A New Ignorance

Eugene Thacker | Progressive Realism | Factoids | Elsewhere

Eugene Thacker

A new ignorance is on the horizon, an ignorance borne not of a lack of knowledge but of too much knowledge, too much data, too many theories, too little time.

| Eugene Thacker

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I find myself — as I bet my readers do — in the slipstream of Thacker’s ‘too much, too many, too little’ construction. As information grows exponentially, we cannot absorb everything; we can’t process it all, and so we have to adopt strategies that surface what is essential, helpful, and timely.

And, yes, to a small extent, that is an argument for curation, following others who filter and pass along insight and understanding.

An argument for supporting those who curate, and who try to increase understanding.

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Progressive Realism

In a section of today’s On The Radar: The Bars of the Cage, I wrote about progressive realism as explained by Robert Wright, an authority on this alternative to the classical neoliberalism of Western democracies. I wrote:

Progressive realism is, according to Wright, 'taking countries as they are', meaning that foreign policy should not be directed toward getting countries to adopt ideologies for managing their internal policies: for example, we shouldn't coerce China to become more democratic and less autocratic. Instead, we should work to have all nations -- including our own -- stay within a rules-based order. For example, countries should not invade others (as the US did in Iraq, and as Russia is doing now in Ukraine). Sanctions should not be leveled at countries for internal policies, but only for infringing on the rules-based order, and maybe not even then.

Wright is concerned with statecraft when he states [emphais mine]:

From a realist’s perspective, statecraft is about crafting relations with other states, not crafting the character of other states. Realists favor holding nations accountable for their behavior toward other nations but aren’t big on holding them accountable for their internal affairs. So a realist foreign policy doesn’t prioritize the promotion of either democracy or human rights. And realists are especially averse to the coercive promotion of these things — through invasion or bombing or economic sanctions.

One of the requirements of adopting this post-neoliberal mindset is what he refers to as cognitive empathy: ‘trying to understand how other leaders and people perceive the world’. He quotes Hans Morgenthau, ‘one of realism’s founding fathers’:

The political actor must put himself into the other man’s shoes, look at the world and judge it as he does.

This caused me to wonder how businesses might benefit from cognitive empathy and progressive realism.

As one example, consider the ongoing contention between business leaders and their employees about remote work. Are leaders working to put themselves in the shoes of employees — the costs and aggravations of commuting, for example — when laying down mandates about returning to the office?

And progressive realism argues for allowing other states — or in the business setting, individuals and groups of individuals — to conduct their internal affairs as they’d like, so long as they follow the rules-based order of the business. This argues that a company should adopt an explicit set of rules — a constitution — and make sure all follow them. But the rules are about the interactions between management, groups, and individuals, not how, for example, work is accomplished, but instead, the company’s internal contracts are met following general rules.

Note that these principles are something like what workers councils and unions attempt to accomplish, but there is no reason that companies couldn’t adopt a progressive realism mindset even without those organizational frameworks.

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Factoids

Copper shortages.

There will be an estimated global shortage of as much as 10 million tons of copper over the next two years. But developing new copper mines can take a decade or more, making scrap copper more valuable.

| Michael Corkery

This is leading to a lot of stolen copper from streetlights, electrical wiring, fire hydrants, and even graveyards.

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Flooding

Flood damage is likely to reach $40 billion in average annual losses this decade.

| Christopher Flavelle

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Walmart

Walmart profits jumped to $15 billion in 2023. Did it substantially increase wages or lower prices? No.

It spent $9B on dividends and buybacks — with most of the benefits going to the children of Walmart's founder, who together own 46% of the company's stock.

Textbook greed.

| Robert Reich

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Elsewhere

On The Radar: The Bars of the Cage | Stowe Boyd

Valerie Stivers | Progressive Realism | Macron and France | FEMA is Taking the Long View

The digital age is flattening, alienating, and overwhelming, and a strategy of resistance is often to return to our core humanity. But that strategy can also be the bars of the cage, setting up an opposition between what’s contemporary and what’s human.

| Valerie Stivers, Unguarded Angel

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On The Radar | Shared Risk | Stowe Boyd

Chances | Killer Robots | Immigration | DEMbargo

Chances always work two ways. Someone gives; someone else takes. But the risk is shared.

| Rachel Louise Snyder, Notes From a Formerly Unpromising Young Person

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Folio: Days, Weeks, Months | Stowe Boyd

Frame rate and frameworks underpin daily, weekly, and monthly work routines.