Concentration of Power

From Zanecorpwiki

We've all heard the phrase "power corrupts", but I don't think that's quite right. We're lazy. We look out for our own self-interest, but it's too much work to worry about everyone else's problems. So we don't.

That's the problem with relative power imbalance. It removes the checks and balances that make the system fair.

Liberals vs. Conservatives

There's lots of ways to characterize "liberal vs. conservative", but for our purpose the important consideration is "who do you distrust?" Conservatives distrust government power. Liberals distrust corporate power. Both sides are wrong: government and corporate power are equally dangerous. The problem is concentration of power regardless of the location.

Universal Skepticism

The solution is to be universally skeptical, but that's hard. It's hard to believe that everything is shit. We want someplace firm to stand. At the same time, people aren't stupid. They know when shit is fucked up. Caught in the tension between these two truths, we focus in on one set of problems and downplay another in such a way that we eventually come to see the issue in a light that allows us to pick a side.

Either that, or we're raised in an environment where the above has already taken place and receive the choice through cultural transmission. Either way, it's hard to stand in the middle of a shit storm without taking shelter behind on ideology or another.

The good news is that it's not all that hard to just shut the shit storm down. The only hard part is stepping out behind the ideological barriers to confront it in the first place.

How to be Skeptical

Skepticism is an idea that's unitarian in conception. It looks beyond the sides to fundamental obstacles. It benefits everyone equally.

That's not to say there's not a point to sides. Sides create the checks and balances that implement skepticism in the real world.

In order to raise the discourse, however, we must be able to keep both these views in mind.