Rowing, Steering, Anchoring, Equity, Mutiny(cold-takes.com)
cold-takes.com
Rowing, Steering, Anchoring, Equity, Mutiny
https://www.cold-takes.com/rowing-steering-anchoring-equity-mutiny/
2 comments
The anchoring portion of this essay reminds me of a thought experiment I’ve played with, which I call “the conservative’s dilemma.”
Imagine you are driving down a flat straight road (maybe you’re in Nebraska?). You get a speed your comfortable with and find you can keep the gas pedal pressed to the this exact same place. So much so, you rig up something to comfortably keep your leg wedged at just that depression. You have an outcome that is stable and desirable. You have optimized your method of achieving the outcome and are happy and pleased with that.
But the world changes. And you come to some hills. As the incline increases your speed drops. And you have an interesting dilemma. What will you conserve? Maybe you like the leg rig thing and are willing to live with loss of speed. Or maybe you prefer that speed, and will have to evolve your methodology. You can conserve one or the other, but not both.
I find many professed conservatives are often not comfortable with this. They answer “both!” They have a difficult time introspecting whether it is the result they want most? Or the methodology? But if they adapt in either realm, they have to become progressive in one way or the other.
Imagine you are driving down a flat straight road (maybe you’re in Nebraska?). You get a speed your comfortable with and find you can keep the gas pedal pressed to the this exact same place. So much so, you rig up something to comfortably keep your leg wedged at just that depression. You have an outcome that is stable and desirable. You have optimized your method of achieving the outcome and are happy and pleased with that.
But the world changes. And you come to some hills. As the incline increases your speed drops. And you have an interesting dilemma. What will you conserve? Maybe you like the leg rig thing and are willing to live with loss of speed. Or maybe you prefer that speed, and will have to evolve your methodology. You can conserve one or the other, but not both.
I find many professed conservatives are often not comfortable with this. They answer “both!” They have a difficult time introspecting whether it is the result they want most? Or the methodology? But if they adapt in either realm, they have to become progressive in one way or the other.
I do note that that a majority of rowed craft are rudderless and are steered by where the rowing (building, progress, etc) happens.
Interestingly while I’m not interested in anchoring or mutiny when it comes to society in general, when I consider what the internet has become, part of me does yearn for a bit of mutiny to burn what the internet has become down and make a better version. But just a small part of me. :)