Throw you a curve

First off, I’ll mention my hew blog, Uncle Genie’s Deep Space. It provides an outlet for some of my speculative concerns about the physical world and how it operates. My interests spring from many years of personal conjecture about the nature of time. Eventually, this drew me to a glancing acquaintance with topics in metaphysics, astrophysics and cosmology, quantum physics and related topics in earth sciences and other subjects. Not to suggest that I have any substantial knowledge or even understanding in those areas, but it is interesting and I enjoy the occasional foray into thematic waters that are way over my head. Feel free to join me in a little mind-bending exercise. There’s a link on the right.

As to my topic on this blog today, well, it’s still in a formative state, like a gelatin mold that’s only been in the ‘fridge for a short time—getting thick, but still kind of loose and fluid. Problem is, it’s been like that for a few years now. So let me lay out the basics.

It seems to me that the general temperaments commonly referred to as conservative and liberal represent personal psychological traits that give rise to our world views. Furthermore, I suggest that these two orientations are, more or less, universal human attributes, though the degree of intensity of those feelings falls on a continuum between the two extremes, most likely in a classic bell-shaped curve.

I reckon I might explain the bell curve.

The bell curve, a shape that shows what "average" looks like.

The bell curve is a graphic (think “picture”) method of showing a normal distribution (“average”) of scores (in this case, think “people’s attitudes”).

For example, let’s suppose all of us took a survey of questions to find out whether we had conservative or liberal opinions. If each of our surveys were converted to a numbered tally to score our outlook, then it is most likely that the majority of us would find ourselves in the groups whose survey tallies place us in the large number of scores just left or right of the center. In other words, we might be conservative or liberal, but not extremely so and generally tending toward a centrist viewpoint while maintaining our liberal or conservative attitude. That is the 34% percent on either side of the center line.

The more extreme the survey tally, the further out from the center would be the score, representing smaller and smaller numbers of people, until the most extreme viewpoints represent only about 2% of each side. The last percent or two (not shown on this curve, but way out there on the flat ends) are the real nut cases.

So basically, if we were all piled up on top one another in stacks that were based on each possible survey score, and somebody stood way, way off and looked at the pile, that bell-shaped curve would most likely be the outline of the stacks.

Stack us up according to our scores and stand way off....

If you don’t understand, then just see me after class.

I don’t mean to suggest that everyone is locked into an attitude that applies to everything or all the time. Just that we have a significant tendency to maintain consistent positions on most issues most of the time.

The big question about this whole matter, though, is why?

I have some notions; unfortunately, this is the messy part. And since I’ve gone into some mind-numbing detail on some boring topics here today, I think I’ll table the issue for now, probably pick it up again next week.

And give me just a few more days to think about it.

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