Ignorance is bliss is a common saying for good reason: We have to think about things to worry about them, and most of the time we are preoccupied with our day-to-day activities while we remain ignorant about major problems that may be just around the corner. A related saying, The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t, suggests that we can adjust to an uncomfortable familiar, whereas a new situation might cause worse problems.
One of the things about democracies is that people get to elect those in charge of governance with regularity. With every election, the battle cry is essentially, “Throw the Bums Out” because those who are unhappiest with the current situation tend to be the most vocal. I have quoted Pogo’s “We have met the enemy, and he is us” in my blogs previously. The real enemy, of course, is our own ignorance. Those who are happiest about the current political situation in the States, for example, tend to be a combination of those benefiting the most from it and those who know the least about it. Those who are partisan, regardless of their political affiliation, tend to be partisan because they perceive their vested interests to be under attack from/by “the other side.” People who have a lot mistrust those who have very little, and vice-versa. That, of course, was the original concept behind communism, which didn’t work out quite the way it was originally envisioned. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, for example, when the animals take over, the pigs get fat, and the horse is worked to death.
In every human society, we have the equivalent of pigs and horses, with the horses doing most of the work and the pigs garnering most of the benefits. That naturally leads to resentments and conflict. In a democracy, the “animals” all get to vote for those they believe will do the best job of managing the farm. The “pigs,” however, tend to be more politically astute than the “horses,” and do everything they can to influence the outcome of elections. One of the principal ways a political party can influence the outcome of future elections is gerrymandering, drawing the boundaries for political districts to help ensure a particular outcome. Over time, the “pigs” increasingly garner the benefits, while the “horses” increasingly do the work. This has always been true, of course. In the “old days,” the serfs did the work, and the royals enjoyed the benefits. Even though we don’t have a formal designation of royals and serfs in the States, the vestiges of that medieval social order still apply.
Although individuals from poor families sometimes end up very wealthy, most of the wealth—and power—remains in the hands of a few. No society has a completely level playing field. We like to say that we do, and no one likes to acknowledge that our “field” isn’t “level,” but that is not the case. More than most cultures in history, we offer opportunities for those not born into wealthy families. If you are born in poverty, the best ways out are athletics and entertainment. The best athletes and musicians tend to do well. Others need a special skill, and, fortunately, our educational system can help those who are gifted develop their skills. Even so, most remain in the social class into which they were born. It is a lot easier, of course, to see the problems than it is to envision solutions. The parable of the motes and beams applies. I can see the “moat” in your eye but remain unaware of the “beam” in my own.
When you add “groupthink” to that feeling, you end up with a political party blind to its own problems. And this is how we ended up with the current political mess in the States. We like to think that if we only had a better president (or political party), everything would be OK. But that ignores the lesson of Pogo. We need a sea change similar to the one that occurred when we moved away from a government ruled by royalty to a democracy. In the States, at least, undoing gerrymandering would be a good place to start. We also need to revise our tax structure to help level the playing field. The current system amplifies and perpetuates inequality, which only ensures that our differences will increase over time.
If you want to know the logical outcome of that, read about the causes of the French Revolution and the Communist Revolutions in Russia and China. Such revolutions, however, only set the stage for more problems and subsequent revolutions. We need to find a better way. The proverb is If you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you’ve always got.We need, however, to be smarter about what we do instead. Voting for the lesser of two evils is doubtless better than violent revolution. The problem is in ensuring that the lesser evil really is less evil than the previous evil. What we really need is a way to keep the evil out of politics. It is, however, better to take “two steps forward, one step back” than not to make progress at all.
Progress depends on knowing more, and knowing more depends on honest reporting and an effective system of education. Two steps forward, one step back. Repeat….
