Archive for June 11th, 2015
WARNING! WARNING! ARITHMETIC AHEAD!
Posted by Bob in Coaching Session, History, How Things Work on 06/11/2015
I wrote an article on the 1932 German election that brought Hitler to power. There are a number of critical, history-changing analyses one could make from what happened there in 1932.
But it all came from one simple piece of ARITHMETIC: The Nazis got over one-third of the Reichstag members and the Communists got over one-sixth.
Over one sixth plus over one thirds adds up to a MAJORITY. In order to form a government in 1933 you had to have a majority of the elected Reichstag to form a government, you Had to include either the Nazis or the Communists.
The response to this simple piece of arithmetic really depressed me.
Not one single comment had any relation to the point.
Not even close.
In the battle between SOC (Same Old Crap) and simple electoral arithmetic not one person chose to mention the arithmetic.
I am about to do a piece about “Native Americans.”
But one of the basics in understanding why America is not a Nation of Immigrants is, God help us, simple arithmetic.
In this case it’s called geometric progression. On the average, each seventeenth century immigrant produced several HUNDRED offspring living in America today.
But when I mention this I have to wade through responses about how the person had ancestors who got here in 1688.
And the basic, the arithmetic, gets totally lost in the SOC.
The problem is the same old one: people are so tied up in whether I am offending them or dealing with something somebody said that they do not read what I am trying to tell them.
This is especially fatal when Arithmetic appears here. The point is simple but you have to pay attention to exactly what I said, not what you are used to.
You have to have you head on straight when arithmetic is used.
It can make terrific points, or the arithmetic can be lost in a tide of SOC.
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