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Proposals: "Frameworks are fake" and "Let's stop praising the famous"

#1
C C Offline
Frameworks are Fake
https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2019/07/24/pr...-are-fake/

Jacob Falkovich: Every rich-enough belief system wants to be the single source of answers to all questions. To fight against that it’s important to remember that every belief system is fake. The first step is to notice that every single thing can be described using different frameworks, the way a single plot of land is represented using different maps.

[see diagrams] Which of these two maps of Princeton is more “true”? Neither, since neither one is actually the town of Princeton itself. They each contain different elements: one has trees and roofs, the other has streets and parks. Certainly, Princeton contains all the above, and many things besides.

If you visit Princeton, you would notice other things it’s made of that don’t show up in the maps, things like people and pizza and noise. But those are also mere “maps” that your brain projects on the town, maps that miss a lot of detail. For example, you miss the fact that both the trees and the pizza are made mostly of carbon atoms. And if you think that “carbon atoms” are a real thing that exists you are at least a century behind on physics.

The fact that frameworks made of cities or trees or carbon atoms are fake doesn’t mean that they’re not useful. Your brain can only predict the world using concepts like “pizza” and “person”, fake though they are. But remembering that all frameworks are fake allows you to nimbly shift among them instead of believing that any single framework contains the only thing reality is really made of. Your brain won’t like this juggling effort at first, but it will appreciate not slamming into massive prediction errors caused by the limitations of a single ontology.

And if “pizza” is fake, how much flimsier are maps made of concepts like “conservative”, “chaos”, “female”, “sin”, “petit-bourgeoisie”, “freedom”, or “privilege”? (MORE) ... (PREVIOUS) ... RELATED: In Praise of Fake Frameworks



Let us now stop praising famous men (and women)
https://aeon.co/ideas/let-us-now-stop-pr...-and-women

EXCERPT (David V Johnson): . . . Meritocracy is a form of social organisation that is founded on praise and blame. People signal who deserves power and status by praising them for their character, their talent, their productivity and their actions, and who merits demotion in status and power by blaming them for their vices, their ineptitude and their failings. Insofar as people’s assessments of praise and blame are accurate, they will promote those deemed better up in the hierarchy of power and status, and demote those deemed worse down. Better people will do better things with their superior power and status. When the system works, we have an aristocracy – rule by the finest people. Or so thinkers from Aristotle onward have thought.

[...] Assessments of praise and blame tend to reflect existing hierarchies of power and status, thereby reifying them. [...] assessments of praise and blame will be influenced by whatever helps people to get ahead – namely heaping praise on the powerful and respected, and castigating those without power and status. This is obviously true with meritocracies that most people explicitly reject, such as white supremacy and patriarchy ... These systems have persisted ... because ... Meritocracies in general convince those within the system to echo the moral assessments on which they are based as objective and justified, when in fact they are shaped not by objective criteria but by the qualities of the powerful...

[...] The effects of excessive praise on conduct are also worth concern. Praising people, even those who deserve praise, can actually have a negative effect on their behaviour. There are many psychological studies demonstrating that people are susceptible to moral compensation. That is, when people feel that they have engaged in good behaviour, they also feel that it gives them licence to act badly in the future...

[...] Meritocracies try to establish objective criteria to justify social hierarchies. Nowadays, entry into the elite often has to do with having the right résumé: Oxbridge or Ivy League degrees, a stint at the best consulting firm or investment bank, service in politics or government, writing a book or giving a TED talk about your work. These résumé items are supposed to establish the talent, judgment and character of the people in question. People with such résumés receive respect and esteem – even though their accomplishments are the predictable consequences of being born into the right family, knowing the right people, and swimming with the current...

[...] If we want to foster a truly democratic society – a society in which we treat each other as equals – we must rein in such excessive praise and the perverse incentives that encourage it. We should aim for the opposite extreme, toward withholding praise and being more circumspect about the wealthy and powerful, to restore balance... (MORE - details)
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#2
Syne Offline
Is "shifting among frameworks" the new PC-speak for relativism? Since some belief systems result in clear benefits, not all such systems are equal...nor is flitting between them. Like maps, some belief systems are more accurate and useful than others. Swapping between an atlas and a kids coloring map will just get you lost.

No, meritocracy does not lead to aristocracy. Dodgy
Meritocracy is not a system of governance, nor are aristocracies propagated on merit alone...otherwise their ranks would be fluid.

Only identitarians think a "resume" establishes character.
And democratic societies can ensure equal rights without trying to force everyone be treated the same. If the lazy and the industrious are treated the same, there's much less incentive for anyone to be industrious...and society as a whole suffers.
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