The Discovery of Dinosaurs: Ready, Set, Rawr!!!!!

Not all Dinosaurs are dead: An Anti-Dinosaur campaign.

Hello and welcome to Rock Your Mind! I am thrilled to have you on board for this passion project of mine which is going to discuss dinosaurs in the 21st century. Are you ready? Let it begin.

Source: Lady Philosofia

To set the scene, I want to challenge you introduce something as disturbing as dinosaurs in the 21st century. Yes! However, let me explain that further. I am not referring to dinosaurs which I promise you, as an animal, are very dead - while one must admit, that recent movies like Jurassic Park may invite to thought experiments whether they may secretly have managed to survive into the 21st century.(1)

The issue with this is that thought-provoking encounters made me rethink that scientific truth a little bit. Maybe “dinosaurs” have managed to somehow make it into the 21st century, but not in a way we would expect them to and, at a place where we would never search for them. Before we dive deeper into this and go on an In-Diana Jones adventure to find dinosaurs in the 21st century, let me assure you one thing: Dinosaurs, in their most dangerous form of existence, are very much alive.

What on earth are dinosaurs?

So, what on earth are those mysterious dinosaurs? In short: Discriminating ideas.

In the context of this podcast, dinosaurs are defined as discriminating patterns of thinking, mindsets or simply ideas about a certain topic. The probably most obvious ones include eminent dinosaur authorities such as sexism, racism or fundamentalism, for instance, which all represent discriminating ideas, dinosaur ideas. The reason why I choose to reframe those ideas as dinosaurs can also be summarized easily: They are more dinosaur than many actual dinosaurs could have ever been. Because those dinosaur ideas are:

a. dangerous

b. persistent and

c. just hilariously outdated

If you consider this definition, you can actually not miss dinosaur ideas in the 21st century. When opening the newspapers today, I could literally hear it rawring - and I didn’t even make it to page 5. Patterns of thinking in almost all areas of life are actually thriving when you read a bit deeper into the political section! In fact, some dinosaurs seem to have a big comeback and are, to a certain extent, glorified when you study the let’s call it interesting political developments in many countries those days: from certain ideas within the MAGA community not just in the USA to other more than questionable tenets of AFD voters in Germany. Rawr, right? Those are dinosaur ideas around race, nationality or identity excelling at what dinosaur ideas usually do: discriminating. And, they do it disturbingly well if you look at how convinced some dinosaur idea hosts actually are of what they do (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10).

Two inconvenient Truths about Dinosaur Ideas

When approaching such an indeed profound topic, it is important to consider two things.

Number 1: One has to come to terms with the fact that there is almost no area of life which is not “colonized” by dinosaur ideas - by dinosaur dynasties. Ancient and often anything but beneficial ways of thinking are present in whatever form and incredibly dangerous for both the host of those ideas as well as everybody else. From the sometimes incredibly funny or not political dinosaurs which I have mentioned earlier, to dinosaur ideas around the way we see gender, ideas around the way we relate to money, power or status or something as actually anti-dinosaur such as religious/spiritual concepts: Dinosaurs are everywhere.

When talking about dinosaurs everywhere, I have to add here that it also always comes down to what one considers as discrimination per se. Depending on sometimes very flexible answers to this question, you may see more or less dinosaurs. Overall, however, the way our world works is still a lot based on discrimination, control and ego per se in ways we may often not even be aware of.

That’s where the second shocking truth about dinosaur ideas ties in: We, you, me and everybody else, we are all dinosaur hosts as well. Whether we always want to believe that, remains a completely different question.

It is easier to spot when dinosaurs are discriminating against us: When we are bullied, facing dinosaurs because of our race, gender or spirituality, for instance. When the dinosaurs are “outside” and you can see them.

However, there is more to this. We are, for instance, also all dinosaur hosts in a lot more areas than we may realize as well. To realize this, however, requires a higher degree of humbleness and introspection and a few inconvenient questions here and there may bring that to light.

For instance, the way we think or the way we understand things can often be subconsciously dinosaur. Have you ever thought whether everything that you believe in is always good and only good for you and others or whether there may be a dinosaur secretly at work? Have you ever wondered whether the way you define your self-worth, for instance, is healthy or whether a dinosaur idea around this may actually work against you or others? Or, have you ever questioned how interesting but deeply instilled dinosaur ideas can make you into a dinosaur discriminating against other people as well?

Maybe, it is much more about asking the right kind of inconvenient questions, couldn’t it be? And we will do exactly this in this Anti-Dinosaur Campaign. Let me assure you: We will find your dinosaurs.

Until next time, stay tuned and see you soon.

Lady Philosofia

Sources:

(1)  Preston, D., (2019, Mar 19).  The day the dinosaurs died. The New Yorker. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-day-the-dinosaurs-died.

(2) BBC, (2020, Jul 16). George Floyd: What happened in the final moments in his life. BBC. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52861726.

(3) Flynn, D., (2017, Oct 22). White people should never rap the n-word: A linguist breaks it down. UCALGARY News. Available at: https://ucalgary.ca/news/white-people-should-never-rap-n-word-linguist-breaks-it-down.

(4) Welch, S., (1999). Gender and Sexual Harassment. Annual Review of Sociology, 25, p.169-90.

(5) The Catalyst, (N.a.). Research series: Interrupting sexism at work. The Catalyst. Available at: https://www.catalyst.org/research-series/interrupting-sexism-at-work/.

(6) Glick, P. and Fiske, S., (2018). The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory in Fiske, S., (2018). Social Cognition. Routledge, London, pp.116-60.

(7) Udobang, W., (2017, Feb 17). ‘The exorcism was over in 15 minutes but nothing changed’ - LGBT life in Nigeria. The Guardian, via: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2017/feb/21/from-exorcism-to-acceptance-lgbt-life-in-nigeria.

(8) Watts, E., (2017). Hypatia: the life and legend of an ancient philosopher. Oxford University Press. London.

(9) Nagata, J., (2001). "Beyond Theology: Toward an Anthropology of "Fundamentalism"". American Anthropologist, 103(2), pp.481–98

(10) Stannard, R., (2012, Jun 5). Science: A call for humility. Huffpost. Available at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/m-theory_b_1571466.