Ideas and Interests
Throughout the last three decades, we can witness Economy Policy has a tendency of being very much interest-orientated, with interest being defined as a desired improvement in our (material) situation, or perhaps desired retention of the existing situation if it is under attack.
The pursuit of interests pertains our current society, business fights to get what it wants and some parts of society, seeing themselves as the victims of business, fight back. It would be a story of lobbying, campaign contributions, corporation and may be corruption, bargaining and coalition formation, and so on.
But there was also the narrower realisation that business was involved in intellectual debates, arguments and persuasion, from the crude to the sophisticated, from the propagandistic to the high-flown. Even when it was crude and propagandistic, there was presumably some reason it was engaged it. It wasn’t just a matter of putting in the bids and dividing up the goodies.
It was hard to ignore the rise and all of ‘big ideas’, from Marxism through Keynesianism to Neo-Classical Economics(NCE); from the ‘taming of nature’ to conservation.
I had long been aspired for inspirations to write about ‘bringing ideas back in’, i.e. trying to get away from the very interest-oriented approaches that have dominated in recent decades. So I decided we should have a closer look at it, and the picture is not pretty.
Ideals – Liberty, equality Love and Brotherhood
Ideals about the group, the welfare of humanity, the further of society. Let’s call these Idealist-the A-list elite who concerns about science, knowledge, invention and discoveries which will improve the lot of man in the generations to come. In this article, I would like to distinguish ideal, from political ideology to the relative intrinsic values in a more “humane” way.
The ideal hit a head on collisions with the reality of some idealist in our society, let’s call them the “A-list elite”. They seems to neglect that the anchoring an ideal takes time, and flexibility and a sensitivity to the limitations of the human nature :1)the dark side, 2)human emotions; which there is a lack of devotion of understanding and patience.
” Hang on. You are missing the point Barack.”
The A-list elite are not flexible but great lover of truth. Their hearts are so pure which becomes what kept truth at bay. You can see here the dilemma: the gift and the curse of the A-list elite. Its ideal is concerned with that pertain to the group rather than the individual, e.g. traditional link with welfare and human rights. Arena like social work, education and politics are so innate for the forward-looking idealist who wants to set the world to rights. That’s the true sign of liberty, democracy, and human equality. But for the A-listers, as far as his ideals concerned, is usually democratic- in the sense of fairness and integrity.
Some of A-listers extremely finely honed conscience which is often so sensitive that it makes his life unbearable. There is obviously a horror of being called ‘self-fish’, very noble but not very psychologically healthy. His personal like or dislike is often sacrificed to, his dedication to his beliefs is unshakable. Dedication as such is often to the objective perspective governs by a code of ethics or principles by which he believes he should live. Of course, he is dictated to TRUTH, yes the capitalised one and only.
The L-Word
Abraham lincoln is a good example of those who suffer the retaliation of the more conservative elements of society for their contributions, which are frequently suspected.
Distinguished figures like Thomas Edison, great thinkers and inventors whose discoveries are not intended for personal satisfaction or gain, but for the benefits of human race.
Whereas dedication of the A-listers is so absolute: try to find out their personal life and you will discover they have no personal lives. All their energy and ability is taken up with the dedication of the goal, the ideal. The enormous spectrum of human abilities and foibles feeds intellectual bigotry which gives them the rights and satisfaction to play god. Those invents a new weapon because it’s scientifically interesting and immensely effective, without the wit to realise that people don’t possess the psychological maturity to handle such a thing with any responsibility. The courageous fifty of ideals can become stubborn fanaticism, you see the rational scientific brain with no heart, either end up letting it rusts to rigid paralysis or destroy the world.
A little close to home, there is this fellow who doesn’t worry about the few people who might be harmed by a faulty nuclear reactor or who disguises the actual percentage of radioactivity in the atmosphere well because, those are only a few little people who has emotional attachment issues with their mothers, and they really don’t have anything to do with grand things like Our Country’s Defense and Power.
There rampant communist who believed in the Utopian state all wealth is levelled and all people- without regard to the fact that people are fundamentally different and are emotionally incapable of coping with this.
The Noble Soul Syndrome
The individual A-lister encompasses two extreme: 1)genuine love and concern for the welfare of the group; and 2)Personal intellectual bigotry. His true sense of democracy is so firm, and even the non-political A-listers who lives an original life and doesn’t concern with movements, will often found in defending whistleblowers in his business. Her ideal for humanity reflects her humble hobby with the global collection of infants, and yet often make her stand out from the crowd. The A-lister think about other people, about their needs and potential. Or maybe we should say what he really thinks – a rare commodity in an Age of slogans and opinions.
On the other hand, the A-lister loves humanity but doesn’t really like about people very much. He can be so brusque, cool, unfeeling, insensitive, rigid, dogmatic and downright stupid when it comes to the human relationship on the subconscious domain. He has a tendency to stand by principles when principles are the least relevant concern in the situation. His fairness can be so inflammable when what is the most needed is a little bias. He obsession with logical and reasoning transcended in absolute denouncement of emotion affair, which is embarrassing, a form of weakness and irrational. In typical situation when you’re hurt by someone’s offhand remark, and you turn to your A-lister for sympathy, he’ll look at you calmly and say: ” Stop making a scene, this is very selfish you know. Let’s talk about Important matters like rescuing the world, spread the love of humanity.” Having making you feel so guilty for being emotional in the first place, he can be indulged in a little smug self-satisfaction because he succeeded in keeping his mind on the Really Important Thing.
The A-lister elite often get carried about by their own obsession with the ideas of ethics, rights of others and what they ought not to do or be – they forgot about themselves and this is what we called “The Noble Soul Syndrome”.
The Dark Side
If you happen to identify some of the above traits, please take a deep breath and contemplate whether you want to keep reading the article, because truth can be very intolerable.
I’ve notice these noble souls are very intimidated by my stare in which is apparently penetrating and monstrous. If you ask him why, he would run away just to safeguard his secret which is considered to be used to gain control of him.
The non-conscious innocence of the noble souls can almost makes you feel bad for being amused out of adoration. It is daunting to find out that someone has found our secrets in which is unawares by ourselves. Trust me, it doesn’t need a certified psychic/psychoanalytic to work out human unconscious. None of us are really that different from each others, whether we would like to admit or not. Neither is there much difference in the architectural structure of unconsciousness between individual and that of the collective.
It’s no longer a novelty to psychoanalytic(Jung)and writers(e.g. Stevenson Robert Louis-Author of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) that human unconscious pertains a hidden dimension filled with primitive drivers, impulses and desires; and is animal-like and cold-blooded. Evil is part of human being whether we like to admit it or not. If you try to be a saint and repress the monster, he will get angry and devour you with no pre-warning. Indeed, good and evil is two side of the same token. We can see that explicit enemies (G.W Bush and Bin Laden) are also implicit allies-“You need your enemies to be you”. Jung has the courage to see that each of us needs a dark side to be who we are.
Now, here is the nitty-gritty: Being courageous isn’t about self-sacrifice per se, whoever taught you so is perhaps the ones you need to look “out” for. Essentially, the necessary collapse of capitalism as the transition to a situation to a just world order is blatant “Bad Faith”, which stems from the need to exorcise the tragic. You will end up finding the world too difficult to bear, and become cynical and live forever in hopelessness and helplessness.
True Warrior
If he aspires to be a true hero or revolutionist for his universe, all the courage he needs is to face his own inner-demon and be-friend it.
First, his conscious striving for selflessness functions in a way to disguise a complete self-centred shadow side; where dedication to others is often faultless in daily life, but the shadow is dedicated to upholding of his position of control.
Secondly, you can spot his shadow peeping through especially in those situations where NBs is on his ideological hobby-horse. Please note that ideology and morality is where scholars use to sharpen their analytical skill for its own sake, many would refuse affiliation or discussions in public. The A-lister embraces his self-belief so much that he would push anybody else off who happens to disagree with him. However, we must admit that disagreements is still better than those who jumps on the bandwagon buried in their own fears of falling behind “the trend”.
All that repressed longing to be somebody special in his own right sometimes drives him to hypocrisy, especially in personal relations. ” “Equality is for humanity, but not for you.” Dead said.
Besides, “A” stands for the first. This is his secret longing to be liked and admired by everyone – to the degree that he often pushed uphill against his principle, at his discretion haunted by the fear of what others think of him. Now this is the weakness of character, or wishy-washiness. Yet, it is rather suppressing when you see it somewhere along the line of courage of conviction which is usually his behaviour that he holds strong believes against.
Discrepancies can be found everywhere, He says one thing and often does another unwittingly. And it is usually his hidden-contained that suffers the for it. He can carry on hours and hours about his ideals of equality, between races, or freedom to worship as one pleases, or equality of rights between genders. But you’ll often see a pronounced inequality held in personal life- especially towards those displayed in emotionalism or irrationality which he so fears and despises. In sum, equality of heart is different for him because his sense of equality is limited to the realm of ideas and intellect.
Political Fanaticism and the Old King Syndrome
There is a propensity to reform everyone underlies a death penalty for political fanaticism. This, too is contradictory to his belief that all people are entitled to their own beliefs. Obama is blessed with a sun in Leo, yet as long as the Old King Syndrome hasn’t been resolved, the US will remain in their fantasy of the “Team America: World Police”. What makes it even worse is that he has Ascendant in Aquarius and Midheaven in Scorpio. It is not looking good at all.
If he could look closer to the true ideal of Democracy by examine on American and French Revolution; Perhaps he should realise that Democracy means government by the people, and for the people. The innate contradiction in all this is very elusive to the A-lister. ” The worker for whom the revolution is fought is coerced into a behaviour pattern and a life in which has not a jot of freedom-to pursue either his own religious inclinations, his creative enterprise, or his own freedom of speech.”
Indeed, the strange dark side of the A-lister appeared because he’s so rigid in his expectations of himself and others. His attempts to reform human nature is doomed for failure, because it relies on a projection onto others of his belief that he should reform his own first. Most A-listers masters in learned professions; applying his knowledge about the maps, models, techniques, mechanisms and behavioural patterns onto the studies of man. What is the crucial blind spot is that he can’t learn these application to his own emotions, they contradict him, and make him do things he doesn’t see or understand.
The control of emotion(e.g. anger, fear, resentment, jealousy, longing, need, helplessness far etc) makes him so nervous. He doesn’t see them; probably didn’t realise emotions are commonly shared between human beings. Well everyone has their own shadow that casts in behind, because the light is in front, and A-listers are too busy looking at the light and swallowed by their shadow. Apart a forward-looking mentality, a visionary needs self-awareness(esp. about his emotional needs), follow by grounded design of plans, for courageous actions.
The Visible Plans of The Invisible Hand 