F*ck Einstein!
By: Kevin Grant
Tags: Nationalism, Liberal, Conservative, Democrats, Republicans

Recently, I came across the following quote on Facebook:

“Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.”

This quote comes from Albert Einstein, in an article titled “What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester Viereck”, appearing in The Saturday Evening Post, on October 26, 1929.

Speaking as a (totally insignificant) computer scientist, I feel compelled to reply: “F*ck Einstein!”. And seeing so many similar posts on social media all over the internet raises a couple of questions.

First, do liberals make so many of their political decisions based on what other people, contemporary or historical, think? After spending so many years hearing them complain that conservatives “engage in group-think”, “vote in lock-step”, and “never think for themselves”, it’s disconcerting to think that liberals might be so dependent on other people’s opinions.

Second, do liberals believe that conservatives are so influenced by what some dead people once thought, that they’ll feel compelled to vote liberal just because someone puts a quote in front of them and says something like:

“See? A dead conservative used to agree with me!”

Or perhaps:

“See? A dead smart guy used to agree with me!”

And would they still consider the dead smart guy to have been smart if he hadn’t agreed with them?

In my experience, physical and information scientists usually have far less understanding of social, political, or cultural matters than the average person. In fact, we’re notorious for it. We’re “thing people”, not “people people”. So valuing our political opinions just because we’re scientists, and supposed to be smart, is like valuing marital advice from a Catholic priest, just because he’s a Catholic priest. As in “not allowed to marry”, and thus with absolutely no experience on the subject.

Arguments of this sort are usually called “appeals to authority”, and are usually considered to be logical fallacies. Even an expert’s belief in the truth of an assertion is just an opinion, until the actual evidence, and a convincing line of reasoning, are supplied. Believing in an expert just because he’s an expert is intellectual laziness, unless you’re really incapable of making a determination for yourself. Yes, we all do it, but it’s not a good idea to make a habit of it.

Is there any way that we can break this reliance on experts to make our decisions for us? Yes! Let’s do an exercise that I call “Blaspheme Your God”. It works like this. Identify any entity towards whom you feel reverential, them blaspheme about them out loud until you no longer value them or their opinions any more than you would any other person’s.

For example, I tend to like President Calvin Coolidge’s approach to presidential politics. So let’s take our new blasphemy out for a spin, shall we?

F*ck President Calvin Coolidge!

There. See? That wasn’t so bad, was it? Now you do it. If you’re a Marxist, shout “F*ck Karl Marx!”. If you’re a liberal (Keynesian), then you can shout “F*ck John Maynard Keynes!”. Or if you prefer your economics libertarian, try “F*ck Ludwig von Mises!”.

Are you ready to go for the big fish? Then gird your loins and let’s do it.

F*ck Presidents Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy!

There. Doesn’t that feel a lot better?

Now go and have some opinions of your own.