{"id":6227,"date":"2016-09-13T05:01:37","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T05:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2016\/09\/13\/predicting-what-one-wants-to-happen\/"},"modified":"2016-09-13T05:01:37","modified_gmt":"2016-09-13T05:01:37","slug":"predicting-what-one-wants-to-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2016\/09\/13\/predicting-what-one-wants-to-happen\/","title":{"rendered":"Predicting What One Wants to Happen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps you have noticed this too.  People will often predict what they want to happen, even when what they want to happen is far from a foregone conclusion. At the moment I am reading an article<\/a> by David P. Goldman who asserts that Hillary is "road kill":<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The presidential election was over the moment the word \u201cdeplorable\u201d made its run out of Hillary Clinton\u2019s unguarded mouth. As the whole world now knows, Clinton told<\/a> a Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender fundraiser Sept. 10, \u201cYou know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump\u2019s supporters into what I call the \u2018basket of deplorables.\u2019 Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic \u2014 you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that, and he has lifted them up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What is the astute Goldman up to?  He must know the election is not in the bag.  A glance at the electoral college map<\/a> should convince anyone of that.  At the moment, Clinton has 209 electoral votes, Trump 154, with 175 toss ups.<\/span><\/p>\n

My theory is that when intelligent people predict what they want to happen, when what they want to happen is far from a foregone conclusion, they are trying to influence the outcome.  If more and more people think that Trump will win, then they will be inclined to support him.  People like to be on the winning side.  "You just want to be one the side that's winning," Dylan whined in Positively Fourth Street<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are numerous examples of this phenomenon of predicting what one wants to happen.  <\/span><\/p>\n

A related phenomenon is often exhibited by my angelic wife.  I'll ask her how likely it is that such-and-such a good thing will happen, and she will reply, "I hope so!"  I will then point out that what I requested was her assessment of the probability of a desired future event, not a report on what she hopes.  <\/span><\/p>\n

'Do you think Socrates Jones will get tenure?"<\/span><\/p>\n

"I hope so!"<\/span><\/p>\n

Goldman's ending earns the coveted MavPhil<\/strong> nihil obstat<\/em>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

He [Trump] built a new country club in Palm Beach two decades ago because the old ones excluded blacks and Jews<\/a>. He\u2019s no racist. He\u2019s an obnoxious, vulgar salesman who plays politics like a reality show. I\u2019ve made clear that I will vote for him, not because he was my choice in the Republican field (that was Sen. Cruz), but because I believe that rule of law is a precondition for a free society. If the Clintons get a free pass for influence-peddling on the multi-hundred-million-dollar scale and for covering up illegal use of private communications for government documents, the rule of law is a joke in the United States. Even if Trump were a worse president than Clinton\u2013which is probably not the case\u2013I would vote for him, on this ground alone.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

My view exactly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRelated articles<\/span><\/legend>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>Prediction<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>On 'Disenfranchise' and Hillary's Will to Power<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>More Liberal-Left Insanity<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>Hillary the Fabulist<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps you have noticed this too.  People will often predict what they want to happen, even when what they want to happen is far from a foregone conclusion. At the moment I am reading an article by David P. Goldman who asserts that Hillary is "road kill": The presidential election was over the moment the … Continue reading “Predicting What One Wants to Happen”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,221],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-psychology-and-personality-typology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}