The ‘Worshipping the Future’ series begins
Analysing the social dynamics of toxic ideas.
On Helen Dale’s Substack, the first instalment of a series of essays by myself entitled Worshipping the Future has been published. The essays have all been written, though they remain very much a work in progress.
One is unlikely to reason folk out of beliefs they were not reasoned into. This is even less likely to happen if those beliefs provide benefits to those adopting and propagating them. Especially if such benefits are not much connected to said beliefs’ truth, accuracy or consistency.
Nevertheless, the consequences of such ideas still matter. Particularly the consequences to those who have not adopted them, that do not propagate them.
Which also means that folk need ways of identifying and dealing with those consequences. Including understanding the patterns of action they generate and why.
So, while the essays do deal with ideas, as ideas have consequences, much attention is also paid to the consequences of those ideas and the benefits they provide to those adopting and propagating them. Both to understand what is happening, and why, and to provide ways for folk to respond more effectively to them.
I hope folk find the essay series enlightening and useful.