The American psychologist Jonathan Haidt has well observed that people have an incredibly weak ability to apply psychological insights to themselves. An ability so weak that it’s shocking. Even among people who know well the mechanism of thought errors, only a tiny percentage can admit that they themselves are affected by that mechanism.
This includes the utopians I mentioned here yesterday when I quoted Budil’s remark about “idealists of neoliberal market economics”. I can write whole books on the misery of utopian thinking and still miss the point that I myself hold some utopian notion. It is even quite likely that I do.
It is not a question of lack of education, nor a question of low intelligence, and it affects whole sections of society. Peter L. Berger used to be a superstar in American sociology, but when he started writing about the fact that sociologists also have class interests and that this affects their perspective, he became “controversial” within his field.
So there is no point in appealing to people to stop being fascinated by utopias. There is no point in appealing to them to set aside their egos when considering issues. For the vast majority, their brains won’t allow it. But perhaps a lesser demand is achievable. Perhaps we can ask a man to ask the question: How does one know that it is as I think it is? Is there some objective criterion that absolutely everyone must recognize? I recommend doing this as an exercise even just for yourself.
If something is so clear that it doesn’t need to be discussed, we probably have a thought problem.
But for virtuosos, there’s the Popperian question. Is there anything that, if it happened or was discovered, would convince me that free market reforms are the main cause of the collapse of Western civilization? Is there anything that could convince me that a conservative view of morality is not conducive to the good life? Because if something can’t be refuted by any facts, it’s true regardless of the facts. And such claims belong in pure mathematics or religion.
And something else helps. Being in contact with people who see it the other way around. Or at least read their articles. Or looking into their social media groups.