Fashionable theory – the real cloaking device

This post was prompted by Sam Vega's comment on the previous post.

I think it has something to do with the seductive power of a theory. Unlike real life, theories can be understood by plodders, and they can be used to justify stuff that excites the oddbods: control, intellectual superiority, in-groups, and murder.

There certainly is a seductive power to theory, especially fashionable theory. It is surprising how useful it can be to avoid thinking too hard and less surprising that fashionable theories tend to be easy on the brain. They allow any modestly articulate person to become fashionably articulate, putting them on the road to at least modest success in most areas of life. If our internal censor tells us not to think certain complex thoughts we don’t - we think fashionable simplifications instead and reap a range of advantages.

One advantage is that fashionable theories are a useful way to avoid those internal disturbances activists seem so fanatically keen to bypass. Maybe an important source of activist satisfaction is not having to think too hard. The other side of any argument has to do all the heavy lifting, only to be lightly dismissed with a cliché afterwards.

Politically and socially there appears to be a fundamental divide between those who accept complexity and those who avoid its social and political disadvantages. A diffuse divide to be sure, but still real enough as far as I can see. Stick with fashionable – you know it works and makes you feel better. What’s not to like about fashionable?

The problem in not confronting complexity is that it leaves a huge opening for charlatans to peddle seductively fashionable theories which don’t actually work. A further problem is that it is virtually impossible to demonstrate real world complexities to anyone hooked on fashionable simplicity. Fashionable but over-simplified theories are a perfect cloaking device, they render complexity completely invisible but it doesn’t seem to work the other way round.

It is odd, but some people seem to be interested in or even fascinated by complexity while others prefer the cloaking device of fashionable simplicity and it is not always clear why this should be so. With charlatans it is clear enough but apart from charlatans there are many people who are merely deceived by the cloaking device.

It does not appear to be a question of intelligence because intelligent people frequently give their allegiance to political or social theories which may be fashionable but are also grossly over-simplified, often to the point of being obviously untrue.

A problem which cannot be defeated perhaps - because it is complex.