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Wednesday 10 January 2018

The flying whale

In order to form an idea of an unknown situation our imagination borrows elements that are already familiar and for that reason does not form any idea of it.

Marcel Proust - À la recherche du temps perdu


Proust was an extraordinary chap. He wrote an absolutely enormous tome of a novel, but within that vast mountain range of words he scattered some of the most succinct insights one could ever wish for.

Suppose we concoct a commonplace example of the above quote. Imagine a whale swimming along just beneath the surface of the sea minding its own business. Doesn’t matter which kind, any whale will do but let us imagine a whacking great big one, an entirely whale-like whale.

Imagine our whale cruising sedately along as they do - then suddenly and with unexpected grace it takes to the air like some monstrous bird. One minute it is swimming in the ocean like any other well-behaved aquatic mammal but the next minute finds it swimming through the air fifty feet above the waves as if the air has become its natural element. 

The ocean is so last year my dear.

Impossible of course, but we can imagine it. At least I can and I trust I’m not alone in such a trivial accomplishment. Yet the image of a flying whale doesn’t even make sense because it would violate a number of scientific laws. Yet even though it doesn’t make sense we can imagine it. We can imagine lots of things which don’t make sense, it’s one of the things we do rather well. It can be entertaining but there are drawbacks.

Imagine a leader of a major political party, a long time member of the legislature with no government experience because this person has always lurked on the periphery, disdaining the various responsibilities which come with governing and making decisions. Imagine this political leader is past the normal retirement age so learning the complexities of government are likely to be substantially more difficult than in earlier days.

Now imagine a situation where this same political leader has wandered into a situation where there in a possibility of becoming Prime Minister. Is he or she likely to be successful? We can easily imagine success just as we can imagine the flying whale, but is our imaginary PM any more capable of flying in a Prime Ministerial sense? For most or even all of us the answer depends largely on our powers of imagination.

Perhaps this is a key point. Imagination is easy - it arises from the least energy principle and isn’t necessarily something we should admire. In order to form an idea of an unknown situation our imagination borrows elements that are already familiar and for that reason does not form any idea of it. As Proust knew and highlighted so neatly, those borrowed elements are borrowed because they are already familiar, but not necessarily applicable. 

It’s a problem but how do we find a solution? Do we begin by imagining one?

7 comments:

Demetrius said...

Looking at those around him and their ideas, it is almost back to 1947, but this time round our present ones are far short of the capabilities of those at that time. And they botched it.

Clacket said...

Like you, I think Proust is slightly magical. The ‘temps' here are not so much ‘perdu’ as perhaps ‘inconnu’. Flying pigs might be a more immediately accessible analogy.

To be fair, sometimes people grow into roles. Trying quickly to think of scanty recent examples, maybe Reagan, maybe the snootily observed and extraordinarily derided Trump (I actually like what I vaguely see of him, both personally and presidentially, although I don’t know him and consequently can’t, unlike everybody else, be too doctrinaire; and even though my dear neighbour, a retired French banker, did meet and do business with him quite a few years back and still bears the scars. That was always going to be a hopeless mismatch!) To be even fairer, societies must and will evolve, sometimes in uncomfortable ways. Calcified stasis is not exactly an evolutionarily endorsed strategy.

And yet... If the outcome you posit came about, I wouldn’t blame the venal actors as much as the ‘really, really ought to know a lot better’ audience. Delicate Marcel Proust never, at least directly, offered this particular 'succinct insight' as far as I know, so I’ll say it for the dear fellow: Too bloody thick to live. Shame they may take me and mine down with them but, still, screw them.

Scrobs. said...

I blame Excel spreadsheets.

You can imagine all you like with one of those, and still get absolutely nowhere...

wiggiatlarge said...

"swimming through the air fifty feet above the waves as if the air has become its natural element. "

I thought they all did that, the latest Peugeot advert shows that this is a fact !!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Envisioning a flying whale is one thing, envisioning Corbyn as PM quite another. Now your whale could invent imaginary wings and fly, Corbyn is (slightly) constrained by economic and political realities. I suspect Corbyn and Labour don't really want to win the next election. Better to let the Tories stew in the Brexit mess and by doing so develop the next set of political and economic realities. As Brexit pans out we will see either Sunny Uplands or some horrible disappointment. Political parties do not win elections, incumbents lose them.

Sackerson said...

The role of a modern PM is to be blamed for everything.

A K Haart said...

Demetrius - not only lacking the capabilities, but the experience too.

Clacket - I agree, the 'really, really ought to know a lot better’ audience has much to answer for. Too tribal, too lazy, too willing to make do with slogans.

Scrobs - I like Excel spreadsheets for that reason.

Wiggia - I think I may have seen that one. Nothing to do with cars, but that's car ads for you.

Roger - I also suspect Corbyn and Labour don't really want to win the next election. The sidelines are where Corbyn spent his entire political career and he may be too old to change and too old to desire change.

Sackers - it is but that seems to be how political parties want to play it.