When everyone thinks something is a good idea, its dangerous if it doesn't work , or it isn't going to work . Clearly it probably does work in some cases (eg Secondary industry policy ) Our wannabes have been busily legitimizing the dumping of processes that work for processes that don't work - on the basis of one example that does .
How does this happen? Well it happens largely because legitimization is often a matter of faith -esp when we are all struggling to make ends meet. The new faith for many is" in the future" ( therefore what we learn from the past is now less important ) . Many just now believe that the new is always better . Its a matter of faith bolstered up by the reality that in production of goods technology does increase efficiency and efficiency does matter for a large part of the economic sectors-- at least on the surface . The fact that it doesn't work with ecology and some resource uses is lost in a blinkered majority "declaration /doctrine of truth" .
The dominant belief system across all Parties is in the idea that things will automatically progress . You haven't heard it that way because it sounds absurd but then as Chesterton said : "religion and romance have a way of really turning things on their head."
Test it for yourself . See how you go defending " the way we do things " You old dinosaur " the majority will say ( as a matter of faith ..??..almost) .
If you want something more satisfying in the way of a faith system , you have to go to the margins , the outsiders and the cranks . ( I hope you don't ALL think of me that way !) As we know we have the satisfaction of being able to predict how things will work -- most of the time .
take democracy -its always under threat because its not reliable or efficient ( but not everything has to be on the bookkeepers ledger _ who would have children ? ) Churchill summed it up - hands off Its the best of all the options ( and those who experiment at our expense should be accountable should be forced to demonstrate their competence/ not their faith to do so )
A new conservatism is coming. Lets be a bit more cynical about new processes than political reactionaries have been in the recent past so that the new religion isn't as inflexible as the current one .
Ask yourself Would anything be any better in the care fields in our leaders just ensured we were as best trained as possible and LEFT US ALONE from the efficiency freak show .( that was the OLD way - the one without monitoring and relentless bookeeping by the pedants !- where your reputation counted ,not the number of outputs)
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Nothing better shows this dumb idol of positivism ( or whatever you want to call it ) than the first great editions of "Utopia ABCTV". While not widely recognised ,reason takes second place because of this new faith http://ondewolf.blogspot.com
Why do many not see the basis here ? because many citizens refuse to accept they have a religion ( which means they deny its role and importance - ask a good pyschologist- he might use the world worldview which is OK ) )
I am a bit suspicious of the extent to which this faith in the future causes an overreaching intellectually .In Todd Simpsons new "Remaking our brain" their is more than a hint of denial- after all - we can't really . What he is saying is we can use our brains which is what our parents told us ( shock horror SOSO).e While many of the challenges to "think well" are put , he too confuses correlation with causation in a deterministic view of " why people do things they do "---- amazingly motivation seems to be a bit of a mystery- certainly is to all those laggards who would wait for peer reviewed papers on the subject.
Clearly even our PM malcolm Turnbull doesn't realise the danger in talking technology over science . His big PR budget to " encourage innovation "is a complete waste of money in effect ,even if it makes people feel good. The rich do not not know that its the desperate who practice innovation, and they don't need any lectures to do so.
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