Marcus wrote:
<clip>
<NickCriteria A-C>
If it is evolution at work, then perhaps the good cops and the bad
cops are in some sense the good guys, and it is everyone else that is
making the market (so to speak), inefficient.
We certainly have our part in it. We deserve the "leaders" we have.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
All this talk about ignorance means so much nothing at the end of
the day if it doesn't change who is in power.
The point of my talk of ignorance (willful and otherwise) is that to the
extent we are complicit in our own problems, we *do* have the ability to
retrieve some of our power from those we have given it to out of our own
*willful ignorance*. These yokels who sell us down the river every
time do so with at least some of our eager participation. We *want*
easy answers that allow us to remain blissfully ignorant about the
consequences of our actions.
There will always be folks willing and able to tell us the stories we
want to hear, offer us perpetual motion machines, sell us snake oil,
etc. We can pretend that if such people didn't exist, we would not be
in this pickle, but such people will always exist, at least as long as
we give them our power... hand it to them on a plate... ask for another
sweet bedtime story about how "everything is going to be OK if you just
vote for them (or the policies that support their behaviour)."
The world is complex and mysterious and we will be forever mostly
ignorant of it.
Very good point. We (especially on this list) are prone to imagining
that ignorance is not inevitable. I'm not asking to replace willful
ignorance with willful arrogance. I am only pointing out (perhaps
poorly) that while we are pointing our fingers at those captaining the
ship going over the falls, we should notice that *we* are the ones
rowing. If or when we recover, you might think we would design our
ships (and methods of captaining/crewing them) differently... so the
rowers themselves won't have to pretend to be so surprised when they
shoot off the edge of the world at top speed.
Trying to distinguish the ignorant from the informed is in this way
a dead end.
</NickCriteria A-C>
<NickCriteria E>
It *is* arrogant (and in it's own way ignorant) to presume that we can
replace all ignorance with informedness (there IS no Hari Seldon, nor
perfect Psychohistory). My point would only be that there is some
low-hanging fruit in our own (willful) ignorance which we are now having
our noses rubbed in. We are being made acutely aware (for the Nth
time) that their is no free lunch... that much of what we think of as
"progress" and "productivity" is nearly always short-term (years,
decades) profit taking supported by hidden, exported and deferred
costs. Our economy floats atop extractive industry (including most, if
not all "modern" agriculture), depending on an ever-growing frontier
(digging/drilling deeper, etc.) and an infinite sink (not) for our waste
(heavy metals, particulates, unburned hydrocarbons, even C02 and heat).
Most of the major problems facing us are not *news*. We have known
about these issues for years, decades, even centuries in some cases.
What *might be* news is that we, by applying *willful ignorance* managed
to ignore or defer the worst of the symptoms while continuing to *take
advantage* for ourselves. Patting ourselves on the back for our "wise
investments" while protesting (or maybe just griping) against those who
are making that money for us (and skimming the cream for themselves)
through "unsustainable" practices. We notice the skimming and the
unsustainable, but we don't notice that we were at least passively
complicit.
One of the things we can do now, as the current set of "scales fall from
our eyes", is to *not* imagine that we were innocent in our current
predicament and *not* imagine that just as soon as we get rid of all
"the bastards in power" that all will be right in the world and we can
go back to "getting ahead" in blissful (willfull or sad) ignorance, not
accepting that we can easily (through greed and fear) build a fresh
house of cards, this time with a *different* set of failure modes.
</NickCriteria E>
Now I really *am* late for my daughter's wedding rehearsal! I've been
willfully ignoring the clock while engaging in my rant here... carry on!
- Steve
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