Second … it is really embarrassing and always was just how easily we were scammed into thinking everything will be fine and stay the same if we just all virtue signal a little.
I honestly wonder if increased culture war angst at the moment (if it is really increased) is a side effect of this play from big-corp.
Slightly more deeply, it’s interesting how much the idea of marshaling individuals on the basis of “doing the right thing” is some kind of dogma. Obviously it’s democratic and can get some things done. But everything?! The things that require systemic alterations??
I’ve quizzed a few activist types about this with a simply numerical question … how many worthy issues are there and how many people doing something significant for them are necessary for anything to get done … and then how many issues is the average person actually capable of caring enough about to do something, even if you can convince them to?
Now it may turn out that the world truly could work this way except that we’re all apathetic consumeristic monsters. But these questions completely flabbergasted those I asked … they truly hadn’t thought about whether their system of change was in anyway a good system of change. Why? Well because, IMO, virtue signalling is a helluva drug. If you’re doing the right thing, even though it may very well be hopeless, there’s a certain kind of apathy that sets in around whether it is too hopeless and whether there are better approaches.
It doesn’t matter … because you are doing the right thing.
I didn’t expect such a thoughtful answer to this post, but totally agree on all points. What makes these problems so intractable is that we as humans are innately utterly unequipped to deal with things at such a macro level, and our institutions also aren’t up to the task, at least in the timeframes required.
First … Yes … Oooofff!
Second … it is really embarrassing and always was just how easily we were scammed into thinking everything will be fine and stay the same if we just all virtue signal a little.
I honestly wonder if increased culture war angst at the moment (if it is really increased) is a side effect of this play from big-corp.
Slightly more deeply, it’s interesting how much the idea of marshaling individuals on the basis of “doing the right thing” is some kind of dogma. Obviously it’s democratic and can get some things done. But everything?! The things that require systemic alterations??
I’ve quizzed a few activist types about this with a simply numerical question … how many worthy issues are there and how many people doing something significant for them are necessary for anything to get done … and then how many issues is the average person actually capable of caring enough about to do something, even if you can convince them to?
Now it may turn out that the world truly could work this way except that we’re all apathetic consumeristic monsters. But these questions completely flabbergasted those I asked … they truly hadn’t thought about whether their system of change was in anyway a good system of change. Why? Well because, IMO, virtue signalling is a helluva drug. If you’re doing the right thing, even though it may very well be hopeless, there’s a certain kind of apathy that sets in around whether it is too hopeless and whether there are better approaches.
It doesn’t matter … because you are doing the right thing.
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I didn’t expect such a thoughtful answer to this post, but totally agree on all points. What makes these problems so intractable is that we as humans are innately utterly unequipped to deal with things at such a macro level, and our institutions also aren’t up to the task, at least in the timeframes required.