The answer to the question of competence vs pathocracy is rather simple in its complexity.
In short: zoom lens!
People like Peterson and Pinker tend to zoom out and look at the Very Big Picture. In that picture, yes, shit happens. It's still happening. But the overall trend is progress. Sure, things are really screwed up - even more screwed up in certain ways than before. But when you make the comparison of the Middle Ages vs today, clearly quality of life IS higher for the majority of people.
That doesn't mean there is no suffering anywhere, or that everything is perfect everywhere, or anything else. It just means that overall, "things are getting better" from that broad perspective. Of course, residents of Gaza and Syria would tend to disagree with that statement, naturally, but that's a narrow perspective.
But that's only 1 data point. Zoom in a bit, and you see problems. These problems often become worse with time due to pathocracy.
Zoom in even further, and either you will see a perfect life, or horrible suffering. In either case, you're looking so closely at one tiny part of everything that you can't see anything else.
It's like an American complaining that his country is a cesspool of corruption, things are getting worse, yadda yadda. And then someone from a horribly poor country where starvation is rampant says, "Oh really? You think you've got it bad?" And then there is the question of the US having played a part in overthrowing the government in that poor country, and empowering an evil dictator, etc.
There are MANY perspectives there, and all of them are valid. It isn't enough to only take a narrow view, or a broad view. We need to see everything.
Most people choose to view life through a fixed zoom level. Sometimes this is because it suits them, sometimes because they don't know any better, and sometimes because the motor that makes the lens zoom is busted and they don't know how to manually adjust it.
So, in JP's case, what he is saying is in response to the SJW-type nonsense going on. He is clearly not very well-informed about certain subjects - like the rest of us. He has a point to make, a goal to accomplish, and he does this using data from a certain zoom level. This serves as an antidote to chaos (hopefully) - but only
at wide angles.
Then we start to zoom in, and oops! We see problems. Clearly, JP is useless because he doesn't "get it".
Well, hell's bells! What are
YOU doing to make things better? What am
I doing? Are we just sitting around nitpicking what other people are doing because we're so offended that they're not fixing everything for us? Or maybe we just like sitting around feeling high and mighty because we can zoom in and see problems that aren't being addressed?
Being able to zoom in and out is priceless. It is also not without risks: Save the whales (to the exclusion of all else)! Save the poor cows! Save the poor transgenders! Save the poor Gazans!
OR: Don't worry about the whales, cows, or transgenders because overall, things are getting better - YAY!
Well, yes and no.
I have a pretty good idea of what will happen. The "left" is pushing. The "right" will fight back. Then it will be the right's turn to get bashed over the head for going overboard.
It's like driving a large boat across the ocean. They don't exactly turn on a dime. All you can do is help steer it in the right direction. And there's nothing at all you can do about huge storms and big scary mega-octopus creatures, Godzilla, or any other catastrophes which may befall the boat on its journey.
Driving the boat up into the clouds and sailing along effortlessly while choirs of angels sing us along isn't even close to being an option. Not in this reality, anyway.
There will always be good and bad. It will never be all good, just as it will never be all bad.
Even if I had the power to directly intervene in chaotic events around the world, I wouldn't do it. I'm fairly certain that I would mean well, but end up screwing things over pretty good.
So, what we do is just send out our little signal, and see what happens. I mean, what else are you gonna do? The bad guys try to effect things on a large scale. Because there are many of them, and they are often at odds with each other, this just creates mayhem and chaos and destruction.
Everyone in the Evil Hierarchy does little things every day. Some people do little evil things, some people do big evil things. In the end, it all adds up. We are
very quick to notice this. It's plain as day.
On the flip side, how often do we see how doing Little Good Things can add up to making real change in the world? Like, never? Why is that? Why do we see the Bad Guy doing something small and think, "Oh, that's adding to the mayhem!" and yet when we have the option to do something good, we think, "Oh, poor little me, I'll never make any difference..."
Why do we place so much value on darkness, but so little on light?
In any case, if it wasn't for Evil Google and Evil Controlled Internet, none of us would ever have heard of Laura or most of the other people here. No one would know who Jordan Peterson is.
Anyway, recognizing both sides of the equation doesn't mean you support one over the other. It's not black or white. It's BOTH. And sure, you have to choose a side. But it's
why you are choosing that side that matters most. Is it based on knowledge of all the zoom levels, or a whim, or an emotional reaction, or...?
