Saturday 26 August 2023
When ignorance convergences
On the one hand, she had contact with the world of fashionable literature, on the other with that of fashionable ignorance. Mrs Lane’s house was a meeting-point of the two spheres.
George Gissing - New Grub Street (1891)
One of our major political issues is a convergence of misleading language around political and financial interests. Which is obvious enough to those paying attention, but we also see a negative convergence, a convergence of ignorance.
This latter convergence becomes apparent when a sceptic or sceptical organisation makes an observation which may be valid but politically unwelcome. Attacking the sceptic is a familiar response, but there are many situations where the sceptical observation is ignored. Ignorance, as Gissing pointed out, is often fashionable.
It’s an odd thing to describe, but political trends do create a convergence of ignorance supporting the trends themselves. It isn’t new - Socrates being an early victim. Yet how does something negative such as ignorance, how does it converge?
Ignorance clearly can and does converge as an integral part of a wider convergence of political interests, especially when there are linked financial interests as is usually the case. When the convergence is challenged, ignorance can be a common response – merely ignore the challengers and the challenge. Don’t analyse, don’t check, remain ignorant. There are arguments of course, but the most striking aspect can be the staying power of ignorance.
The media use it all the time, encouraging a convergence of ignorance around political trends and policies they support. The BBC makes great use of it, especially around its own role in obliquely promoting favoured political and social trends.
As a concrete example, we could consider Net Zero which has ridden a convergence of ignorance around sustainable energy. Now it seems to be colliding with an important reality where people are not ignorant – their own immediate welfare.
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3 comments:
I think we can see this in terms of the "circulation of elites" theory set out by Pareto. The old elite - which just wanted to make vast sums of money, and were largely and wilfully ignorant of the consequences of so doing - are being replaced by a new elite, who favour Net Zero, BLM, woke posturing, and the like. And the trouble with them is that they are also wilfully ignorant of the consequences of their policies. The old elite simply didn't believe pieties about the suffering poor, or about pollution. The new elite, who gained power by highlighting this ignorance, are clueless about money, taxation, human nature, and science.
We are, I think, in a power struggle at the moment. My money is on those who straddle the divide: rich capitalists who understand markets, and flog eco and woke products.
From Wikipedia:
Procrustes had a stronghold on Mount Korydallos at Erineus, on the sacred way between Athens and Eleusis. There he had a bed, in which he invited every passer-by to spend the night, and where he set to work on them with his smith's hammer, to stretch them to fit. In later tellings, if the guest proved too tall, Procrustes would amputate the excess length; if the guest was too short Procrustes would stretch them until they died; nobody ever fit the bed exactly.
Perhaps the myth still has weight in modern times. Think of the bed as a political narrative like Net Zero as the way to the sacred Utopia. It suits The Powers That Be to offer the Net Zero bed to every passer-by. Some are ignorant and are stretched to fit the bed. Some are contrary and have untidy bits lopped off. Everybody will be made to fit, but nobody escapes alive.
Unfortunately there are more and more people engaged in maintaining the narrative than inspecting it for poor design.
Sam - my money is on the rich capitalists too. They need us in a way that the political loons don't. The loons seem likely to fail, but it also seems likely to be a messy failure or series of failures and possibly disastrous. Then other loons will appear.
DJ - the myth certainly does have weight in modern times. It could be seen as a comment on diversity, because ironically diversity means everyone is made to fit the politically correct bed.
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