On 11/18/2016 07:38 AM, Steven A Smith wrote: > Like many Trump voters, I'm ready to break our pattern of "business as > usual"... but definitely not ready to let a loose cannon like him into the > White House. I'm pretty sure we are about to be in for a wild ride.
If we take Haidt seriously, party identification is a form of parochialism. Haidt is basically justifying "identity politics", even that touted by racists like this guy: http://www.npr.org/2016/11/17/502476139/were-not-going-away-alt-right-leader-on-voice-in-trump-administration When I listen to Haidt, that's what I hear, no doubt biased by my own prejudices. Marcus admitted to a bit of his own parochialism in a slight preference to buy a locally made car. But (as you and I've talked offline and as Marcus mentioned re: twitter), our afferent and efferent graph edges change as technology changes. Brand loyalty (Coke vs. Pepsi, Ford vs. Chevy) is just as tribal as anything else. And, as far as it goes, Haidt is right that in order to break one entrenched graph, you have to build another one (complimenting your racist uncle Bob before discussing the things you disagree about). But that sort of thing still runs the risks of _essentialism_. How deep do you go in finding similarities with your "other"? Do we all end up starving and atrophying because we've empathized too much with every plant and animal in the world? That "network limit", whatever it is, is parochialism of one form or the other. Personally, I think Haidt is wrong. I am opinionated and feel no need to empathized with racists like Spencer. They are rotten, sick, damaged. And the ammunition provided to them by people like Haidt is killing us. It's not a matter of polite disagreement in a theater full of elites at a TED talk or over pints at the pub. It's a matter of life or death. -- ␦glen? ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
