“There is no life without dialogue. And across most of the world, dialogue is today replaced by polemic. The twentieth century is the century of polemic and insult. Between nations and individuals, and even at the level of formerly disinterested disciplines, polemic holds the place which was traditionally held by considered dialogue. Day and night thousands of voices, each pursuing from its own corner a noisy monologue, unleash on people a torrent of mystifying words, attacks, defenses, passions. But what is the mechanism of polemic? It consists in viewing the opponent as an enemy, consequently simplifying him and refusing to see him. When I insult a person, I no longer know the color of his gaze, nor if he sometimes smiles and how. Grown three-quarters blind thanks to polemic, we no longer live among men but in a world of shapes.”
>>>>in the real world, you never really know what’s on the trolley tracks. the risk and the cost are perception. and perception is often inaccurate. perception is often manipulated. and this is done with malice aforethought.
This entire article was very good. Some fraction of people really do want to play god. Because of their own warped sense of self, they feel better about themselves by controlling others.
Have you read Julius Reuchel’s essay “Bystander at the Switch”? It covers the trolley problem beautifully. His one graphic “Illusion versus Reality” in particular.
totally agree. one time i complained to a co-worker about how destructive to birds the wind turbines are, and she said, "well there won't be any birds at all if we don't stop climate change." Hard to argue with that, at least not with someone you have to work with everyday. So to save the sparrows of the future we have to kill all the eagles today? and then of course it will be, "whoops! turns out we didn't need those wind turbines after all!"
Jul 29, 2022·edited Jul 29, 2022Liked by el gato malo
Wow. This is an absolute tour de force!
I have a long-running argument with my father about whether the insane leaders are evil or just true believers in their misguided ideologies (of socialism, climate alarmism, etc.) I tell him that there are conscious evildoers at the top, he argues that it's true believers (in socialism, etc.) all the way up.
In this brilliant piece, Gato, you have given my father and me a new and better way to think about and resolve our argument. You have squared the circle. You support my argument that there is a difference between the useful idiots and the evil masterminds above them. And you ALSO support my father's argument that the evil masterminds are true believers too!
The beliefs themselves are different...the useful idiots really think everyone should eat bugs, while the evil masterminds just really think the world NEEDS their enlightened leadership. And you've done a wonderful job explaining how they come to convince themselves that they are the good guys even as they destroy the world.
Thank you! This really helps. And it makes a lot of sense. It helps me see that my father was right all along, in a way. Even arch-criminals have an enormous capacity for rationalization and self-justification. They really do think they're the good guys. Not because they plan to eat bugs themselves, but because they are so sure that they are the smartest and best people to mandate everyone else's bug eating. They can even justify criminal behavior like bribe taking as necessary to appropriately compensate them for their genius contributions to society. Or like murder to eliminate those they view as "less enlightened" aspirants to power.
I applaud your optimism and share it. Things are bad but we have the tools and the capability to replace and rebuild that which has been infected and turned against us. Meanwhile, every day more people on the margins grow sick of the mess created by this cult.
Another thought experiment, to really drive things home. Assume the world is overpopulated, and that the ecological strain this creates dooms the human species to extinction. The problem can be solved by eliminating 99% of the population. Doing so will result in humanity existing more or less in perpetuity. The extermination of billions of actually existing, flesh and blood humans is then justified by the lives of hundreds of billions of hypothetical future humans.
Point being, the cult's mindset does not require those 5 people on the trolley to even exist. In fact, there's a strong psychological pressure to simply invent them. Oh, we killed more people than we saved, in the real world? No problem, we'll just imagine more people into existence, and count them as among the saved - see, we're the good guys again!
I think you're right with this observation, "i fear the reality is actually even more chilling: they are sure that they are moral"
It reminds me of the C.S. Lewis quote, “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, these would be do-gooders have to utilize morally bankrupt politicians and bureaucracies to institute their tyranny, giving those that would fight against them a foe that at least has the potential to be persuaded based on their own self interest at least.
I didn't really understand why Biden was the Democratic nominee. It seemed there were better choices for the party that would stand a better shot at defeating Trump. A few might have actually won without cheating.
By putting in Biden they can do anything they want with no individual blame. President Grandpa takes all the blame.
Time for the quarterly reminder of the C.S. Lewis quote about tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of the citizen.
Also from a more modern work (ironically from a franchise currently in its woke death throes):
"Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It’s the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life’s joy in a mad scramble for power. For identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."
The trolley dilemna is a great analogy to communism. It needs a second frame of what happens after the switch is pulled. The individual on the track dies, the 5 others on the track die, the guy pulling the switch dies and everyone on the train dies in a massive fiery derailment.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated: but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. . . . This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be ‘cured’ against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”
Upon recent travel, I spoke candidly and kindly with strangers who were not aware of the things I am. I saw extreme discomfort to hear the things I had to say. I think it's important to keep talking and let people process things. You need not convince them during a particular conversation, but only provide information and a different perspective. If we do this collectively and respectively through our close and casual communications with others, I think we can turn this around. People will not continue to do whatever once they are able to piece it all together. Even if they do, well, they will live with the consequences. Our effort is to undo the censoring. It is worth wrecking whatever relationships we may have though because without life or quality of life there really can't be a good relationship; it is merely a facade.
Great article. I’m with you on tearing down the bureaucracy wholesale. I also think we need a program of radical self-reliance. We have been caught up in trading independence for comfort. We willingly attached ourselves to centralized grids which ended up controlling us. We need new technologies that emphasize individual freedom, utilize only local resources, and human-scale manufacturing processes. If the grid is only valuable when individuals *choose* to inject some of their own resources into it, the maintainers of the grid aren’t in control anymore. The new republic should measure every proposal based on whether it increases individual independence or not.
I like the use of the trolley problem. Perception and information are so easily manipulated. Emotions can pull someone around and get them to sacrifice for unnumbered unnecessary goals. Rile someone up in hatred allows one to get the angry person to do anything.
The next thing boys are off to fight in a war that benefits oligarchs and allows the oligarchs more money and power.
“There is no life without dialogue. And across most of the world, dialogue is today replaced by polemic. The twentieth century is the century of polemic and insult. Between nations and individuals, and even at the level of formerly disinterested disciplines, polemic holds the place which was traditionally held by considered dialogue. Day and night thousands of voices, each pursuing from its own corner a noisy monologue, unleash on people a torrent of mystifying words, attacks, defenses, passions. But what is the mechanism of polemic? It consists in viewing the opponent as an enemy, consequently simplifying him and refusing to see him. When I insult a person, I no longer know the color of his gaze, nor if he sometimes smiles and how. Grown three-quarters blind thanks to polemic, we no longer live among men but in a world of shapes.”
—Albert Camus, “Witness for Freedom”
>>>>in the real world, you never really know what’s on the trolley tracks. the risk and the cost are perception. and perception is often inaccurate. perception is often manipulated. and this is done with malice aforethought.
This entire article was very good. Some fraction of people really do want to play god. Because of their own warped sense of self, they feel better about themselves by controlling others.
Have you read Julius Reuchel’s essay “Bystander at the Switch”? It covers the trolley problem beautifully. His one graphic “Illusion versus Reality” in particular.
https://theideasinstitute.org/2022/02/04/bystander-at-the-switch-the-moral-case-against-mandatory
totally agree. one time i complained to a co-worker about how destructive to birds the wind turbines are, and she said, "well there won't be any birds at all if we don't stop climate change." Hard to argue with that, at least not with someone you have to work with everyday. So to save the sparrows of the future we have to kill all the eagles today? and then of course it will be, "whoops! turns out we didn't need those wind turbines after all!"
Wow. This is an absolute tour de force!
I have a long-running argument with my father about whether the insane leaders are evil or just true believers in their misguided ideologies (of socialism, climate alarmism, etc.) I tell him that there are conscious evildoers at the top, he argues that it's true believers (in socialism, etc.) all the way up.
In this brilliant piece, Gato, you have given my father and me a new and better way to think about and resolve our argument. You have squared the circle. You support my argument that there is a difference between the useful idiots and the evil masterminds above them. And you ALSO support my father's argument that the evil masterminds are true believers too!
The beliefs themselves are different...the useful idiots really think everyone should eat bugs, while the evil masterminds just really think the world NEEDS their enlightened leadership. And you've done a wonderful job explaining how they come to convince themselves that they are the good guys even as they destroy the world.
Thank you! This really helps. And it makes a lot of sense. It helps me see that my father was right all along, in a way. Even arch-criminals have an enormous capacity for rationalization and self-justification. They really do think they're the good guys. Not because they plan to eat bugs themselves, but because they are so sure that they are the smartest and best people to mandate everyone else's bug eating. They can even justify criminal behavior like bribe taking as necessary to appropriately compensate them for their genius contributions to society. Or like murder to eliminate those they view as "less enlightened" aspirants to power.
Anyway, amazing post. Thank you.
I applaud your optimism and share it. Things are bad but we have the tools and the capability to replace and rebuild that which has been infected and turned against us. Meanwhile, every day more people on the margins grow sick of the mess created by this cult.
Another thought experiment, to really drive things home. Assume the world is overpopulated, and that the ecological strain this creates dooms the human species to extinction. The problem can be solved by eliminating 99% of the population. Doing so will result in humanity existing more or less in perpetuity. The extermination of billions of actually existing, flesh and blood humans is then justified by the lives of hundreds of billions of hypothetical future humans.
Point being, the cult's mindset does not require those 5 people on the trolley to even exist. In fact, there's a strong psychological pressure to simply invent them. Oh, we killed more people than we saved, in the real world? No problem, we'll just imagine more people into existence, and count them as among the saved - see, we're the good guys again!
I think you're right with this observation, "i fear the reality is actually even more chilling: they are sure that they are moral"
It reminds me of the C.S. Lewis quote, “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, these would be do-gooders have to utilize morally bankrupt politicians and bureaucracies to institute their tyranny, giving those that would fight against them a foe that at least has the potential to be persuaded based on their own self interest at least.
I didn't really understand why Biden was the Democratic nominee. It seemed there were better choices for the party that would stand a better shot at defeating Trump. A few might have actually won without cheating.
By putting in Biden they can do anything they want with no individual blame. President Grandpa takes all the blame.
Time for the quarterly reminder of the C.S. Lewis quote about tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of the citizen.
Also from a more modern work (ironically from a franchise currently in its woke death throes):
"Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It’s the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life’s joy in a mad scramble for power. For identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."
The trolley dilemna is a great analogy to communism. It needs a second frame of what happens after the switch is pulled. The individual on the track dies, the 5 others on the track die, the guy pulling the switch dies and everyone on the train dies in a massive fiery derailment.
C.S. Lewis said it best.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated: but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. . . . This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be ‘cured’ against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”
Upon recent travel, I spoke candidly and kindly with strangers who were not aware of the things I am. I saw extreme discomfort to hear the things I had to say. I think it's important to keep talking and let people process things. You need not convince them during a particular conversation, but only provide information and a different perspective. If we do this collectively and respectively through our close and casual communications with others, I think we can turn this around. People will not continue to do whatever once they are able to piece it all together. Even if they do, well, they will live with the consequences. Our effort is to undo the censoring. It is worth wrecking whatever relationships we may have though because without life or quality of life there really can't be a good relationship; it is merely a facade.
“The welfare of the people . . . has always been the alibi of tyrants. . . .” - Albert Camus.
Great article. I’m with you on tearing down the bureaucracy wholesale. I also think we need a program of radical self-reliance. We have been caught up in trading independence for comfort. We willingly attached ourselves to centralized grids which ended up controlling us. We need new technologies that emphasize individual freedom, utilize only local resources, and human-scale manufacturing processes. If the grid is only valuable when individuals *choose* to inject some of their own resources into it, the maintainers of the grid aren’t in control anymore. The new republic should measure every proposal based on whether it increases individual independence or not.
I like the use of the trolley problem. Perception and information are so easily manipulated. Emotions can pull someone around and get them to sacrifice for unnumbered unnecessary goals. Rile someone up in hatred allows one to get the angry person to do anything.
The next thing boys are off to fight in a war that benefits oligarchs and allows the oligarchs more money and power.
It's worth considering who tied these people to the tracks in the first place.