The last week or so has had a lot of writings and controversy about conspiracies, the failings of the neoliberal approach and related issues. These are inevitable, it seems, when the reality of the diverse composition of our ranks has certain consequences. We seek to understand what is happening to us and grasp for the explanations that have been there forever. Unfortunately, these explanations are no better this time than they were in the past, but we need something.
There are better ways of dealing with these problems but, unfortunately, they are much more difficult to grasp and then to put to use. This should be no surprise for reality is pretty complex and easy answers are usually inadequate.
The paradox facing those of us here at Kos is that we know why the other side is wrong. That implies that we are right, yet does not assure it to be so. Being right is also a complex notion with many facets. At best an idea has merit within a limited context yet we tend to operate in a world of universals.
I'll be more specific. Are there easy answers to these questions?
Are electoral politics always worth the effort and expense?
Is rational thought the only way to reach the public?
Does every effect have an easily identified cause?
If things are not going well need there be "someone" behind it?
These are the kinds of traps we have been falling into with great frequency lately. I submit that there is a framework of thinking that addresses these issues and will explore it with you below.
My usual approach to writing about these matters would have me cite people who have given insight and to try to establish a language for discussing them using terms and concepts already "out there". What I find is that the very nature of the problem makes this counter productive. Rather than get involved in naming people and ideas that may cause you to immediately turn off, let me try to get us a fresh start.
Let us start with our way explaining things. Something happens therefore something had to have caused it, right? The simplest way of dealing with this is to look for an agent directly responsible for what happened. How often is this going to be useful? I submit that in the real world it almost never is unless we are dealing with simple mechanical events. We have plenty of those in elementary physics but do we want to reduce human interactions to simple physics? I think not.
The world we are interested in dealing with here is complex and involves many causal events operating at once in networks and loops.
Closely related to this idea is the need for conspiracy to be behind things that happen. Where this gets really messy is when the events clearly seem to be serving a purpose for some interest group. My favorite examples come from religion. Surely he acts of primitive humans during the days preceding the Winter Solstice were perceived as having caused the sun to stop disappearing and return. Hence a causal link was established. Some of the things I have read in the past week have some of this flavor.
One of my favorite phrases is "elections have consequences." It has come up often in recent months here in Virginia. Who could hope to refute such a phrase? The problem is that those consequences do not usually provide any kind of long term solution and have a self perpetuating nature that establishes an ongoing sink for effort and resources. Is it possible to think of ways that effort and those resources could be used that may in the long run do more to solve the problem?
Here is a central thesis I will put forth for your consideration. The nature of most of these myths about causal agents and conspiracies and the need to defeat "them" in elections rests on the fact that we are quite comfortable with an adversarial way of trying to govern and have been from the beginning. Enemies are convenient. Read today's diary title list if you doubt me.
Does it strike you as a system of thinking built to be stable and go on forever without ever coming very close to doing what it claims to be there for? How did we get here? History has many answers to offer but they all fall short. We are here because of how our minds work and the vast difference between our image of how they work and how they actually work. For if we could see ourselves from another planet the whole thing would be comical at best.
Religion is an easy scapegoat and the "other side" makes it all too easy to use in that manner. I'll get right to it even though I know that the analogy will turn almost all of "our side" off. We use reason and 18th century enlightenment in very similar ways to what they use religion for. We build world models and operate with them as if they were reality. It has been said again and again that the two approaches are incompatible and can not be used to reach common ground. Yet we sit and wonder why we never can reach common ground. So we repeat our rational arguments and cite our facts knowing that eventually they will sink in and we will win. But we do not win and the approach does not work.
Then we need reasons for the failure. Small successes now and then fuel this way of thinking. Well it is the media or the government has infiltrated us or the Koch brothers have bought the media slots or....whatever. Yes these things are real. They are part of a system not the cause of it. The cause is clear. I have spelled it out. The cause is the lack of cause. That's right, any factor you wish to name as being responsible for our situation can be removed and the system will grind on.
We are not going to get out of this situation by trying harder or working harder or sharpening our arguments. We will get out of it when we do something fundamentally different. I submit that the very notion that what I just wrote might be true is enough to send us back to business as usual for it is scary at best! Now comes the usual "if you are so smart, what's your answer?" If you understood any of what I have said you know that I could not possibly have an answer nor could anyone who thought they did think the way I do.
The idea that there are "answers" is part of the problem. It implies that we can identify the source of our difficulty and then fix it. Very nice mechanistic thinking. Find the cause, the conspirators, whatever and you are on your way to a solution. It has not worked so far why should it work in the future?
Meanwhile, complex causes are at work on the planet. Causes that can be traced to our actions but which suggest no easy solutions. How much longer can we go on playing this game? From where I sit you do not need a weatherman to tell which way the wind is blowing.