Formulaic Big Government Programs Are Not The Solution They Want To Be
Why? Because such solutions routinely oversimplify the problems they aim to address as a result of a lack of comprehensive understanding of the issues. Legislation that builds a solution on that imperfect and incomplete foundation consequently creates densely complex solutions to solve those over-simplified problems. Neo-sociopsychologists are not much help here because they have abetted the prejudicial oversimplification of the problem of prejudice in society.
In defense of simplification of so critical an issue as social prejudice, Elliot Aronson writes –
“Nothing is safer than to state all sides of all issues, but few things are more boring. Although I have discussed controversial issues, I have not hesitated to draw conclusions. In short, I have attempted to be brief without being unfair, and I have tried to present complex material simply and clearly without oversimplifying.” Aronson, Elliot. The Social Animal (p. ix). Worth Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Unfortunately, the oversimplification logic here looks to be:
* We liberals are good. We don’t need any fixing. and we know better what’s good for everybody.
* We Social Psychologists are the best of the best and we know how to fix everybody.
* Those conservatives, Republicans, and certain Christians are bad.
* They are the ones who need fixing, and they are unwilling to fix themselves.
* Therefore, it is up to us Social Scientists to come up with a plan to fix the unfixed and get the government to enforce our plan.
Somewhere in this argument there is also the unfortunate presumption that historically disadvantaged minorities are inherently incapable of fixing either themselves or society as a whole. All of this is expressed with the utterly confident self-assurance of those who know best, no matter what the facts or the whole story might be.
