3 ms·

> "Instead of living life according to a rigid bible, why don't we simply Do The Right Thing™ and then adjust what ends up being broken?" The point of politica

by john_b 13y ago

> "Instead of living life according to a rigid bible, why don't we simply Do The Right Thing™ and then adjust what ends up being broken?" The point of political philosophies is to make and support assertions as to what the Right Thing is, within a given social context. Because different political philosophies exist, different sets of Right Things are proposed by the adherents of each. As you mentioned, less "moderate" political philosophies usually trade ideological malleability for ideological clarity in an attempt to provide a stronger and more consistent argument for its own set of Right Things at the expense of less philosophically inclined voters. If everyone could agree on what The Right Thing is, we wouldn't have rigid political philosophies because they would serve no purpose. If the human brain was capable of determining an ethical and optimal solution for any given problem, people wouldn't create political philosophies as simplifying heuristics.

mpyne 13y ago
> If the human brain was capable of determining an ethical and optimal solution for any given problem, people wouldn't create political philosophies as simplifying heuristics. Well that's the thing. Anyone with experience with programming can see that it's quite clear that even a system with incredibly rigid guidelines can, when formed into complex interconnections, take a form that is both unpredictable and does things that are wrong. So the answer cannot be more rigidity. Instead, we need risk management, and the willingness to forgo rigid determinants in the quest for optimal solutions, since they won't always produce optimal solutions anyways. Yes, our non-rigid heuristics will likely themselves produce non-optimal solutions, but that's OK too since it's easier to adjust and adapt. Not every startup turns a profit for a VC either, but that doesn't invalidate entrepreneurial risk-taking.

by john_b 13y ago

mpyne 13y ago

> If the human brain was capable of determining an ethical and optimal solution for any given problem, people wouldn't create political philosophies as simplifying heuristics. Well that's the thing. Anyone with experience with programming can see that it's quite clear that even a system with incredibly rigid guidelines can, when formed into complex interconnections, take a form that is both unpredictable and does things that are wrong. So the answer cannot be more rigidity. Instead, we need risk management, and the willingness to forgo rigid determinants in the quest for optimal solutions, since they won't always produce optimal solutions anyways. Yes, our non-rigid heuristics will likely themselves produce non-optimal solutions, but that's OK too since it's easier to adjust and adapt. Not every startup turns a profit for a VC either, but that doesn't invalidate entrepreneurial risk-taking.