Amoral establishment

I am re-reading Owen Jones (2014) The Establishment – and how they get away with it. Them and us. Scary stuff.

I missed many points on the first reading. But I have played with the ideas that I did pick up.  They include money, power, greed and selfishness. The impression is that these might be adaptive and thus a ‘good thing’. And this raises the questions, “Is democracy a good thing?” and “Is there a moral high ground in terms of evolutionary psychology?”

There have been millions of years of evolution leading up to mammals and to man. Choices were made and the fittest survived. Many did not.

Evolution works not only on individuals and groups but also on environments and ecosystems.  And it works on all of these as they play against each other all of the time. Natural selection weeds out the less effective. Survival rests with that which makes most copies of itself in the next generation. Pure serendipity.  No judges, no judgements. Unbreakable laws.

Mankind does not stand alone. Individual humans belong to cultural groups that have territories within ecosystems. Climax communities form and evolve in reaction to changes. There will inevitably be changes. “Things fall apart – the centre will not hold.”

Disasters. Drought, flood, plague and pestilence; earthquake and volcano; collisions by comets and meteorites; death and injury while foraging and hunting, and while fighting with neighbouring groups. Sickness, old age and death. Mankind is not in control.

Biogeochemical cycles. Mince and tatties become me plus some faeces that become food for the decomposing bacteria whose waste products are fertiliser for the grass that becomes cow that becomes mince again. “Round and round and round in the circle game.” We are dynamic stardust.

Ongoing churn. There are interactions between large and small plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, and viruses.  Photosynthesisers capture carbon dioxide and water and, in the presence of sunlight and chlorophyll, produce sugar and oxygen. The light energy from the sun becomes temporarily trapped as chemical energy in sugar. The energy is set free again inside cells and water and carbon dioxide are given off as waste products. The sun is the source of all planetary energy, and it will go out eventually.

Carnivores, omnivores and herbivores. Predators, prey, parasites and decomposers. All interacting and maintaining the balance of nature on Planet Earth. Breathe, eat, drink, socialise, have sex and die.

The modern scientific ‘facts’ are awesome and they contradict the myths and magic of earlier times and are therefore often ignored. But humanity may be at two tipping points:

• The need for better Stewardship of the environment is more widely felt – Green politics.
• A better understanding of the psychology of perception leads increasing numbers of people to Mindfulness and to non attachment to views. Live and let live – reconciliation and consilience.

It would be ‘nice’ if:

• More people were honest, caring and responsible regarding self, family, group, ecosystem, and planet. Socialism and social democracy.
• Fewer people were to be cruel, suicidal zealots and war mongers for whom there is only one bottom line – profit. Corporate capitalism and neoliberal free markets.

SO - “Is democracy a good thing?” and “Is there a moral high ground in terms of evolutionary psychology?”

We can make things simple by assuming that there are three world views ranging from left wing through centralists to right wing. The following table lists a few issues. The reader is invited to add other items. I have left the centralist column empty because in most cases it takes a middle way and tries to highlight the good points and avoid the bad points in the more extreme world views.

For whatever reason, most of the time, I feel most comfortable with the social democratic view. I also feel that extremists on the left and right, but particularly on the right, are nutters who must have had problems growing up. There is a failure of empathy. I cannot understand how they could possibly have such ‘strange’ views. To me the facts seem to speak for themselves and there is no alternative to social democracy. My elegant point of view is ‘Be reasonable, do it my way.’

My brain is hard wired to learn a language but it is my culture that dictates which one. My brain is hard wired to develop a world view but it is my culture that dictates which one. Before the potentials become actuals there is cognitive dissonance which is unpleasant. It elicits adrenalin based anxiety and panic. This gives motivation to change the mind so as to elicit cognitive consonance and possibly to be rewarded with a pleasing squirt of dopamine.

SO - “Is democracy a good thing?”

“Is xxx a good thing?” How is ‘good’ to be evaluated and by whom and for what reason? Xxx  is mind stuff with no abiding reality. Words label mental conditions. Democracy, dictatorship, truth, beauty, Allah, God, Satan, etc. Nothing to kill or die for. “Judge not lest thee thyself be judged.” Those who practice mindfulness come to know this.

SO - “Is there a moral high ground in terms of evolutionary psychology?”

‘Moral high ground’ and ‘moral low ground’ are intellectual phrases that label mental conditions. Anything goes. The phrases can help or hinder the survival of individuals, groups and ecosystems.

What are we to think about before, during and after apartheid in South Africa, the holocaust in Germany, Hiroshima in Japan, etc? Man’s inhumanity to man. There will be those who are taken in by the propaganda and justify, excuse and even applaud it.

In the Amazon basin Transnational Corporations buy off local politicians to form coalitions of those with wealth and power. Their greed and selfishness results in the genocide of the native people who   might stand in their way. Survival of the fittest.

The present global Establishment is strongly right wing and cannot see an alternative to neoliberal free markets which make the rich deservedly richer and the feckless and lazy poor deservedly poorer.

BUT this is just a passing fashion. In the UK in the 1970s, before the Thatcher revolution, the conventional wisdom was for social democracy – and the free marketeers were the nutters on the margins. We may be at a tipping point. Various renowned economists are now advocating a more                                                    social democratic agenda and there is a growing number of freelance philosophers and special interest groups breathing new life into participatory democracy.

Contention has been and will be with us always. But mindfulness training will enable wiser and more civilised policy making. Maybe!