One of my favourite Beatles stories also shows I think the fantasy at the heart of modern libertarian…
One of my favourite Beatles stories also shows I think the fantasy at the heart of modern libertarian politics. And Covid. McCartney was the prodigiously talented Beatle - the best bassist, guitarist, drummer and singer in the band. Also he was the Beatles’ work ethic,…/1 https://t.co/kC83iIacjk
…the one who kept them on task amidst overwhelming international fame. At one point the other Beatles apparently came to resent how much they were being driven by McCartney, and expressed this to him. So he said ok, I’ll take more of a step back and allow us all…/2
…to drive things more.
What happened? Nothing, They all sat there, with nothing happening. Ringo Starr apparently then said to Paul something like ‘so, can you get us going again?’ This is the story of all groups, and of all societies. The overwhelming majority of people…/3
…want to be guided, to be told what they should do. Not bossed around, just guided. They need somebody to imitate and to act as a status-imitation point. That’s what our hierarchies of expertise do in society, or did. We all can’t know or do everything, we look for guidance. /4
Libertarians try to ignore this basic hierarchical fact of any group or society. There will always be a hierarchy, in whatever part of life or even in all of life, reflecting the differential value of different levels of understanding, aptitude and achievement. In fact this…/5
…is our democratic mythology, and what will ultimately destroy it. The idea that it means no hierarchies. That all views are equivalent. We all know that to be rubbish in all of our lives - there are good and bad plumbers, teachers, singers, bosses etc. Our Enlightenment…/6
…split between facts and values, where we can all have whatever values we like, and facts will order society for us, is delusional. All facts are part of value hierarchies too, that’s what peer-review is. There are hierarchies of expertise in science too, and rightly so. /end