I’ve been having a number of ideas about how we are all debating these days. It certainly seems as if people are becoming more partisan in their ideas, but more worryingly they are becoming less tolerant of a difference of opinion. Its like debating is a hate crime. However, what is most interesting is when you listen to the argument and realise how people view their argument compared to the current situation.
The general story goes, the current system is broken, and what I would do is this. It doesn’t matter which side of the divide you are, the story is the same. The point is, they don’t like reality, but think changing a few things would make it all work.
Reality doesn’t work like that. Reality is everything, all the good bits, and all the bad bits, working together. You can’t have one without the other. So, if you take the bits out you don’t like, and replace them with something else, there will be unintended consequences.
So, you have a situation, and a small part of it doesn’t work as you’d like. If you change it, there will be other parts that don’t work as you’d like. The problem is, for most people, is they don’t think that far ahead. They only see the bit that changes, at the moment it changes. But, everything has its consequences because nothing stays the same.
The best way to demonstrate this is by looking at how ideas in the past have developed.
I don’t want to pinpoint a fixed example, as this will warp the concept in details that are irrelevant. But let’s assume you have a new campaign to change something that becomes a huge force for a generation. The next generation will be taught how this movement was big and important, and will want to do something similar.
The problem for the next generation is if the original campaign made a difference, they will need to move things forward further. And that’s the problem. If the original campaign had reached it natural conclusion, what the next generation want to do won’t get the support of the older generation. They will see that the change they had created, worked well. The bad things were reduced, if not removed, and the good things grew.
The new generation will take a new view. They won’t see the improvements, but will still hear the message. They will see the bad things as being very bad, and will see the good things as acceptable, but could be better. They will have a more extreme target for change. It won’t be a natural conclusion, it will be forced.
The point of my thoughts is that reality is not interested in how you see it. It just happens. If you want to mask it with your ideals, it doesn’t change anything. It just warps how you see reality. Eventually, you get to the point where reality on what you see is so warped, you feel as if you need to change reality, where what you should do is change your view so you can be comfortable with reality.