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Politics especially.  How many policies are formed that take no account of how society actually works?

Unfotunately there are no reliable theories of how society actuallyworks.

The best the Left came up with was Critical Theory, which is a kind of ritualised distilled Marxism, inbred with semiotics and a lot of quoting.

It's completely useless for real social policy.

The absense of a real theory is why the Chicago jackasses were able to fill the vacuum with their neo-liberal monetarist nonsense. Which is why we're here now debunking the same old talking points about 'reform' when we could be doing something useful.

There have been some attempts to model policy statistically in an empirical and disinterested way, rather than making a priori assumptions about it. But the social sciences are still treated as humanities, not as sciences, which means real research isn't common.

If you want to look at social engineering, talk to the CIA. They seem to have a better idea of how to do it than anyone else at the moment - even if it's only on ad hoc Skinnerian basis, with crude aims manipulated by even cruder means.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Mon Dec 31st, 2007 at 01:47:17 PM EST
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I understand that discourse is conflicted and what we ought to do with society depends on where you may sit on the political spectrum and your vision of what society should look like - but some policies totally lack even a little bit of common sense.  They seem to completely bypass the fact that we are dealing with people, individuals and groups. Bush vetoing the welfare bill is an example.  What about people and their lives?  He can only see $$$$$$.

Never being able to start from a blank slate makes the process really complicated and so many things intertwine.
Psychology, sociology, economics, politics, anthropology, history... a narrow focus fails to make creative connections. So useless social policies.

But going back to the analogy of religion inspiring, banding people together, and politics.  Blair's '97 election win came about partly because of that strength of feeling, being inspired, following a leader who promised us that things can only get better.  

I think some of the lacklustre in the UK at the moment is because the 'left' have been in power for so long.   It's much harder to maintain inspiration and motivation  and a sense of belonging when you are actually running the country rather than rallying the crowds in opposition to the latest evils of a Tory Government.  

Now the 'left' are no longer much distinguishable from the right and where are the critical masses to oppose this in an organised way?  Who is rallying the troops from the left? Who or what am I meant to put my faith in now?

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Mon Dec 31st, 2007 at 02:19:15 PM EST
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