Nick Cater, formerly of The Menzies Research Centre, now a fellow blogger with Nick’s Reality Bites, wrote a piece which reportedly was about “There is no evidence to show that racial suffering can be inherited.” The last word is where the trick was laid, like a cognition landmine. In Nick’s world of “Reality biting,” is the ideology of hard materialism. If you do not understand what I am talk about, read the four blog pieces, in order and click link: 1) NDB MIND-BODY-COGNITION VENN, 2) Mapping Locations on the Mind-Brain Belief Spectrum, 3) Rudolf Steiner’s Goethe: The Better Part of Thinking for the 21st Century, and 4) C. Wright Mills’ The Power Elite, the Old-New Left, and Queensland lived Ideologies.
To summaries in a list of Nick’s argumentative statements:
- “The Judicial Commission of NSW’s annual report begins by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. Taxpayers are acknowledged 91 pages later in a line item disclosing that the Commission received $5.3 million from the state government last year. Like many unaccountable quasi-governmental bodies beyond their used-by dates, the NSW judicial watchdog began life as a recommendation in a Royal Commission. Its task was to repair the reputation of judges after the state’s chief magistrate, Murray Farquhar, was jailed for perverting the course of justice in 1985.”
- “…the Commission has drifted off script into the field of social justice. It has reinterpreted its mission as raising awareness of climate change, cultural diversity and therapeutic jurisprudence, the subject of a recent report.”
- “‘The legacy of trauma and dispossession is interconnected with other aspects of First Nations disadvantage such as the disproportionately high incarceration rates for people both sentenced or on remand, substance abuse, social and economic disadvantage, poor mental and physical health and lower life expectancy and exposure to family violence,’ the report says.”
- “It is a year to the day since Australians voted six to four against an extra-parliamentary Aboriginal body that would have given special powers to some Australians on the grounds of race. They did so because they’ve grown tired of the kind of mumbo-jumbo the NSW Judicial Commission is now pushing.”
- “A year later, the dangers of becoming absorbed with perceived historical injustice have been starkly illustrated by the war in the Middle East, which began with the Hamas atrocities in southern Israel on October 7. Some indigenous campaigners like Senator Lidia Thorpe see Palestine as a parallel cause to their own. This historical perversion, highlighted by the promiscuous use of the word genocide, is what happens when rationality and objectivity are subsumed by sentiment.”
- “Judges who rule without fear or favour cannot allow emotional appeals to override the facts. Decisions must rest on evidence rather than the vibe of the thing, the argument famously mounted by Dennis Denuto in the movie The Castle.”
- “So it is concerning, to it mildly, that a government-funded body like the NSW Judicial Commission should be promoting the myth of inherited trauma, a loose theory that appeared on the fringes of academia in the United States at the turn of the 21st century.”
- “The term ‘historical trauma’, or ‘soul wound’, was coined by Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, a Native American social work professor at the University of New Mexico. It is ‘the cumulative emotional and psychological wounding over the lifespan and across generations.’…”
What Nick has done with the word “inherited” is to speak of hard materialism and completely ignore the factors of social relations. His argument, though, does not establish a hard materialist thesis but is rather full of associated fallacious points to fool the reader (and himself). An associated fallacious argument is “asserts that properties of one thing must also be properties of another thing if both things belong to the same group” (Wikipedia). There are a few other logical plays on Nick’s associated fallacious argument. There is:
Association fallacy (guilt by association and honour by association) – arguing that because two things share (or are implied to share) some property, they are the same (Wikipedia);
Traitorous critic fallacy (ergo decedo, ‘therefore I leave’) – a critic’s perceived affiliation is portrayed as the underlying reason for the criticism and the critic is asked to stay away from the issue altogether (Wikipedia);
Questionable cause is a general type of error with many variants. Its primary basis is the confusion of association with causation, either by inappropriately deducing (or rejecting) causation or a broader failure to properly investigate the cause of an observed effect (Wikipedia);
All of these mistakes are playing in Nick’s thinking.
- The behaviour and conviction of the the state’s chief magistrate, Murray Farquhar, has nothing to do with Nick’s point on the alleged claim of “many unaccountable quasi-governmental bodies beyond their used-by dates”.
- There is no legal evidence that “the Commission has drifted off script into the field of social justice”, in so far, the court’s (alleged) “reinterpreted its mission as raising awareness of climate change, cultural diversity and therapeutic jurisprudence, the subject of a recent report”, is legally within the legal purview of the legislation.
- “‘The legacy of trauma and dispossession is interconnected with other aspects of First Nations disadvantage such as the disproportionately high incarceration rates for people both sentenced or on remand, substance abuse, social and economic disadvantage, poor mental and physical health and lower life expectancy and exposure to family violence,’ the report says.” And? This is where Nick reveals his annoyance as the rightwing ideology. He is not angry because he will concede to the facts of the injustice. He is just annoyed that it is now a matter of law.
- There is no logically association between ‘The Voice’ and the (alleged) “the kind of mumbo-jumbo the NSW Judicial Commission is now pushing”. The Commission had had a long and distinct history, longer and distinct to last year’s referendum.
- Nick’s declaration of a poor intellectual warfare is to claim: “A year later, the dangers of becoming absorbed with perceived historical injustice have been starkly illustrated by the war in the Middle East, which began with the Hamas atrocities in southern Israel on October 7. Some indigenous campaigners like Senator Lidia Thorpe see Palestine as a parallel cause to their own. This historical perversion, highlighted by the promiscuous use of the word genocide, is what happens when rationality and objectivity are subsumed by sentiment.” True, in this case, Senator Lidia Thorpe’s declaration of warfare may have come first. But…
Costello: You know the fellows’ names?
Costello: Well, then who’s playing first?
Abbott: Who is on first.
Abbott: Oh, no, no. What is on second base.
Costello: The left fielder’s name?
Abbott: Why.
Costello: Tell me the pitcher’s name.
Abbott: Tomorrow
Costello: Another guy gets up and it’s a long ball to center.
Abbott: Because.
Costello: I said, I DON’T CARE!
Abbott: Oh, that’s our shortstop!
6. Unfortunately Nick is lost in thinking about the cultural references, old and new, American and Australia, because his annoyance takes over his better judgement on these political questions.
7. The ‘myth of inherited trauma’ is not a loose theory that “appeared on the fringes of academia in the United States at the turn of the 21st century.” The theory has a longer history and is not limited to Nick’s hard materialism. Nick has not presented any evidence for his argument. It is fallacious.
8. The role of “Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, a Native American social work professor at the University of New Mexico” is one small part in the theory, why target her? Nick, could it be your subtle racial prejudice? The fact that Maria stated, “It is the cumulative emotional and psychological wounding over the lifespan and across generations”… demonstrated, Nick, that you have hoodwinked yourself in the hard materialist ideology, and not to understand the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate social relations.
Featured Image: Frauke Petry, of the German Rightwing Party AFD speaks during a meeting of members of the party. ID 71063168 © Davesfreelancephotos | Dreamstime.com
Neville Buch
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