I think it has always been true that most of humanity bases its beliefs and strategies for negotiating human life on this planet on tradition, peer pressure, received wisdom, and often simply what is au courant. But, I would argue, even long before there was such a thing as a theory of knowledge or a scientific method, there has been a literal evolutionary reward, in the form of persistence of one's own kind, for getting things right. Seems pretty obvious, but it's amazing how often people, when confronted with incontrovertible fact developed from methods that reliably yield the truth of a particular matter contrary to their beliefs, will simply refuse to believe the evidence. And more often than not then blame and attack the one putting forward the contrary view, rather than honestly examining the evidence and arriving at the inference, or at least an inference, consistent with that evidence.
We all do this, and we all practice willful ignorance, which often has much the same effect. But there is a mindset, promoted unevenly and sometimes not at all in our institutions of learning (higher and lower), which generally regards honest confrontation of evidence and reasonable inference from evidence as the only real knowledge, and which, when challenged to do so, will alter conclusions in accord. This is what I call liberalism. I know, the term is almost never used in this sense anymore, but it's what is really at the core of a "liberal" mentality: discarding bias and traditions founded on former errors and misunderstandings, and attempting to order life and society according to what is real. You know, things like, the science and technology we all depend on, the need to find sustainable solutions to environmental threats to stable human survival. Little things like that.
At its best, modern liberal democracies have been able to come close enough to this lofty ideal that real progress was made in curtailing needless violence globally, improving crop yields, deploying technology which has made billions of peoples' lives better. Some of the "social democratic" aspects of these modern states have, I think undeniably, played a key role in fostering these developments, which have included things like controlling ozone depletion, improving resource management, and, finally gradually bringing down at least growth of fossil fuel carbon buildup.
But authoritarian populism is threatening this "world order." We have people coming into power, and not just in the US, who see the curtailment of immigration and concentration of authoritarian power as their only concern. They tend to deny inconvenient problems, apparently in pursuit of untrammelled short term personal gain and temporary power. But, as evolution should have taught us, nature does not give a single shit about what we believe. And if we base our policies on falsehoods when what is real flies in the face of them, the outcomes cannot be good.
It really should be obvious to anyone who really looks at the near to medium term future that global cooperation, conflict reduction, allocation of resources to infrastructure transformation, etc. are crucial. But we have in power in Russia, China, India, and many other countries, and even to an extent in the so called liberal democracies; and now, in spades, coming to America... leaders who are happy to ignore reality and lead their societies straight off the cliff. And, as we have seen repeatedly in history, it is often easy to appeal to the public's perceived (though not often real) self-interest to support such short-sighted and even malevolent policies.
But we seek people to blame for this predicament not only in vain, but with utmost futility. We, the people of the world who want to see humanity come together to solve its problems, and learn to live in peace and security, have to not seek to fight with and blame others. We have to exercise whatever influence we have to try to convince others, not who to vote for, but what is important, and why, and why it is important to reject, and resist, authority that seeks to lead us away from that.
I realize I'm speaking in broad generalities, but I think the point is clear enough. Business as usual, preparing for political fights and elections coming down the pike is not going to work. There is already too much polarization, too many lies, too much propaganda, out there. For sanity and reason to prevail, those of us with some understanding of the issues based on actual facts must cooperate with one another to really listen to our fellow citizens and try to understand their needs and why they have become alienated. And we need to be prepared to change our own thinking, while maintaining our core values and understanding. We must respect that others are going to have different views, and that we have to coexist with them and their needs even as we reach a consensus that, in recognition of actual realities of the environment and available resources, affords dignity to everyone and recognizes and takes into account their interests. Telling people they're stupid and don't understand will not convince them. Asking them what it is they want, and what they resent, and actually addressing their needs and interests, to reach a basis for not just co-existence but mutual respect, are what is needed. If people are more open to meeting with and developing common interests with their neighbors, the reality of optimal solutions to our problems can only be fostered. Polarization and oppositional tactics tend to result in political loss, which leads to bad policy, even deadly policy. A truly liberal attitude is one that embraces disagreement and conflicting interests, but seeks optimal outcomes. Such genuinely liberal outlook really is quite infectious, and can spread attitudes that garner real improvement in peoples' lives. Just as much as we've seen the rise of authoritarian nightmares in recent history, we can also find examples of these less dramatic, but much more positive developments. An archetypal example would be the Marshall Plan.
At best, we are in for a rough few years. But we must not lose heart, nor succumb to the cowardice of obedience in advance. There are people who will be swept up in some of what is coming without any real power to do anything about it. But totalitarian or authoritarian states tend to be inefficient, and if there is always a current of thought and discussion that favors cooperation and democracy, and that always seeks to better the lives of all the people. Our job is to make that current strong, and growing, by the only way that really works: including people, hearing their issues and considering their interests as well as our own, and gradually, small group by small group, assembling a coalition not only for salvation and restoration of democracy, but forming the beginning of a political transformation in the future consistent with these goals and values. This is a long term task, from which no one of conscience is excused.
