We Need To Escape From Ape-Brain
Why our cognitive hardwiring causes us to create dysfunctional systems
Look at any political contest and what do we see? Fundamentally a clash not of carefully-articulated policies with clear and reliable analyses of probable outcomes but instead a battle of personalities. Look at any judicial system and what do we see? Lawyers competing in battle to convince a jury or a judge of the righteousness of their case regardless of truth and social benefit. Look at the so-called “news” media and what do we see? A relentless focus on sensationalism largely centered around (you guessed it) personalities. And of course in the world of popular entertainments, personality is everything.
Which is, when we pause to consider the situation, quite mad.
Politics ought to be about carefully-reasoned proposals coupled to very thorough and credible projections of likely outcomes. Judicial inquiries ought to be seeking the truth, not manipulating interlocutors. And it is very clear that we are ill-served by the endless mindless babble that comprises 98% of media output.
So why do we live in a world that is objectively dysfunctional and creates horrifically poor outcomes like NATO’s total passivity in the face of Russian aggression, the Trump presidency, Brexit, Modi’s Hindu-nationalist…
