Monday, 24 June 2024
The Imbecility Trap
We navigate through life by avoiding surprises and this simple observation offers us an interesting perspective into the link between governing elites and imbecile policies.
A surprise in this context is an anomaly If the governing classes were to discover that many of those they govern have a superior understanding of something politically important, that would count as an anomaly in the government façade - something to be avoided.
Yet it doesn’t become an anomaly until it is admitted. This is the almost universal government avoidance strategy – admit nothing. Traditionally this type of avoidance has been wrapped in thinly disguised supercilious snobbery, but the digital world is pervasive and for large numbers of people this type of evasion doesn't work.
Intellectual snobbery masks a core weakness of government - senior officials must know more than those they govern. Otherwise ascendancy is breached and this is something to be avoided at any cost, where at any cost means what it implies – at any cost to voters.
Hence the gulf between political elites and voters in our age of information technology. Evasive people, fashionable discourse, weak sources of information, vacillation, too much reliance on inadequate experts and crude snobbery won’t do as a way to formulate government policies.
The result is weak policy-making which is periodically exposed when government is seen to have blundered again. Often a ludicrous blunder which governments try to evade rather than correct because that is what they do. It’s what they do because it’s what we do. It runs deep and is not a trivial matter however big the blunder may be.
It leaves an old and familiar gulf between government and the governed, but many voters do not seem to understand how deep this gulf is. The collapse of the Tory vote could be due to a number of factors, but one obvious factor may be that many Tory voters have seen the gulf while Labour voters have not. They seem unaware that they will be voting for the same gulf.
It seems strange in our information-rich age, but governing elites can still become trapped by imbecile policies. To describe our governing elites as imbeciles may seem unhelpfully dismissive, but it is not necessarily wrong.
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9 comments:
Ah, but keep in mind that they're full time professional imbeciles. We clever scruff can only kowtow to their bank balances.
Superb post, AKH - one of your best on politics and our current situation.
It's certainly the case that governing elites act in an imbecilic way, and the link between that and the exponential increase in information is clear. We now see that the elite are no wiser or much more effective than the rest of us. They are very ordinary people who are prey to daft intellectual fashions, group-think, and personal insecurity. They are just like ordinary people who pick up on catch-phrases, fashions, and fads like tattoos, piercings, and must-have items for the home. The only difference is that most of us are trading in harmless trivia, whereas the elite are having a massive impact because they have got the power.
How else could one even begin to explain a policy of phasing out gas boilers and petrol vehicles without having a clue about their replacement? Why - to refer to your last post - would they even think that importing two Southamptons every year without the infrastructure was not storing up huge trouble? And women with penises? Any claim to superior intelligence is long gone.
All of it boils down, I think, to whether this is pure stupidity or malign intelligence. Cock-up or conspiracy. As the true picture becomes available via the internet, a lot of people are simply gobsmacked by how daft, venal, and "ordinary" our elites appear to be. And many are dealing with this by subscribing to conspiracy theories: "They can't have cocked up this badly - that's the type of thing that us ordinary folk do. No, there's got to be a deeper more sinister explanation...".
Personally, I keep an open mind, but tend towards the cock-up view. Miliband, Davey, and the rest are no more than panicking shitty middle-managers who haven't been slapped down enough.
As it happens my education and experience have been deep and broad. So I find most of the governing class to be ignorant and none too bright on any subject I know about.
On the millions of subjects I don't know about I therefore assume them to be ignorant and none too bright. If I wanted to know more about such a subject I'd have to discover someone well informed, sceptical, quick, and honest.
A fine exposition - but I am beginning to come around to the view that knowledge and facts supporting sensible policies have absolutely nothing to do with our current political situation. Indeed it is somewhat quaint to think that 'truth' is still important.
Paraphrased from https://mises.org/mises-wire/harry-frankfurt-humbug-and-battle-against-wokery:
The promoter of humbug “does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.” He does not care whether he is fact-checked or not, as long as he remains in control.
It must be Somebody's Law.
An insecure, stupid, incompetent boss will never willingly permit anybody selfconfident, intelligent, competent to serve under him. The reasons are obvious.
The only exception is if the boss is running his own company and it is his money circling the gurgler.
@Doonhamer
Theresa May's Law?
Jannie - I agree, that's what they are, full time professional imbeciles. They don't seem to care about veracity at all, only whatever suits their personal agenda.
Sam - crikey, thanks. I keep an open mind too, and they certainly come across as shitty middle-managers who haven't been slapped down enough. There probably is conspiracy in there, plus political malice and subversion with international roots, but those who should be handling all that seem to have no interest in it or they join in. The general election could be interesting, but if we see a Labour landslide then voters are culpable too.
dearieme - I can't say my education has been deep and broad, but I also find most of the governing class to be largely ignorant on any subject I know about. They appear to be briefed entirely by promotional people, not working scientists, engineers and so on.
DJ - yes, we clearly have far too many professional imbeciles in politics, government and the media, people who care nothing for veracity. There is no obvious way out of it apart from voting the current political parties into oblivion and that seems extremely unlikely unless something huge is lurking beneath the polls.
Doonhamer - I bet it is Somebody's law, these things usually are, or variations of Somebody's law. Worth looking up.
I think the underlying reason for such uncontrolled, rampant imbecility now, is that previously, the many imbeciles in or near power were trammelled somewhat by the strictures of conservative society. Since the last war, this has rapidly fallen away, leaving them comparatively unchecked. Social customs, education, and public ethics will have to change and regress to greater discipline before this reduces their baleful influence.
DJ - Miliband's Maxim?
Tammly - I agree, the discipline has fallen away under various cultural relaxations epitomised by "doing your own thing" which seemed like greater freedom at the time. Yet the clues to a serious downside were always there.
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