Speaking of shaping tomorrows world that is exactly the purpose of the right-wing think tanks with which both Michael and Quadrant are closely associated - the IPA is of course one of the said think tanks. Their activities are described in the books published by Sharon Beder especially Global Spin, and This Little Kiddy Went To Market.

Speaking of Socrates this author has a keen appreciation of what Socrates was on about as is shown by this unique assessment of The Symposium. http://www.adidamla.org/newsletters/newsletter-aprilmay2006.pdf Altogether this essay is a profound criticism of the benighted world-view that the right-wing think tanks promote. There is a line in this essay pointing out that humankind is like rubble in its current state.

Speaking of shaping the world and the reality of human caused climate change this essay descibes the reality of the situation
http://www.dabase.org/p2anthro.htm
As does this talk:
http://spiralledlight.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/4068
This reference http://www.dabase.org/not2p1.htm describes the state of the humanly created world - as created by the benighted ghouls from the right-wing think tanks.

Speaking of education the set of references available here provide a comprehensive critique of the baneful limitations of the kind of "knowledge" that mis-informs Western "culture" altogether, and more specifically the kind of reductionist power-and-control-seeking "knowledge" that the right-wing think tanks promote.
http://www.beezone.com/whiteandorangeproject/index.html

This article is best described as pathetic. It was so boring and complicated, I had to force myself to read it to its joyless, mystifying end.

What a shame that academics, in the main, can't communicate with the general public. But it's understandable, I suppose. They live in little isolated clusters and communicate with each other in jargon.

Socrates made things clear. This article makes nothing clear!

That's a pretty mean article Michael, psychology professors do not expect to have to explain where their dribble comes from. They simply expect it to be treated as gospel, & worshipped by an adoring public.

Poor Lewandowsky is now probably lamenting having tried to get away with a pile of bull dust, presented as a learned dissertation , but he is stuck with it, you are not helping it go away, as would be usual with anything he wrote.

Lewandowsky has had his payoff for acting as a useful idiot, and now someone else will be hired to fill that position. The whole affair merely demonstrates that the alarmists have a good idea of the level of intelligence and understanding among their followers.

At his best Socrates was a contemplative ecstatic. As was Plotinus. They were part of an "underground" stream of contemplative Western philosophy which was always there. As distinct from the dominant strand of Western philosophy which was always about the drive to gain power and control.

The dominant and dominating philosophy has of course always won, because they always had the swords and guns to enforce their will and thus make toast of the contemplatives. Such occurred with the formation of the "official" Christian church too. Any hint of any kind of "gnosticism" or mysticism was thus very soon systematically eliminated. Later on the Inquisition dealt with any kind of gnostic "heresy".

Brutalism always won!

Such contemplative philosophy is of course mightily taboo in the modern world. There are very strong taboos against anyone becoming too "mystical". My favorite "Philosopher" was always subject to pressures to be a good-buttoned-down dreadfully sane normal human being.

In Truth & Reality the contemplative strand of philosophy is senior to the kind of philosophy that seeks to gain power-and-control over whatever it objectively analyses. Why is this? Because we are first and foremost psychic beings indivisibly co-joined with the World Process. The World Process itself is a psycho-physical realm.
Psyche is always prior to techne. Indeed ALL experiences however seemingly solid are brain and nervous system generated fabricated projections.
http://www.adidam.org/teaching/gnosticon/spirit-of-buddhism

These two references on the intrinsic urge/motive to enter into a state of contemplation are also very much related to the topic of humankind's destruction of the environment via its brutalism - or the dominator world-view that Michael promotes.

http://sacredcamelgardens.com/wisdom/contemplative-state-exaltation

http://sacredcamelgardens.com/wordpress/wisdom/observe-non-humans-and-learn

I am with you David G. What the hell is the author even trying to say? Polysyllabic flatulence of the highest (or lowest) order.