Jack Parsons: Genius Victim of Con-Men

[Jonfliesgoats]

Thoughts regarding Jack Parsons, nerds?

Edited November 1, 2016 by Jonfliesgoats
Spellung

[Vanamonde]

Who? 

[tater]

A founder of JPL... but had issues.

I'd hardly assign all the blame to "con men." Some people are irrational, and his choices (Marxism and then following Crowley) both demonstrate he likely had a mental health issue, frankly. Generally people who believe truth claims about the universe for bad reasons are indoctrinated from birth into such ideas, so it's fair to give them a pass for being irrational. Choosing to believe things without evidence as an adult... makes you broken.

Edited November 1, 2016 by tater

[Jonfliesgoats]

My thread is meant to say that I think he was a genius who fell victim to con men.  He was brilliant, but maybe naive.  I think Crowley and L Ron Hubbard saw an easy mark in Jack Parsons.  Hubbard ran away with the poor guy's wife.

Good science requires an open mind.  I wonder if this makes some of our most innovative minds susceptible to con artists?

Also, have any of you watched that film about James Randy, "An Honest Liar"?  It's quite good!

Edited November 1, 2016 by Jonfliesgoats

[tater]

Edited. Randy is great.

Con artists? Again, I'd put this particular kind in a special class since our society gives a pass to bad ideas so long as they are held true with exactly zero evidence. Heck, not just a pass, you are lauded for holding things true with no evidence possible by definition. Strange world we live in.

[p1t1o]

Its an extremely wide and deep-seated misconception that for someone to be clever, they must be clever in all things, and if they make a mistake in any area, that forever must taint their "cleverness" as well.

Humans are not digital computers, are not even naturally rational, thus being clever in a rational field sometime leads to strange things.

[tater]

^^^ True enough. Look at Newton.

[Jonfliesgoats]

Good example with Newton.  I wonder what Jack Parsons could have done without the likes of Crowley and Hubbard getting at him?

[WinkAllKerb'']

frankparsons frankeinstein same basket in the pocket

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons_(rocket_engineer)#/media/File:Dark_Angel.png

14 52 ... welcome on earth, that a bit messy actually, bad luck ... 'sigh'