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DevinMcDougallFirstPaper 17 - 22 Aug 2010 - Main.DevinMcDougall
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| | | Ideologies and institutions | |
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< | Ideologies can be thought of as resources, because they can help build and hold together things, like institutions. "Creed" is a colorful shorthand term used by Thurman Arnold for ideologies. Arnold shies away from precisely defining his concept of a creed, believing precision in definition can inhibit, rather than enhance understanding. 33. However, in his discussion, he indicates that a creed is a system of unconscious beliefs that serve as categories of perception which organize reality and rationalize the status quo. They serve as an organizational glue for groups any significant size, from cities to corporations to countries. | >
> | Ideologies can be thought of as resources, because they can help build and hold together things, like institutions. "Creed" is a colorful shorthand term used by Thurman Arnold for ideology. Arnold shies away from precisely defining his concept of a creed, believing precision in definition can inhibit, rather than enhance understanding. 33. However, in his discussion, he indicates that a creed is a system of unconscious beliefs that serve as categories of perception which organize reality and rationalize the status quo. They serve as an organizational glue for groups any significant size, from cities to corporations to countries. | | | Creeds do so through specifying a panoply of deities as examples of qualities to be emulated or scorned. For example, Arnold identifies the American businessman as the primary divinity of the American creed. The Devil, conversely, is represented by government interference. 37. | | | III. Climate change and the creed of expertise | |
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< | Climate change brings the issues of expertise to a head, since it pits the scientific community against powerful status quo interests. Yet Arnold is doubtful that the so-called “Thinking Man,” the notional rational citizen who is responsive to scientific pleas, has much political power. | >
> | Climate change brings the issues of expertise to a head, since it pits the scientific community against powerful status quo interests. Arnold is doubtful that the so-called “Thinking Man,” the notional rational citizen who is responsive to scientific pleas, has much political power. | | | Yet, paradoxically, expertise can be a creed itself. Scientists in the United States benefit not only from scientific authority emanating from their curriculum vitae, but also a kind of moral authority emanating from their white lab coats. | |
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< | Environmentalists can make use of the creed of expertise to advance stronger climate policies. It may be that complex scientific arguments, qua arguments, generate little political force, because most citizens will not be interested in assessing climatological arguments on the merits. However, being able to claim the mantle of science can help bolster claims about policy. The key issue is to avoid being drawn “down into the weeds” of scientific minutiae, but to articulate the big-picture message that the side of the environmentalists is the side supported by science. | >
> | Environmentalists can make use of the creed of expertise to advance stronger climate policies. It may be that complex scientific arguments, qua arguments, generate little political force, because most citizens will not be interested in assessing climatological arguments on the merits. However, being able to claim the mantle of science can help bolster and legitimize claims about policy. The key issue is to avoid being drawn “down into the weeds” of scientific minutiae, but rather to articulate the big-picture message that science is on the side of the environmentalists. | | | This is not to endorse postmodernist spin: the environmentalists possess the considerable advantage that the policies they advocate actually do accord with what the best science tells us about how to protect the conditions of human flourishing. The challenge will be to get that message out, quickly, and effectively. |
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