Loading ...I am meant to be studying for exams as I write this. The recent renaissance of Neocracy has, however, drawn me in with a parade of self-justification about the merits of intellectual creativity the night before my exam.
Throughout my post-grad political science programme I have had been struck by a dawning realization about the social sciences: they are confounded by the problem of human motivation. Insofar as there can be a science of the social world, scholars look for patterns and regularities about how people act in order to come to general conclusions about social life. In political science the best minds have come up with two answers to the question of what motivates people: rules and interests. Beliefs, values, meaning and aspiration are cast aside as residual detritus.
As a student I accept the conventional orthodoxy if only because it is not false. People do regularly act in accordance with rules and in response to their interests. This does seem to be a fairly reliable generalization, although it may seem bleak. The bleakness bugs me, however. While the conclusions that political scientists draw from these premises may be reliably true, I question the use of these conclusions. What is the point of understanding the world at its bare minimum? Of what worth is this knowledge? And if we do find use for these conclusions – that the right incentives create voting equilibria in legislatures – who is to say that the ends are desirable? Even if my government is stable, who wants to live in a world where the model politician is shamelessly ambitious and greedy?
I look forward to a time when we are not afraid of aspirational thinking, perspectives of hope and visions of civilization. Not McCivilization, but spiritual civilization: a Divine Economy of richness in wisdom about life. We assume the least about human beings because it is the safest bet to be able to say something certain about social life. It can be liberating, however, to find security in mystery. To be able to say “perhaps� with confidence.
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Now see? That’s how you write a neocrats post.