Why everyone should take policy discussions more seriously

I think I'm beginning to understand, better, the rationalizations that make up the self-fulfilling prophecy of cyncism.

When a cynic's efforts don't work out, they just give up. They give up on others. They give up on themselves. They give up on an effort. They just give up. Same goes for all of us who get cynical, in the moment, or reason cynically, when we do.

And so when an important goal - a personal goal, a social goal, a political goal - doesn't turn out, the cynic just says, "Well, it couldn't have worked out."

The tough part of policy work and social scientific work is that sometimes things really can't work out. It's not cynicism. It's reality. And distinguishing between a less changeable reality and a more changeable reality for which we have just become cynical is really difficult work. It is the essence of policy work, at some level.

And our failure to make the distinction in so many areas of life is exactly what fucks many things up.

It's complicated, I realize. But knowing the difference between a reality that can be changed and a reality that can't be changed is one of the most important skills and bits of wisdom that people can have, I think.

Hence, why I think everyone, at some level, should take policy discussions - meaning the strongest intellectual discussions of politics - more seriously. Because it is these people who are bearing witness to some of the most profound truthes about humanity and human nature, I think.

Love,
Ben