There is a famous optical illusion: you have to determine which way a ballerina rotates if you look only at her shadow. Some people will say that the ballerina rotates clockwise, others that it rotates counterclockwise. But a real ballerina rotates in a certain direction! Which way? How do we find out who's right?
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Article Editor: Yan Beygelzimer, Dr.Sc., Professor
The solution to the illusion is that the ballerina's shadow does not contain all the data that allows you to establish the direction of her rotation. As soon as you get the necessary additional information, immediately the direction of rotation will be determined unambiguously.
For example, you can mark with lines of different colors the left and right arms (legs) of the ballerina. This will help to determine the direction of rotation without errors:
The illusion of the shadow of a spinning ballerina is a visual model of the situation when people argue to the point of hoarseness (or even blood!) about some event about which they do not have full information. Withholding part of the truthful information, lying is a basic principle of propaganda, the basis for manipulating people.
This is how fakes arise, including the most absurd ones, such as about the «crucified boy», about fighting mosquitoes, about evil Bandera Nazis. Such absurd fakes are easily refuted by proven facts (not speculations and sophisms, but exactly FACTS). But these are the simplest cases. In our model, it is like simply lifting the curtain behind which the ballerina is spinning and seeing the direction of her rotation with your own eyes. True, even in these cases there are those who, contrary to the obvious, do not stop believing in absurd fakes. But we are not talking about them.
Most of the information that surrounds us is not so absurd or obvious (in our analogy, there is no way to simply lift the curtain). In such circumstances, many people reduce everything that happens to the shadow of a spinning ballerina. Such people take the position: “Everything Is Not So Clear-cut”. They say, “Well, you see, any situation can be understood both ways. Any arguments of one side can be refuted by arguments of the other side. The situation is symmetrical. Therefore, it is impossible to figure out who is right and who is wrong, where is evil and where is good.
Of course not! “Symmetry” is broken by the fact that the ballerina is, in fact, spinning in a DEFINITELY different direction. Translated into the language of real life: the truth exists, and one side of the conflict is evil, the other side is good. And to sort this out, you have to use other criteria besides propaganda information! Like what? We believe that evil has two main criteria:
- lie (evil has to lie constantly in order to hide its essence, so whoever lies constantly is evil);
- immorality (evil undermines and destroys universal values such as life, liberty, justice, peace, respect for the individual, and the rule of the established order; therefore, the one whose actions are immoral is evil).
Finally, here is an example of using the second criterion. Listen to how good and evil sound differently. I think that here everything will be unambiguous for everyone.
The first video (source: Space Intelligence) shows Gillis Sarah Levin, 30, an aerospace engineering major and lead space operations engineer for SpaceX Sarah Gillis, right from aboard Crew Dragon Resillience 700 kilometers from Earth, performing composer John Williams' “Harmony of Resilience” (the theme from Star Wars), accompanied by orchestras from all over the Earth:
The first video (source: Space Intelligence) shows Gillis Sarah Levin, 30, an aerospace engineering major and lead space operations engineer for SpaceX Sarah Gillis, right from aboard Crew Dragon Resilience 700 kilometers from Earth, performing composer John Williams' “Harmony of Resilience” (the theme from Star Wars), accompanied by orchestras from all over the Earth:
The second video shows Russian missile attacks on apartment buildings and a children's hospital in Ukraine (sources: 1 - Telegram channel Nu i Dnipro; 2 - Andriy Tsaplinenko Telegram channel; 3 - Youtube channel Nastoyaschee vremya. Stories):
Cover photo: ballerina Anna Sigarga, photo source: Sportishka.club
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