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Are We There Yet?

Entry 2278, on 2023-06-26 at 16:36:14 (Rating 4, Comments)

I have listened to several podcasts recently, on a variety of topics, which lead me to a revelation about the problems we face today. This builds on several posts I have made in the past, so I regret any repetition, but it all makes a well-integrated case in the end, so please accept this.

Imagine you live in the northern United States, and like many of your fellow Americans, you decide you might like to move to Austin, Texas. The location is irrelevant to my bigger argument, but it is significant that there is a tendency for people to move to Texas currently, to escape the incompetence of leftist, woke politicians in other areas of the country, such as California.

So you might decide that your destination lies due south, so you set off in that direction, because that is the initial rule to solve the current problem at hand: that is, how to get to Austin.

The problem is, how long do you follow this rule for? Once you get to your destination you should stop, right? If you don't, you will go right past Austin and end up in Mexico, where the social problems of your original home might seem trivial in comparison. I mean, I have nothing against Mexico, but it does have a problem with drug related violence and other issues right now, so chances are, even Los Angeles is preferable!

At this point the metaphor should be obvious: people start with a particular solution to a problem, but they don't have a well defined termination condition, so once the initial aim is achieved, they don't stop, and instead end up somewhere worse than they would have been at if they hadn't started the transition at all.

In one podcast this concept was applied to the pursuit of efficiency and control by larger and larger companies, organisations, governments, and corporations; and in another it was applied to a potential of using artificial intelligence without proper testing for success criteria. Any programmer reading this will be aware of the simpler case of this where iterative or recursive code fails to terminate.

This phenomenon is linked to the "St George in Retirement" effect, I described in a blog post with that name from 2019-10-04. In that effect, a person or group, having achieved their goals by any reasonable interpretation, fails to accept that and continues their activism producing a more negative outcome than if they had stopped, and sometimes a worse one than before they even started the "journey".

So let's look at some real-world examples...

Currently the Western world seems infatuated with trans issues, and in LGBTQIA+ politics in general. Some people have challenged me on how I might spend too much time on this issue, but I'm just reacting to what my opponents are saying and doing already.

The original idea of trans activism was to allow trans people to be accepted by society, and to ensure there was no systemic bias against them. While there will always be people who, because of religious, political, or another ideology, will never accept trans rights, I have had no problem with any changes bringing then equality.

But after equality was attained, they didn't stop. Now we have to celebrate pride month (I know this goes beyond trans, but give me some latitude here); we are expected to accept that anyone who feels like they are the opposite sex to what they are biologically, actually is that new sex; and we are expected to accept that trans people should be able to use facilities belonging to the one they identify with, but biologically are the opposite of.

So instead of just getting the same rights as everyone else, they want more. They didn't know when to stop. They missed Austin and are now in Tijuana! By the way, please don't quibble over the geography here, this is just a metaphor, remember!

Note that most trans people are not making these outrageous demands, and many of the people who are making them aren't themselves trans. They have just been on a "holy pilgrimage" of political correctness and never noticed that they already arrived in Mecca!

And these demands have become counter-productive, because their extreme nature has just pushed many people away, who might have been supporters in the past. I know, because I am exactly in that category.

Note that the same applies to related issues, like gay marriage. Same-sex couples getting married doesn't affect me directly, so I support it, but I'm not going to support "pride days, weeks, or months". They are just normal people and I am not going to give them any special privileges. That's overshooting the mark.

Another controversial issue where a very similar phenomenon occurs is in race politics. I am totally on board when it comes to giving people of all races equal rights, but I am against going beyond that, whatever the supposed justification is.

For example, here in New Zealand, Maori people are given a lot of extra privileges which other races don't get. I am happy to make sure all racial groups enjoy the same privileges, but handing out extra, unearned privileges to one group is exactly the wrong thing to do. Again, by continuing after the target has been met, the racial justice campaigners have just made the situation worse by inciting resentment. I hope they like tequila!

Look for this and you see it everywhere (how often do I use that phrase). Look at feminism, Metoo, Black Lives Matter, and almost any other "social justice" campaign in recent years and you will see this overreach, sometimes leading to a worse situation than existed before the social campaign even started, but always leading to a worse one that if they had stopped when they reached their intended destination.

My advice to anyone wanting change in any form, and especially those wanting societal change, is to identify where your point of success would be before you start your journey, and stop when you get there. Ask yourself "are we there yet?", and when you are, stop. Learn to recognise when you arrive in Austin!

Comment 1 (7453) by Ken Spall on 2023-07-02 at 14:33:31:

Over the last few hundred years enormous progress has been in the areas of social fairness and justice, in race relations, in reduction of discrimination on race, religion or gender. These sort of changes take time, but unfortunately for the zealots it’s never quick enough. Patience is the key.
Cheers, Ken

Comment 2 (7454) by OJB on 2023-07-02 at 19:20:01:

Exactly. The activists (social justice warriors, woke mob, Marxists, far left nutters, whatever you want to call them) enjoy the feeling of being so "virtuous" (at least, in their own minds) that they just can't let go. That's when whatever reasonable points they might (or might not) have had to begin with turns into a liability.

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