Skepsis (Phil's Newsletter) #17: Pandemonium
Racism, violence, Donald Trump and the difference between stories and reality.
What I'm thinking about
It would be an understatement to say that we're living in uncertain times. The civil unrest that has spread throughout the western world and the US, in particular, is understandable, albeit worrisome.
The reason it’s hard to get a grip on the situation is that there are so many different issues and problems jumbled into the same story. Racism, inequality, economic hardship, police violence, social unrest, authoritarianism, public health, etc. It's pandemonium.
We ought to refrain from having strong opinions on complicated matters we don't understand well, so I'm trying to navigate this with empathy and an inquisitive mind. And right now, I have many more questions than I have answers. I don't think I've done the work to have a strong opinion. But I'll offer some of my current thoughts on the matter and the questions that I've been pondering:
Although there are many things we disagree about, as a society, I think most of us can agree on what the goal should be. The goal is that we can all live in a society where the superficial attributes of our persons, as well as our group identities, are merely trivial or completely irrelevant facts with little bearing on our day-to-day existence and the trajectory of our lives. We want to live in a society that is "color-blind". The color of your skin or the shape of your genitalia should not be the main determinants of who you are and what you can accomplish.
The question then is a matter of how we can best go about achieving this. It's clear that there are large disparities with regards to the level of arrests, imprisonment, police brutality, violent crimes and deaths of black vs white people. But what is the cause of this?
Some (most from the looks of it) assume that any or all disparities in outcomes must be the result of either deliberate or systemic racism. But is that an adequate explanation?
I'm wondering if police violence and the criminal justice system - when controlling for all factors - really is as racist as many presume? It's not surprising that people feel this way after watching the horrible death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer. But does the evidence support that conclusion? No clear picture has emerged yet and I'm pretty sure there are many causal mechanisms at play. Racism isn't necessarily the most prominent one.
How is white guilt making any of this better? Proclaiming your guilt doesn't change anything. It may feel good to relieve yourself of it, but much like scapegoating, proclaiming your guilt in public does little to change the situation.
When most people (white or black) believe that improving the lives of the black community is ultimately in the hands of the white majority, aren't we victimizing black people rather them empowering them?
Contrary to the prevailing narrative, there has been a lot of progress even in the past 20 years for the black community in America.
I'm worried that the rather extreme (but well-intentioned) anti-racism narrative that's taken hold of our collective sensibilities in recent years is in some ways counterproductive to reaching our goal. It’s contributing to a hyper-focus on our skin color. Instead of making our skin color a mundane fact about our persons, like the size of our shoes, it becomes our most defining characteristic. Rather than moving us closer to our goal of a "color-blind" society, it's moving us further away from it.
But perhaps that's easy for me to say? As a white-looking guy living in Sweden, I don't have to be hyper-aware of my skin color every day. The fish don't know they're in water.
A slightly positive spin on all this is an idea I heard on the Exponent podcast:
What if all the unrest and chaos in the US right now isn't a sign of a dysfunctional system but a sign the American system is working? What if all the disarray and the violence are just convulsions of a system that’s undergoing radical change? The American system (democracy + federalism + capitalism) is doing its job - it's just not very pretty.If there's ever been a time where the lack of leadership is showing, it's now. When times are good a bad leader is not much of a problem, things usually work out pretty well regardless of what the government does. But it's when times are bad that a lack of leadership becomes evident. I don't think we could have dreamt up a worse person to lead the US right now than Donald Trump even if we tried.
Further commentary on racism and the current protests
Here are some additional resources and articles I've found useful and interesting:
Making Sense Podcast 42 - Racism and violence in America (an old episode, but highly relevant).
A Twitter thread on policing:
Black intellectuals I'm following:
Glenn Loury - Professor of Economics at Brown University
Coleman Hughes - Philosophy grad and writer
Thomas Chatterton Williams - Author and columnist.
Interesting things I've come across
The difference between stories and reality, a 3-part video essay looking at the human condition from the lense of stories:
The fundamental difference between stories and reality is that stories always start with the ending pre-determined. The hero's journey is constructed with the ending known from the start, so every decision and interesting thing that happens to the hero is part of a grand narrative. This is in stark contrast to how our lives unfold or how we feel about our day to day existence. If we believe or expect our own life to unfold like a heroic adventure, we may find ourselves needlessly disillusioned.
Absence of conscience gives Trump the license to invent his own rules, define his own reality, declare victory in any competition, and insist on his superior expertise on subjects about which he knows almost nothing. What makes Trump’s behavior challenging to fathom is that our minds are not wired to understand human beings who live far outside the norms, rules, laws, and values that the vast majority of us take for granted.
On the lighter side of things :)
Softlands by Bruce Musser - Smooth electronic music I've been listening to while working.
Stay safe out there,
/Phil