Beware of the unicorns

This blog mainly covers technology issues and various science. Being trained as a scientist, the world is an immensely complex place with interconnections between various forces in ways within and even beyond human understanding. Our understanding of science and the world is ever evolving. I often see an over simplified line of thinking that appears in religion, philosophy and politics that runs against the concept of complexity and that events are a culmination of many small factors. Even more disturbing, it sometimes appears in various lines of academic thought.



The construct of this over simplification depends on having one entity to blame a multitude of events upon. This powerful entity, whether is be a political or religious group, is often the rival to the organization a member who expresses this line of thought belongs. The mock example below demonstrates how this line of thinking works. I am going to use will use the most dangerous of all creatures, the flatulent unicorn or unicorns for short. The following part of this post will give a problem facing society and how this line of thought works in response.



Cause 1:

Everywhere you look there are too many rainbow colored items and it drives me crazy!

Solution 1:

The unicorns encourage such colorful mythological images from antiquity.



Problem 2:

Many people have their heads in the clouds thinking about fictitious ideas and stories.

Cause 2:

Unicorns are a source of escapism into an ideal world.



Problem 3:

Americans spent too much money accumulating massive amounts of debt they can never pay off.

Cause 3:

Unicorns encourage this through construction of an idealistic world which is accessible to everyone. Spend the money you don't have so you can live in this fantasy world! It is okay.



Problem 4:

People don't spend enough time being productive.

Cause 4:

The unicorns demonstrate the world is a great place without need for hard work. Go ahead and slack off.



Cause 5:

People don't believe in the one true religion any more.

Cause 5:

The mythological world of the unicorn is corrupting people's minds through false religious imagery.



Problem 6:

People are not active in the correct political party any more.

Cause 6:

Unicorn stories demonstrate that things always work out for the best and no action is required. Wish for good things and they will occur!

The solution for problems 1-6, kill the unicorns and eliminate all references!

The list goes on and on and on. Don't get fooled for this line of thinking. It demonstrates a lack of critical thinking about issues. Extremist groups dwell on this kind of thinking blaming one group for all of the world's ills.