Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Correlation is not causation

 

Cognitive complexities arising from critical thinking is the basis of human progress and compassion. Human evolution is imprinted with thousands of years of insecurities of hunter gatherer facing vicissitudes of nature and uncertainties of life. Most animals do exhibit inductive reasoning -they need specific pattern to repeat to generalize, or else they will not adapt to survive. So, it is but natural for cave minds to assume correlation for causation. In much primitive societies even coincidences are taken as correlation, and further extrapolated as causation with dangerous outcomes. It is fertile ground for charlatans pawing on primal inductive reasoning couched in modern language. Astrology is thriving ‘science’ in primitive societies, crude minds through narrative control consolidate it above everyday superstitions of common people to milk insecurities and authenticate squatter’s value system of blessedness and unknowable intelligence. As they say a broken clock is correct twice a day, for charlatans this meagre premise is enough to work out framework of deceit and misery. Much of the world was in such dark spaces with few lights of brilliance here and there. It took likes of Francis Bacon -consolidated through immensely smart people across the world, to create framework of inquiry to hinge humanity’s astounding progress. The reason why empirically rigorous inductive, deductive reasoning and critical thinking is so very important.    

Cave minds (primed in hunter gatherer insecurities) are imprinted to look for easy connection to survive the situation. That is how they survived sabretooths, infections, venom, toxins…death stalking in every step for hundreds and thousands of years as they tried to comprehend the unknown world. Systems like religion are primed in these insecurities to assert as faith, as values and norms. These primal connections are therefore soul satisfying for human facing complexities and insecurities of modern world. The lazier they get expressions are nestled in cave exhibits. With revivalist forces capitalizing on general lack in common people cave minds are active and asserting their space for fantastic claims. Likes of Trump and RFK Jr are underbelly of West thriving on luxury using general discontent of populace -valued in neoliberal transactions and juvenile superficialities that they are incapacitated to think hence rush for latest glitter couched in primal connections. RFK Jr in particular has unleashed forces that undermine foundation of human progress that is set to cause immense misery. Ofcourse pharmaceutical companies are greedy and predatory but that is a ruse to undermine system of critical thinking so as to generally vitiate the environment to control narration (hence all the issues of climate catastrophe, biodiversity loss, sustainable values etc. can be undervalued for greed). He was targeting vaccine with pseudoscience dirge from sidelines for some time now. Since he was presented with position of immense power he has unleashed his devious plans that sync with fantastical claims and posing as beholder of knowledge beyond the ambit of science. Narcist Democrats are equally responsible for empowering these psychopaths as also the repercussions of pseudoscience on much of primitive spaces across world. This is making lives much bleaker in a world that faces climate charged outbreak of new diseases. Much of the challenges and strife in the world can be addressed with clear thinking, empathy and awareness of human condition.           

**Autism is something that is studied in detail. It is not a disease but genetic condition that is open for further research and understanding, and people with severe autism were targeted in past and faced immense misery (for which humanity owes an apology). So, to target autism makes JFK Jr a dangerous criminal.

When few people mention it to me I didn’t take it seriously later online self-diagnosis consistently put me in autism spectrum. Well, since I could remember I liked to be more with myself or very few select people specific to the occasion ("soul selects her society then shuts the door to her divine majority"). I stayed and worked in extremely crowded noisy places interacting with people -to become a public speaker was an effort in itself, soon found that speaking to large audience was quite easy, larger the better, but shockingly easier than talking to one person at a time. Had to take long breaks away from crowd to gather myself (I realize that when I get stressed, I tend to repeat pattern, and use selective mutism in unpleasant situations or to cut irritants from one’s life). I recall one of earliest jobs I took up in Madras (now Chennai), I had to teach working of ‘turbo prop engines’ to pilot trainees of a flying club. I was too nervous and had to take few pegs and stuff mouth fresheners. It didn’t last too long. What I gathered was my Tamil speaking skills went up by few notches after each peg, something that is authenticated by IgNobel prize recently!        

Being dyslexic and teaching how to read fast was mostly about putting up -an act, working on gift for gab so on. Essentially it was about spending less time on making money and more time to travel and pursue new things. It was during this time that I came across ‘logical thinking’ as a subject of study, so very soon was teaching and really enjoyed it. Deductive reasoning is an important part of critical thinking. And I do firmly hold that critical thinking should be part of education at every stage -not as an isolated subject but actively engaged after every study so as to consolidate critical thinking into daily life. I did prepare a module for critical thinking and approached few educational institutions (picture herein) but they already had syllabus worked out decades back, it’s an amazing lack in fast changing world (except flashy attention seeking AI to awe hence showcase themselves as worldly smart). Indian education is moribund institution and teachers one of the worst, lacking enterprise or skills (with rare exceptions) -indeed mostly social rejects who take it on students. Indeed, I did a study on education by understanding different ways of teaching. Things are changing I am told. Though I love teaching I would never like to be part of this system of teaching in colleges (slave wagering camaraderie of mediocre), teaching same subject for years without passion or adding any new insights. No wonder youngsters’ shudder at the thought of becoming a teacher. Meanwhile primitive society values teachers as god -thus nurturing insular charlatans and their self righteous sickness as also creating authority bias in young minds while undermining vibrant ideas and participatory values of striving ordinary humans trying to bring in best possibilities.