The great evil in my
humble opinion, which haunts our
enterprise,
and I say this, realizing I'm setting the
fox among with chickensÉthe great evil
that has been allowed to
florish in the absence of mathematical
understanding, is relativism.
And what is relativism?
It's the idea that there is no
distinction between shit in Shinola.
That all ideas are somehow operating on
equal footing.
So one person is...a chaos theorist;
another is a...
...follower of the revelations of this or
that New Age guru; 
someone else is channeling
information from the Pleiades, 
and we have been taught that political correctness
demands that we treat all these
things with equal weight.
Because we have no mathematical ability, 
no logical ability,
we don't know how to ask the questions
that expose some positions as
preposterous, trivial, insulting to the
intelligence, and unworthy of repetition.
So we all are very comfortable
bashing science and flailing away at that,
but that isn't our enemy. Science is
capable of undertaking its own
reformation and critique, and has been
engaged in that fairly vigorously for
some time. The enemy that will really
subvert the enterprise of building a
world based on clarity, is the belief
that we cannot point out the pernicious forms
of idiocy that flourish in our own community.
This problem is growing worse all
the time. I mean, just pick up a copy of
Magical Blend or Shaman's Drum
and you will discover
an appeal to the level of intellect
that makes what's going on with
television advertising look like a
meeting of the Princeton Institute of
Advanced Studies.
We have tolerated too many loose heads
in our community.
We are not willing to take on
the karma
involved in argument
and discourse, that actually gores 
somebody's ox, until, 
at the end of the day, iridology 
or Mormonism
or some other form of
institutionally supported foolishness
lies in shreds on the floor.
We consider this politically incorrect.
I can feel the tension in this room
because people sense I might gore their
particular ox.
If we had learned mathematical logic
or reason
or rules of evidence,
when someone approaches us excited 
to inform us that the
ruins of Lemuria had been spotted
in the deep sea off Big Sur,
or something like that,
we would be able to respond to that
with the contempt
it deserves.
I had a conversation about this recently
with someone who, if I had to
describe their job category, I would
describe them
as mafioso.
And I said, "What do you think
of the abduction phenomenon?"
And without hesitation this person said,
"There are just so many foolish people
in the world!"
To me, all of these things
are intelligence tests
and the people who
pass the intelligence test
are not worrying about pro bono
proctologists from another star system
showing up unannounced in their bedrooms!
We have perfected politeness. We have perfected
the ability to listen to damn foolishness
without betraying, by so much as the
flick of the eyebrow,
that we realize what we're in the
presence of.
Now I think it's time to refine our
mathematical skills, learn to think straight
and not be afraid to denounce
the pernicious forms of foolishness which are 
vitiating the energies
of our community,
and making us appear marginal and absurd
in the discourse about
truly transforming society.
