1 hour ago, 2046 said:
Well let’s hope they don’t “behave like Objectivists” because most people running calling themselves that are dumb as hell. But it’s not really clear what the question is. There’s like 5 or 6 different questions in there.
One thing is, it doesn’t really follow from “the world is nothing like X, and never has been” to “mankind can never achieve X.” That’s just bad reasoning. It’s not really clear what we’re supposed to be inferring here. It’s also not really valid to use a premise about how many people are rational or irrational from the armchair. Unless you’re just speaking anecdotally, you’re going to need some social science research.
Industrial societies haven’t been around that long. Individualism is still pretty widespread. More people are being lifted out of poverty and ignorance than ever. There was once a time when all “great” countries were monarchies. There was once a time when slavery was widespread in every country. The Soviet Union used to control half of Europe. What got these things to change was, partially, people changing their ideas and seeing what worked and didn’t work. I mean if we’re going to say everyone is just in principle irrational and can do no other, then no political philosophy is going to be acceptable.
Another approach would be to figure out why people believe what they believe, and do the things they do, and try to then account for that, and that’s part of what we do in political philosophy and poli sci, economics, etc.: Finding workable solutions to political problems that takes into account what human beings are actually like and what motivates them.
But overall, I mean, modern democratic liberalism is pretty good as a political system, if you ask “compared to what” in human history. Markets and peaceful cooperation brought about by liberalism didn’t happen by an absolute monistic conception of politics that the Western world overnight suddenly read a single book and then decided to adopt. Liberal institutional arrangements are themselves spontaneous order mechanism that facilitate discovery processes to the things that make human flourishing possible. And things change on the margin, little by little, for the most part. You’re not going to beat people over the head with Atlas Shrugged, silly.
I should specify I don’t think mankind can never achieve X (widespread Objectivism) rather that Y (the evidence of our actual behaviour) suggests it is very unlikely without biological manipulation.
I’m speaking from my general knowledge about history. Everyone is rational to some degree but nowhere near to the degree Objectivism demands. Surely you would agree that the primacy of emotion, tribalism, irrationalism and mysticism is widespread and always has been? I don’t think this is very controversial.
Yes, ideas do matter and can change the world. My concern here is about the limit of ideas, the limits of reason. These limits being defined by the nature of man, which doesn’t seem to clearly reveal itself but surely the long history of man’s behaviour provides some clues.
Yes what you’re saying in the last two paragraphs is edging close to a Burkean conception of the world. Societies adapt and change slowly (so long as revolutionaries are kept at bay) and adjust to “what works”. But “what works” appears to be what accommodates the desires, irrationalities, reason and passions of man.
When, if ever, will Objectivism prove to be “what works”?
One of the biggest issues of the 21st century is mass migration. It’s a problem which is only growing in intensity with rising populations and improving transport technology.
The result of this multicultural experiment appears to be rising tribalism and identity politics. What does Objectivism have to offer here? Free movement? Reason? Most of these people simply don’t want to reason their way out of the growing tribalism.
So just to clarify, the question I’m getting at is do you honestly believe reason is so powerful, that man’s mind is so malleable, that reason could likely convince the masses to behave like Objectivists?
And, furthermore, what do we do now, in today’s world? A prime minister or president cannot espouse and practice Objectivism. They must rule by some other method. They need a guide to action in today’s world. Objectivism is inadequate here.