October 21st, 2018 12:52 PM
THE RATIONALITY OF MAN
(important concept)
–“If man was logical, and could be moved to action by empirical evidence, then libertarianism would have caught on much more than it did.”— Jesse Schultz
Well. You know, man is terribly logical given his perpetual dependence on fragmentary information in a kaleidic universe, and his need to produce the greatest returns in the shortest time, with the least effort, at the greatest certainty at the lowest risk, while under the burden (limits) of physical, emotional, and intellectual economy (costs). Man is forever rational (logical in the sense you mean it. Hence why we can sympathize (reasoning), and empathize (feeling) with one another.) and choose to cooperate with one another (predictability and trust) – or not. (You might want to read this paragraph a few times.)
Via positiva some of us produce opportunities to exploit, and via negativa, some of us limit those opportunities that can be exploited to those that are reciprocal (not harmful to the incentive to cooperate rather than prey upon one another.) I work in the current era at post-human scale: via negativa. It is for others to produce MANY different via-positivas within the LIMITS of this via-negativa. Ergo, a market not monopoly of narratives (mythos), and at least one for each class.
Meritocracy is only DESIRABLE to those who can survive DIRECTLY by their merits. Meritocracy is VALUABLE to everyone who survives because meritocracy INDIRECTLY preserves the incentive to cooperate. Because cooperation is simply so much more productive than any other action we can take (at least over time.)