When Reason Goes on Holiday Philosophers in Politics

I gave uh andra a book on the way in here with this my favorite new book it's like title of it is when reason goes on holiday um and this is a great example of it is the the people who are who the people who simultaneously say their environmentalists and say they're anti nuclear power like the the positions simply don't reconcile but that doesn't bother them like at all

I finally found this book that I think has a has a good model for it a book is called men machines in modern times and it's written by this MIT professor like 60 years ago so it predates the internet um but it uses a lot of historical samples and what he says basically he says there's there's actually a three stage response there's a three stage societal response new technologies it's very predictable he said stage one is um basically just denial uh just ignore like we just like don't pay attention to this nobody takes it seriously we just like there's just a blackout on the whole topic um he says stage uh that stage one stage two is rational counter argument um so stage two is where you line up all the different reasons why this can't possibly work it can't possibly ever get you know cheaper you know this that uh you know not fast enough or whatever the thing is and then he says stage three he says is when the name calling begins um so he says stage three is like right right so when they failed ignore it and they failed to argue society out of it they move to the name calling right and what's the name calling the name calling is this is evil this is moral panic this is evil this is terrible this is awful this is going to destroy everything like don't you understand like you know all this you know just just like this is this horrifying and you you know the personal working honor of being reckless and evil and you know all the all this stuff and you must be stopped and and he said the reason for that is because basically fundamentally what these things are is there a war over status um it's a it's a it's a war over status and therefore a war over power and then of course ultimately ultimately money but the status status human status is the thing and so and because what he says is what what is the societal impact of a new technology the societal impact of a new technology is it reorder status in the society so the people who are specialists in that technology become high status and the people who are specialists in the previous way of doing things become low status and generally people don't adapt right generally if you're the kind of person who is high status because you're you're you're an evolved adaptation to an existing technology you're probably not the kind of person that's going to enthusiastically try to replant yourself onto a new technology and so this is like every politician who's just like in a complete state of panic about social media like why are they so freaked out about social media because they all know that the whole nature of modern politics has changed the entire battery of techniques that you used to get elected before social media are now obsolete obviously the best new politicians in the future are going to be 100% creations of social media and podcasts and by podcast and we're seeing this now as we head towards the next presidential election that podcasts uh clearly are going to be featured very heavily in that next election because long form content is a whole different landscape so this is exactly so this is the road so Rogan Erogan's had like what like he's had like Bernie he's had like Tulsi he said like a whole series of things are okay most recently and that's created a lot of contribution but also my understanding I'm sure he's invited everybody I'm sure he I'm sure he'd loved to have Biden on I'm sure he'd loved to have Trump on I'm sure you have to ask him I mean I think that um you know every podcaster has their own ethos around who they invite on and why and how so I certainly can't speak for him but um but I have to imagine that any opportunities have true long form discourse that would allow people to really understand people's positions on things I have to imagine that he would be in favor of that sort of thing yeah or somebody else right you know some some other top podcast from Donnelly would right and so there's such if my point my exactly totally agree with you but my point is if you're a politician if you're if you're a legacy politician right you have the option of embracing the new technology you can do it anytime you want right but you don't they're not they won't like they won't do it and why won't they do it well okay it's first of all they want to ignore it right they want to pretend that things aren't changing you know second is they want like they have rational counterarguments for like why the existing campaign system works the way that it does and this and that and the existing media networks and like here's how you'd like to do things and here's how you give speeches and here's the cozy wear in the tie and the thing in the pocket square and like you've got cool sister it's how you succeeded was coming up to that system so you've got all your arguments as to why that won't work anymore and then and then we've now proceeded to the the the name calling phase which is now it's evil right now it's evil for somebody to show up in you know on a on a on a stream god forbid for three hours and actually say what they think right it's going to destroy society right so it's exactly right it's like it's it's a it's a classic example of this pattern and anyway so Morrison says in the book basically this is the forever pattern like this will never change this this is one of those things where you can learn about it and still not the entire world could learn about this and still nothing changes because at the end of the day it's not it has it's not the tact that's the question it's the it's the reordering of status