We Are Not Saved

Scott Alexander recently posted a study showing European municipalities which had the Napoleonic Code imposed upon them did better economically than nearby municipalities which didn't. He uses this to support a contention that radical reform is better than traditional institutions at delivering positive outcomes. My contention is not that we should be looking at narrow metrics of success but rather how radical reform deals with complexity, as opposed to other methods of dealing with complexity like cultural evolution, which seems to be the primary contender to expert led reform in the form of technocracy. All of which is to say that yes, the subject of this episode is very similar to the subject of my previous episodes (book reviews excepted).

The WEIRDest People In the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous by: Joseph Henrich Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on the World’s Greatest Scientific Expedition by: Stephen R. Bown The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism by: Thomas Frank Billy Miske: The St. Paul Thunderbolt by: Clay Moyle The Landmark Thucydides by: Thucydides Edited by Robert B. Strassler The Abolition of Man by: C. S. Lewis Orthodoxy by: G. K. Chesterton Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife by: Bart D. Ehrman

Prediction is tough. You never know if things are about to get a lot worse, as was the situation with Polish Jews in 1937. Or if they're going to get a lot better, which was the situation of East Germans in 1988. But there are signs...

The problem of political unity weighs heavily on people's minds. But as with most problems technocrats imagine that if they just implement the right policy that unity will follow. In reality people only unify around myths, and historically myths have been assembled into religions. Both things that technocrats are generally opposed to. But can they survive without them. A survey of the literature says... no.

Technocracies have been much in the zeitgeist recently, at least in the corners of the internet I frequent. And there appears to be significant disagreement as to how effective they are. While I understand the idea behind them and the way in which they're supposed to work, I'm not sure they actually work in the way people expect. Or perhaps more importantly I don't think they're the best tool for dealing with the current crisis. I offer some alternative epistemological frameworks and suggest that technocracies might be missing something important. 

Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Courts by: Ilya Shapiro The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter by: Joseph Henrich Rhythm of War (Book Four of The Stormlight Archive) by: Brandon Sanderson The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 by: Margaret MacMillan Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t by: Steven Pressfield The Minuteman by: Greg Donahue There is a God: How to Respond to Atheism in the Last Days by: Hyrum Lewis

As you can see this is a much shorter episode. I'm trying out the newsletter format. The idea is that I'm going to send out a short bit at the end of every month, something that offers an easier entry point to my writing. Something people might be more inclined to share. But I obviously couldn't leave out my loyal podcast listeners, so just as with everything else I write, it gets recorded and also goes out there. That said, number of subscribers is something of a success metric these days so if you wouldn't mind singing up for the newsletter I would appreciate it!

Two episodes ago I covered the disasters which can occur when we try to exercise too much control over natural systems. In the last episode I talked about how systems can be too controlling, and how it's better that a system be legible than that it attempt perfection. In this episode, much like peanut butter and chocolate, I combine these two great ideas into one fantastic idea, and explore how the way we combat wildfires in many ways resembles the way we fight political fires, and that both methods fail in similar ways.

In a recent newsletter, Matthew Yglesias suggested three steps for creating effective policies:   It’s easy for everyone, whether they agree with you or disagree with you, to understand what it is you say you are doing. It’s easy for everyone to see whether or not you are, in fact, doing what you said you would do. It’s easy for you and your team to meet the goal of doing the thing that you said you would do. These are great, but I think they could be applied far more broadly, which is exactly what I do in this episode.      

This is the second half of my book reviews for books I finished in December. It contains reviews for: Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the 116 Days that Changed the World by: Chris Wallace Enemy At the Gates by: William Craig Necroscope by: Brian Lumley Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process by: John McPhee Bang For Your Buck by: Stefan Gasic The Darkest Winter by: Nick Johns C. S. Lewis Essay Collection & Other Short Pieces by: C. S. Lewis Book of Mormon Made Harder by: James E. Faulconer The Theological Foundations of the Mormon Religion by: Sterling M. McMurrin