
whether they exist or not, is moot! They -can't- happen... period, without
regard to conflicting evidence of -any- type. CSICOPians make up their
minds about a question, and prosecute -that-, without once validating the
cogent question, which, facilitating -them-, must remain unasked! They
are very much a priori in this sense, too. ...and they say, remember,
that they are NOT...
-
- Finally. A priori means:
-
- 3. [The Determination] made before or without
examination;
not supported by factual study.
-
- The preceding is the -obvious- method of the garden
variety
CSICOPian, who has made up his mind, thank you -very- much, and would
prefer
not to be confounded with the facts, if you'd please. Forget that this
is proclaimed by the concerned to be "not so," ...it remains
that "a priori" describes them -perfectly-. "A
priori,"
and not "investigation" would appear to be their middle name!
Additionally "careful and objective" are duplicitous
malapropisms
they employ, words carefully chosen to mask a very real agenda of
*think-cloaking*,
acrimonious axe-grinding, and rank intellectual fascism!
-
- Clearly, a reasonable assessment of these six points,
then, shows them to be more CSICOPian artful dodge... than stated aims
to which they might bravely aspire! They are red herrings scripted to
deceive and mislead... -not- to edify and enlighten!
-
- Summing up, CSICOP's six points of shame are carnival
hucksterisms, empty platitudes to get you into their big CSICOPian tent
for the scientistic (sic) revival meeting! Once there, smooth faced
scient-evangelists
like (the hugely disappointing!) Penn and Teller, the not so amazing Randi,
or the bellicose and whiney Dr. Nickell... can perform their unbalanced
slights of hand! Now -these- guys, among others, are just slick
scientistic-scripture
pounding frauds with ulterior motives. They front an organization of
similar
myopic intellectualists, little men who steadfastly assert to the worried
-credulous- that there -is- a place for *everything*, and everything (read
'everybody'!) should be in its place!
-
- -I- see them as spiritless men for a soulless
organization
as bereft of imagination as they are of creativity. It's no stretch that
they are the nineteenth century proponents for the new dark ages threatened
in our... 21st century.
-
- Now I'm not a scientist, but an artist and a poet
(...forgetting
I was raised by a scientist and been around them all my life, and that
I have a deep respect, admiration, and appreciation for the rules of
science),
I can call these CSICOPians as I see them, smug proponents of unbrave
institutional
evil, a scourge of canted intellect, and a needless hurdle to the rising
and advancing of the human spirit -- a torpedo for our aggregate
potential!
-
- As with other dark-age producing tyrants of the past,
I patiently await the eventual demise of planet CSICOPia and I further
anticipate the strident repudiation of their unctuous six point covenant
of bald misdirection and oily obfuscation. Their *covenant*, finally,
is a disingenuous farce.
-
- A pox on their house... if I haven't made that clear
enough, already.
-
- Lehmberg@snowhill.com
-
- www.Alienview.net
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