How would we explain to our grandchildren the fall of the United States into MAGA-stan (vaccine-hesitant/QAnon) and WOKE-stan (Antifa/Defund the Police)?
“REMEMBER MOAB!” The rallying call of our post-rational era
We face many paradoxes in our post-rational era. At the core is our empirical science-based reason’s inability to convey valence required by our humanist worldview that creates these paradoxes.
Given the advent of our digital realm, we now have frictionless, unlimited, and free access to data. We now interpret this data-stack through our Humanist Truth lens instead of relying upon scientific reasoning of empirically-validated facts.
How would we explain to our grandchildren the fall of the United States into MAGA-stan (QAnon/vaccine-hesitant) and WOKE-stan (Antifa/Defund the Police)?
I find that the artistic realm regularly sees the future better than most of our ‘experts.’ And we can swallow the bitter pill of truth with a shell of art (literature, music, comedy) much better. Expect to see a number of references to both literature and comedy below!
Speaking of the rise of the written word (analogus to our current rise of digital ‘experts,’ Plato’s Phaedrus observed, “By telling them of many things without teaching them, you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part, they know NOTHING and as men filled, not with wisdom, but with the conceit of wisdom, they will be a burden to their fellows.” Plato’s Phaedrus
Going back to Plato is too far a reach for most people, therefore, I’ll use a modern ‘philosopher/‘prophet’ of our new post-rational era, who uses metaphors generally recognized in our ear, Neal Stephenson. He predicted our current state of dysfunction a decade ago.
In Neal Stephenson’s novel, Fall; or, Dodge in Hell, ‘Remember Moab’ was a rallying cry of a plot element describing a fake disaster (nuclear explosion) which transforms into an ongoing dispute over who caused the (fake) disaster, and why the government is trying to cover up the (fake) disaster, and so on. Basically, the Moab event becomes a culture war touchstone, much like Pizza-Gate (child trafficking ring in the basement of a pizza restaurant) or Russia-Gate/Steele Dossier (Trump colluded directly with Russia/Putin and peed on a prostitute in Moscow).
“Remember Moab” is the bumper sticker version of this.
We now live in a world where Remember Moab has replicated endlessly into Remember Wuhan (zoonotic or lab-leak), Remember Vaccines (magic bullet or hoax), Remember the Stolen Election (either 2016 according to the Left or 2020 according to the Right).
How did our new post-rational era arise?
Our Digital Culture “has extended our central nervous system itself into a global embrace [and] Emotional empathy has replaced cognitive empathy and we wear all humankind as our skin.” SAFE HAVEN (a COVID-19 Pandemic Story to Combat Fear)
We have supplanted objective truth (based on empiricism/science) with Humanist Truth. It is our empirical science-based reason’s inability to convey the valence required by our humanist worldview (read Homo Deus to appreciate the depth of this change to Humanist Truth) that creates these paradoxes (Remember Moab!).
Valence-charged facts are why we can no longer share a civil discourse or rely upon critical thinking skills like rational objectivism based on empirical science-validated facts. Subjective reality (what we know to be true) has always validated objective reality (facts), however, only with open — rational & disinterested — minds can we discuss differing opinions. We no longer have the ability to ponder difficult challenges or converse dis-passionately.
Valence, or hedonic tone, is the affective quality referring to the intrinsic attractiveness/”good”-ness (positive valence) or averseness/”bad”-ness (negative valence) of an event, object, or situation. Nico H. Frijda, The Emotions. Cambridge(UK): Cambridge University Press, 1986. p. 207
HUMANISM’S RISE
In the rationalist era, we sought to be ‘dis-interested and dis-passionate’ we now seek to dive deep into our brains and find our own individual meaning there, then use this certainty as the foundation of our decision-making.
Western societal values have transitioned from religious thought as blind faith — to skeptical science-empowered rationality— to a post-scientific Western liberal humanism (individual feeling as truth) that reigns today. The best summary of our current civilization’s conversation to humanism can be found in Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. Humanity’s belief in the value of human life and such life as the source of truth (first as religious souls, now as universal human rights) is what brought us to today. This belief has infected every facet of our civilization from science to politics.
Religious Knowledge = Scripture x Logic. Read the Bible as authority itself to answer your questions.
Scientific Knowledge = Empirical data x Math. Run experiments, and calculate conclusions professed as theory.
Humanist Knowledge = Experiences x Self-awareness. Search your feelings, and choose what you know to be true.
*Good Medium Article on the topic is Takeaways from Homo Deus by Yuval Harari*
Humanism, a revolutionary new creed that conquered the world during the last few centuries. The humanist religion worships humanity and expects humanity to play the part that God played in Christianity and Islam, and that the laws of nature played in Buddhism and Daoism. Whereas traditionally the great cosmic plan gave meaning to the life of humans, humanism reverses the roles and expects the experiences of humans to give meaning to the great cosmos. According to humanism, humans must draw from within their inner experiences not only the meaning of their own lives but also the meaning of the entire universe. Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
What is unacknowledged by humanists is that they consider their ‘rationality’ equivalent to reasoning based on empirical facts. However, anything based on scientific theory can be measured, while Humanism has given rise to universals (e.g., universal human rights) that by definition cannot be measured. With Humanist values, society now considers emotional empathy as ‘the highest good.’ THIS IS THE ESSENCE OF THE FAILURE OF HUMANISM AS PRACTICED TODAY. The perverse moral mathematics of emotional empathy “distorts our moral judgments in pretty much the same way that prejudice does.” Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion
If we can use Enlightenment REASON to work with any fact pattern (think the COVID-19 coronavirus), all is well. However, modern REASON has been short-circuited by our environmentally-spawned digital technology. We live in it. It is the principal organizing force of our lives, the GESTALT or unifying form of our modern existence.
Once a social value has been mapped onto the biological disgust mechanism in social interactions (e.g., valence-charged facts), then it is impossible to have a reasoned discussion about any topic (from racism, inequality, COVID-19, or the election of a President (Trump or Biden). Unintentionally, we seek to acknowledge our more primitive sense-making systems and often confuse them with our personal SELF because they ring with certainty.
Our passions control us.
A wonderful example of this Humanist Truth mapped onto a pre-existing biological system is the role of the disgust mechanism now commonly used in social interactions (listen to Jonathan Haidt and Steven Pinkner — Jordan Peterson: The Psychology of Disgust with Steven Pinker and Jonathan Haidt). In addition to its role in helping to expel harmful foods from the body, our biological disgust mechanism also forms an important (and every growing) component of the behavioral immune system — the suite of psychological mechanisms that aid in the detection and avoidance of potential contaminants before they can make contact with a community.
As we have entered a post-rational age driven by our secular humanist belief system, our sensemaking consciousness now seeks to acknowledge Homo Deus ever more.
- *If you are curious about how we got to Homo Deus, I suggest you read Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Harari**
This is a systemic problem. A consequence of this post-rational era is the inability of Woke-istan and MAGA-stan to acknowledge their obvious similarities and tactics.
How can modern society reconcile these apparently diametrically opposed visions of the modern era (‘wars within us’)?
I find the arts (humor) has recognized the impact of the hidden force shaping our new post-rational era (you must name a demon to control it and best to use humor in the naming). To see a Brad & Chad Best Friends Forever video. No real spoilers are given and only 1:44 long. BEST TWO MINUTES YOU’LL SPEND ON YOUTUBE GUARANTEED!
As demonstrated in the video above (showing the adoption of the exact same language by both Woke and Racist groups), critical thinking is a real challenge today. Even when the facts are exactly the same, the valence charge of positive (Woke) or negative (Racist) determines which view is accepted as a societal norm.
WHAT ME? I AM A RATIONAL BEING!
The greatest danger is believing only your opponents are infected with Humanistic Truth. While I hate to admit it, I am basically intuitive, not rational. Just like all people, practically all the time, I make hasty judgments. These are not based on reason. My false reason comes from the hidden operations of cognitive predispositions and a two-track brain. Instead of my mind acting as a judge weighing the facts, it acts as a press secretary seeking to justify my beliefs.
That’s right, “humans are not designed to practice reason. We are designed to make arguments that aim to support our preconceived conclusions, not yours,” The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion.
None are immune to the perverse moral mathematics of Humanist Truth. Consider the dissolution of the Intellectual Dark Web — the supposed heterodox thinkers of our time (where now even brothers are on opposite sides, i.e., Bret and Eric Weinstein).
How can modern society reconcile these apparently diametrically opposed visions of the modern era (‘wars within us’)?
We must acknowledge the medium magnifying our Age of Anxiety, digital media.
According to Marshall McLuhan in The Gutenberg Galaxy, the Print Culture created uniformity and continuity allowing for the extension of our physical/mechanical abilities. Our Digital Culture, however, “has extended our central nervous system itself into a global embrace.” With the additional development of a “technological simulation of consciousness, when the creative process of knowing [is]….extended to the whole of human society….” people now seek to declare their beings totally spanning from a moment (Twitter/Snapchat) to a complete life (Facebook/LinkedIn).
Literacy conferred the power of detachment, non-involvement. An analogous ability is that of cognitive empathy. This ability to understand what’s going on in the minds of others, allows humans to act within larger communities for the benefit of the whole community. Conversely, emotional empathy originated from tribal oral cultures. Emotional empathy is beyond understanding — it is sharing the suffering/experience of another — you feel what they are feeling. With the compressional nature of our electronic media, emotional empathy has consumed all the oxygen in the room and individuals feel compelled to make decisions without taking the time necessary to form a cognitive empathic response. The Gutenberg Galaxy
A metaphor suggests something, therefore, it becomes visible. Narrative (story) is always a nesting process of multiple layers seeking a goal. The story becomes the framing mechanism to guide us on a journey of discovery — a cipher to decode the painful mutual incomprehension now playing out between the vaccinated and the vaccine-hesitant.
In our former rational era, we used an expert to help us find the ‘needle in a haystack’ (the information we needed hiding in the data, i.e., the signal in the noise).
Now, our technology delivers a needle-stack. EVERYONE can find a fact/needle to support virtually any assertion.
In the rational era, we trusted the expert who found the needle-in-a-hay-stack, evidence by when the expert would use the needle to ‘pop the ballon’ of the problem we were seeking to solve.
Now that our digital technology delivers a needle-stack, ANYONE is able to pull out a needle and pop the idea-balloon.
What can we do about it?
“By telling them of many things without teaching them, you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part, they know NOTHING and as men filled, not with wisdom, but with the conceit of wisdom, they will be a burden to their fellows.” Plato’s Phaedrus
Again, arts (in the form of comedy) offer some alternatives.
The best presentation on the danger of identity politics in a time of political decay:
Consider reading The Once and Future Liberal by Mark Lilla and Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment by Francis Fukuyama on the risks of identity politics (the evil twin of multiculturalism).
The best organization I’ve found seeking to depolarize American politics (John Wood, Jr.’s tweet above — He is a National Ambassador of Braver Angels):
