We are metaphysically abiding in assumptions that puts one on either the Left and the Right. The issue is whether or not you are conscious and/or coherent about them.
Bruce Charlton writes, “Modern people who do not consciously think are therefore on 'the Right'; and so are those who follow-through their thoughts to their conclusions.” Now that’s compelling; the extremes of the bell curve: the dumb and the wise. So I suppose there’s some folk right in the middle. Let’s call them the Left.
And the Left, “regards himself as a kind of perfection of balance - enough knowledge to be superior to the masses, but not so much as to lead to hard work and dealing with troublesome consequences: he feels himself to be both prestigious and pragmatic; with enough learning to justify his authority, but not enough to risk being expelled outside the pale.”
So some of those boorish, populist Trump followers are probably not the greatest thinkers in the world, but then again, those smug, pseudo-educated Leftists know just enough to be dangerous.
And I was this guy for a long time (with some residual parasites remaining). I was so smug, until I met someone who did circles around my square thinking. Then I realized I need to re-consider a worldview that didn’t line up with reality.
But being “expelled outside the pale” is an issue for many of us. Who wants to be ostracized from the club? David Mamet made this point on why he stayed on the Left as long as he did:
“One may reason (as I, and many readers have) with honest, intelligent, moral Liberal friends, who may, in one instance after another, grant the validity of one’s Conservative theses, and acknowledge the discrepancy between their own actions, and their voting habits, but yet not only vote Democratic, but proclaim that nothing on earth could induce them to do otherwise. Why? It means leaving the group. It is not difficult to endure, but it is painful to recognize the incredulity and scorn which one encounters from one’s native Group (the Liberals) on announcing a change of philosophy. It is shocking. And it is sobering, for it reveals this truth: that the Left functions, primarily, through its power as a primitive society or religion, dedicated above all to solidarity, and not only to acceptance but to constant promulgation of its principles, however inchoate, as “self-evident” and therefore beyond question. But, as Hayek points out, that something is beyond question most often means that its investigation has been forbidden. Why? Because it was untrue.”Life experience and being exposed to more independent/intellectually honest thinkers soon got me to a similar spot. I could no longer not investigate and live untruly. Yes, I lost some friends. And I also found myself spending more time alone. But, I am no longer stuck in the middle with them...
