Irrational beliefs are useful too
In a comment here, Matthew suggests that support for freedom is enhanced by egoism, in the sense of people’s exaggerated faith in their own ability to control their lives.
This is a plausible claim. It’s a cliché that opposition to redistribution in the US is based partly upon the belief of the poor that they can get rich*.
But this just shows that irrational beliefs can serve useful functions. Few people would embark upon risky ventures such as starting their own business, developing new products, or writing books unless they were irrationally over-confident of their chances of success.
And religious belief is correlated with greater happiness, more law-abiding behaviour and support (pdf) for markets.
This implies that there is a potential conflict between two forms of rationality:
1. Belief rationality, which says our beliefs should be proportioned to the evidence. This tells us not to believe in God, and that the odds of being a successful innovator are small.
2. Instrumental rationality, which says we should act so as to maximize our chosen ends.
In some cases, though, desirable goals – wealth, happiness, liberty in Matthew’s example – can be pursued best by abandoning belief rationality.
In this context, atheists such as Richard Dawkins can speak at cross-purposes with believers. When Dawkins says: “believe in evolution, not God”, he’s advocating belief rationality. When his interlocuters reply: “but my community believes in God” they are (implicitly) advancing a form of instrumental rationality; they think they would lose good things when they lose their faith.
The issue here isn’t – or at least isn’t always – one of rationality versus irrationality. It’s: which rationality?
* Irrationality isn’t always the servant of freedom, however. One source of support for repressive measures such as ID cards or 42 days detention is people’s bias to look upon the bright side, and believe that bad things – identity theft or arbitrary imprisonment – only happen to other people. This optimism bias might explain why there’s often more opposition to redistributive taxation than to restrictions upon civil liberties.
Can Cameron’s big ‘nudge’ idea work?
The Spiritual Civilisation Construction Commission has the job of curbing anti-social behaviour in Beijing whilst cultivating courtesy and civility instead. It has issued booklets and launched campaigns to minimise littering and China’s problem with public spitting, it has issued edicts on sartorial and social matters from handshaking to the length of one’s skirt. It has also been accompanied by a zero tolerance, broken windows approach to minor infractions such as spitting.
This is interesting for one major reason: it sounds very much like an extreme version of policies suggested by David Cameron, a whole suite of policies that might be labelled “soft paternalism”.
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Libel and legal harassment cases across blogs
Well, it’s certainly been a while since libel suits were being waved around, whether by Uzbek billionaires or pompous bloggers.
And now a whole bunch have come along at once. So here is an update on what’s been going on in the blogosphere.
Apologies for the lateness on some of these.
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If Tuesday is Soylent Green Day, is Sunday Hangover Day?
Spirit of 1976 has found a secret video exposing the Gay Agenda to Take Over the World.
Steph Ashley can’t understand why everyone quotes Iain Dale as if his views actually matter. I share her mystification on this.
Alix Mortimer compares Lib Dem and Tory campaign slogans and (surprisingly!) finds the Tory one somewhat wanting.
Dreaming of Simplicity wants to pee on Aaron’s bonfire in linking to this article on Digital Spy about the BBC’s commercial impacts.
Aberavon and Neath Lib Dems examine the Tax Credit train wreck.
And finally, Lady Mark Valladares has been up in my neck of the woods. He (and Ros) will be in Bradford today and I shall, if I can drag myself out of bed, be going to have a cream tea with them. The perils of Lib Demmery…
A Bit Eclectic Today…
SnapsThoughts has a photo essay on the fraughtness of union links with Labour. Each image is accompanied by some thought-provoking words. Highly recommended.
Douglas has news of a sexist Tory. In other news, bears are Catholic and the pope poos in the woods.
Spirit of 1976 discovers his inner Clarkson and feels DIRTY.
Sexual Intelligence Blog reports on John McCain’s reluctance to discuss sexual matters. Not in front of the children, dear.
Jonathan Calder is rather cross about curfews, and people who hail them as a success before they even start.
Lee Griffin has some praise for the home secretary’s plans on knife crime.
Feminist SF covers the finale of the most recent series of Doctor Who.
That’s all folks. Tips to the usual address, and I’ll see you Sunday.
Davis and Greens win big in Haltemprice
David Davis has won the by-election, according to Sky News, with a total of 17,113 votes. The Green Party’s Shan Oakes came second with 1,758 votes, which is also great news.
A BBC News article says turnout was at 35%, much higher than expected and very high for a single-issue election.
Worth noting:
The turnout was comparable to most by-elections.
This was a single issue by-election;
It faced a lot of hostility from the media
It was a very safe seat and Davis had no opponents who could unseat him.
That makes a 35% turnout much higher than expected.
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Canvassing in Haltemprice and Howden
“It’s a total waste of bloody money!”; “I have not made my mind up yet”; “I’ve voted for him already” (one of 10,000 postal ballots requested, 59 per cent sent them in); “I just don’t know about politics, I don’t vote.
A lady somewhere will be turning in her grave” (clearly meaning her mother); “I never thought I’d vote Tory, but this time I will” (an enthusiastic Lib-Dem); “Look at all these leaflets!”; Definitely I’m voting for Mr Davis … I don’t need a car thank you, my son will walk me there”.
I canvassed for David Davis on the eve of the by-election. The uncertain did not want to discuss. We had a single conversation with a man who did raise 42 days – he was for locking them up, but not, on consideration, if they were innocent. Davis’s core team is very competent. But it is hard for them. Many voters are puzzled about why David Davis has done it, especially Conservative voters. I’ll come back to this, his core problem at the moment. But also party activists who worked especially hard to ensure he won the constituency in 2005 to frustrate the Lib-Dem’s “decapitation strategy”. They backed a leader. They wanted him to be Home Secretary.
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In praise of the nanny state
I don’t suppose I need to repeat the refrain about this government’s authoritarianism. In its eleven years in power, Labour’s base instinct has been to legislate its way out of every problem, every bad headline and every moral panic.
We’ve seen a criminal justice policy dictated more by Paul Dacre than common sense and we’ve seen public health campaigns that achieve Cromwellian standards of piety. Such is the level of disgust with the overbearing Big Brother State, we’re frequently seeing liberals, libertarians and some left-wingers converge onto a common ground they rarely share.
And then this week the government went and threw a fork in the road.
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David Cameron’s vision of society
Good. Bad. Right. Wrong. In a speech in Glasgow on Tuesday, Tory leader David Cameron inveighed against ‘moral neutrality’, and evinced a desire to reinstate categories as basic as these in British political discourse.
Nor will this performance a one off; spindoctors confirm that this theme will be central to Conservative agitation and propaganda over the summer months.
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Public opinion is not behind 42 days
Gordon Brown is on shakier ground than he thinks on 42 days pre-charge detention for people suspected of terrorist offences.
On the eve of the Haltemprice and Howden by-election, a new ICM poll conducted for the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust shows most people (60%) think terrorist suspects should be held without charge for no more than the current limit – 4 weeks, or 28 days.
The poll questions on which he relies for his populist gesture politics with our civil liberties ask people whether terrorist suspects should be held for up to 42 days, questions that by their very nature do not fully reflect the possible innocence of those held nor the length of time that they may be held in custody.
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And I’d Have Gotten Away With It Too, If It Hadn’t Have Been For Those Darn Bloggers…
A short one today, I’m afraid, since I was up until stupid o’clock last night and am knackered
Purple Cthulhu and prominent Brussels-ite Nick Whyte both report on the sneaky Tories being sneaky and urge you to write to your Euro MP before they introduce a Euro Law which could take your internets away. Andrew Ducker has already written, as have many others.
UK Polling Report has realised that young people can’t remember living under the Tories and thus are less likely to be prejudiced against them. In other news, the sky is blue and the Pope shits in the woods.
Jonathan Calder praises the Sunday Times for praising Lib Dem Economic Expertise.
Septicisle approves of an article in the Daily Fail shock!
Smashboredom examines the G8 in group blog Powerswitch.
And The Prydonian Academy has an end of series poll for Doctor Who.
Outflanking David Davis…to the right
The BNP have a lot to answer for in regard to pulling down the gene ral tenor of virtually any electoral debate, but it is not to them that I refer herein.
No, it is to ‘independent candidate’ Jill Saward who is running against David Davis in Haltemprice and Howden on the basis that all our society seems to be interested in are the rights of the accused, not the rights of the victims.
This one could give the hang ‘em and flog ‘em brigade a run for their money when she declares that…
Update on strikes and David Davis
Firstly, on the cleaner’s strike across London. I got this today:
The second round of strikes are about to come to an end. They have been well-supported across the London Underground network.
Liberals should be fighting Tories, not Labour
I am going to make a prediction – the Liberal Democrats are going to lose the next election.
Now, this may not strike you as one of the great feats of prognostication. The Liberal Democrats have never won an election and the Liberals last won an election before the first world war. Even though in the council elections and the Henley by-election we came in second place, I don’t think there’s a single person in the country who actually believes we’re going to win a General Election in the near future.
But I don’t mean we’re not going to gain the majority of seats; I mean we’re actively working against our own interests. The decisions being made are going to actively damage the party – and, more importantly, damage the chances of getting some of our principles put into practice.
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Someone Is Wrong On The Internet
Sorry the netcast is a bit late today, folks. I got caught up in emailing Woman’s Hour and lost track of time. As always, tips to the usual address (although we give no guarantees you’ll be included) and hope you find something of interest in this.
Paul Walter has a handy précis of ConHome’s “How to become a Tory MP” guide. Essentially it involves throwing lots of money at it. *I* thought that was supposed to be the *Labour* way…
Lynne Featherstone calls people who don’t support Harriet Harman’s proposal to allow positive discrimination “Tory Boys”. Thank, Lynne! I assume the penis and blue rosette must have been lost in the post…
Lee Griffin is a Tory Boy like me, then. I particularly like this rabid right-wing point: “If schools want more male teachers then incentives are necessary to increase numbers, not putting a worse teacher in charge of educating our children for the sake of some equality figures.”
Anthony Hook thinks that the age discrimination proposals might be ill-thought-out too. continue reading… »
My MP just doesn’t get it
Sorry to butt in here, team, but thought I would take a moment to appraise you of an exchange we’ve had with our nobody Labour MP Joan Ruddock on the 42 days’ detention vote. Thought I might as well share this correspondence, so that you also could kill a few moments on a Friday savouring the kind of limp response former Labour voters get when they approach their local Brownite buttkissing MP on issues of real significance… continue reading… »
Fighting for our civil liberties, post Davis
The Green party has put forward a candidate in the by-election against David Davis. Left of David Davis? Check. A left / progressive candidate? Check. Wants to push for even more civil liberties? Check. So the Labour and lefty bloggers must be rising up in support? Erm… well, there’s Neil Harding… and a lot of tumbleweed rolling by.
[update: non-Greens support also from: peezedtee, Dave Cole, Stuart Jefferey, Socialist Unity, Unbeliever, Pamphlet Labour]
Yes, it really does look like many lefties really will cut off their noses to spite their face on this issue. Well, I’m not sitting here praying David Davis fails miserably because the outcome would a vindicated Gordon Brown willing to push it through with the Parliament Act if the Lords reject the 42 days bill as expected.
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Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day
It’s a dark day for me as a Liberal, but I find myself in agreement with the Daily Fail. I despise the Mail, and pretty much everything they stand for, but Harperson’s Equality Act definitely has a sting in the tail.
In my view, Positive Discrimination is still discrimination and it is wrong. Even in this limited way, endorsing discrimination perpetuates it, rather than eradicating it. It adds vast amounts of resentment for little perceivable benefit.
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The next step for fighting 42 days
It’s time to stop the bullshit, we’ve now been sitting around for about a week and a half doing little more than bicker about the integrity of a single person while standing around gawking.
The question now should be: what can we do, and can we do it, in a way that can unite those that support and loathe David Davis’ stance?
I’ll be heading on the journey over to London today for the Liberal Conspiracy gathering and hope that this subject can be explored in more depth by those that attend.
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If I could commission one government IT project
I’ve been pretty critical of two massive government IT projects – the existing plans to introduce mandatory identity cards with a huge database behind them and also the Home Office talk of a database of all phone calls and emails made anywhere in the country.
My criticisms in both cases are three-fold: the money involved could be better spent on other projects (such as giving us more police rather than keeping huge databases of the activities of innocent people), they involve a huge infringement of our liberties and privacy, and – thirdly – big IT projects like this are likely to go wrong and to be vulnerable to misuse.
But I’m not a Luddite. Over time I’ve found embracing IT innovations has made my life easier and made me more efficient – whether it was years ago buying a laser printer to speed up production of casework letters or more recently starting to use the text-messaging based blogging service Twitter to help keep residents informed of what I’m up to as an MP.
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» Why don’t MPs pay back tuition fees instead of increasing ours?
» Obama is right to slam BP – and why capitalists should too
» Why does Phillip Blond see civil cohesion as a security issue?
» So what if the Labour candidates went to Oxbridge?
» Last night’s Labour hustings: will it get interesting or turn to torture?
» It’s now down to Ken to win London for Labour
» The Labour people need
» Blog Nation: what would you like to see discussed?
» The Labour leadership’s token contender.. and it’s not Diane Abbott
» In defence of these fraternal nominations
» Is this the end for the socialist left?
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