Today, I must postpone my intended next FTR, but I believe we will find very useful, the Olin Foundation paper as captioned, with abstract:
>>Availability Cascades and Risk Regulation
Timur Kuran* and Cass R. Sunstein**
An availability cascade is a self-reinforcing process of collective belief
formation by which an expressed perception triggers a chain reaction that gives
the perception increasing plausibility through its rising availability in public
discourse. The driving mechanism involves a combination of informational and
reputational motives: Individuals endorse the perception partly by learning
from the apparent beliefs of others and partly by distorting their public re-
sponses in the interest of maintaining social acceptance. Availability entrepre-
neurs–activists who manipulate the content of public discourse-strive to trig-
ger availability cascades likely to advance their agendas. Their availability
campaigns may yield social benefits, but sometimes they bring harm, which
suggests a need for safeguards. Focusing on the role of mass pressures in the
regulation of risk associated with production, consumption, and the environ-
ment, Professors Timur Kuran and Cass R. Sunstein analyze availability cas-
cades and suggest reforms to alleviate their potential hazards. Their proposals
include new governmental structures designed to give civil servants better in-
sulation against mass demands for regulatory change and an easily accessible
scientific database to reduce people S dependence on popular (mis)perceptions>>
In short, if you thought we are living in a Plato’s Cave world with manipulative shadow-shows, manipulated headlined “crises” and demand for acceptance of questionable agendas/ marches of folly or else, we are.
[youtube d2afuTvUzBQ]
Also, see the blog on the Acts 27 test. Also, this one on Critical Theory/ Neo-Marxism and activism.
In a day when folly demands to rule our lives, we need soundness to stand in the face of what seems the overwhelming, inevitable tide. END
PS: Series to date:
FYI-FTR: Part 4, What about Paley’s self-replicating watch thought exercise?
FYI-FTR: Part 5, on evolutionary materialism, can a designer even exist?
FYI-FTR: Part 9, only fools dispute facts (and, Evolution is a fact, fact, FACT!)>>
FYI-FTR: Part 10, In reply to RTH — >>your FYI / FTR posts are a bad idea >> >>