DIFFERENT STAGES – DIFFERENT REASONING
SOME STAGE 10 ABSTRACT REASONING ABOUT POLITICS
Our stage of hierarchical (cognitive) complexity also affects how we think about politics and society. Regardless of political persuasion, we can think more or less complexly about political issues. Let’s look at somedifferent stages and how the reason.
Abstract arguments of different political hues.
SOME STAGE 10 REASONING ABOUT POLITICS
Anti-racist argument: Racism is bad: It is a self-contained and self-explanatory essence that spreads by itself unless you stop it, causing discrimination and possibly tyranny and war.
Conservative argument: The Arabicness inherent to Arabs gives them traits that are irreconcilable with Western civilization.
Feminist argument: Feminism means to stand up for women and crush patriarchy.
Libertarian argument: The less state control, the better.
Green argument: Human greed causes crises and destroys the environment.
Day-to-day politics: I am frustrated both by high taxes and low spending; by both high unemployment and low starting wages.
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SOME STAGE 11 FORMAL REASONING ABOUT POLITICS
Anti-racist argument: Racism results from economic and social inequalities in society and causes further inequality and discrimination.
Conservative argument: Some cultural norms followed by Arabs may be irreconcilable with Western civilization.
Feminist argument: Feminism is to apply the principles of gender equality and to make these principles prevalent throughout society.
Libertarian argument: The less state control, the better, except that maintaining law and order is necessary. To establish law and order may temporarily require increased state control in “failed state” areas.
Green argument: The lacking proportionality between our emphasis on human interests, especially those of rich people, and the interests of animals and ecosystems, is what causes crises and destroys the environment.
Day-to-day politics: I see a trade-off between high taxes and high spending, between low unemployment and high starting wages.
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SOME STAGE 12 SYSTEMATIC REASONING (POLITICS):
Anti-racist argument: Racism is an emergent property of all societies and interacts with things like inequality. Blaming and pointing fingers is generally unproductive and one should instead try to address the long-term issues that may be causing ethnic tensions under these particular circumstances.
Conservative argument: There are challenges in reconciling Western and Islamic culture which depend on how these categories interact, rather than flaws inherent to either category.
Feminist argument: Feminism means to work towards a long-term equilibrium where self-reproducing inequalities have petered out and people of all sexes and genders have less reason to feel insecure and frustrated.
Libertarian argument: State control and policy implementation tend to have unexpected and unwanted consequences as society is always more complex than we recognize. It is therefore good to be restrictive with regulation and policy.
Green argument: There are serious systemic flaws in our economic system that cause crises and may lead to ecological collapse.
Day-to-day politics: Public spending should carefully follow and counter international trends— this optimizes the labor market. But the labor market can unfortunately not be expected to function perfectly; it always lets some people down.
SOME STAGE 13 METASYSTEMATIC REASONING ABOUT POLITICS
Anti-racist argument: Racism emerges as different cultures and status hierarchies interact, where ethnic markers are used in order to increase one’s position in the status hierarchy. It should be prevented by the creation of both greater psychological security and by the facilitation of productive dialogue about cultural differences.
Conservative argument: Liberal values prevalent in Western countries may be more functional in late modern society than the more traditionalist values of many Arab Muslims, but for the successful integration of these different cultures one must take the perspectives of all parties seriously.
Feminist argument: Feminism is an interest group movement as well as a social justice movement. As an interest group movement it must be weighed against other interests and perspectives. As a social justice movement it must be coordinated with other social justice issues such as class, ethnicity, global inequality, other gender issues (including men’s issues), and the exploitation of animals and nature.
Libertarian argument: State control and policy implementation always interact with other societal systems and are dependent upon these for their successful functioning. It is thus important to carefully weigh state regulation and policy against other possibilities: markets, culture, and civil sphere. State regulation is often not the best path ahead.
Green argument: The logic inherent to the economic system is fundamentally alien to the logic of the ecosystems of the many biotopes. This means that there is no self-regulating feedback cycle directly present between our economic and technological expansion and the ecosystems upon which we depend. This lack of feedback means that we have to drive the ecosystem to collapse before the market self-adjusts. We must thereby create some other feedback, e.g. by means of policy, public awareness or cultural development.
Day-to-day politics: Public spending can be high or low, where higher spending is generally made possible by strong institutions such as rule of law, policing, democracy and free press. This keeps corruption down and allows for public support of spending and makes spending less wasteful. There is no one answer about high or low taxes; you have to coordinate it with the other societal systems.
Freinacht, Hanzi. The Listening Society: A Metamodern Guide to Politics, Book One (Metamodern Guides 1) (Kindle Locations 4600-4615). Metamoderna ApS. Kindle Edition.
