While in society it’s despicable to kick a man when he’s down, in politics it’s generally foolish not to. When you have the chance to kick a whole Conservative Party that is terribly down now because of the Trump nomination by attacking an under-the-radar linchpin to their foundation, you kick until it stops moving. This is the first in a series of articles that will explain how we can do just that. Let’s get to it.
The Conservative Party’s ideology is built largely on championing personal accountability. You’ve heard it all before: “If Horatio Algers can succeed in America, so can everyone else…if you fail, you have no one but yourself to blame, so don’t expect any help from us.” What we Progressives don’t yet sufficiently appreciate, though, is that this notion that we humans have a free will to succeed or not – our belief in free will – serves as the foundation for virtually the entire callous and discriminatory Conservative ideology.
You’re probably familiar with free will from religion. Clerics will admonish you: “Don’t blame God for your losing that job; God gave you a free will, and you lost your job because of your own freely willed laziness, or irresponsibility, or insubordination.” Free will is the belief that what we humans do is fundamentally up to us, and that nothing that is not under our control is forcing us to do what we do.
If you’re like the vast majority of Americans, you probably believe that we all have a free will. The problem, however, is that you’re dead wrong. Charles Darwin understood this — here’s a quote:
the general delusion about free will obvious,
So did Sigmund Freud:
You nourish the notion of there being such a thing as psychical freedom, and you will not give it up. I am sorry to say I disagree with you categorically over this.
And so did Albert Einstein:
I do not believe in free will. Schopenhauer's words: 'Man can do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wills,' accompany me in all situations throughout my life and reconcile me with the actions of others, even if they are rather painful to me. This awareness of the lack of free will keeps me from taking myself and my fellow men too seriously as acting and deciding individuals, and from losing my temper.
What’s important about these guys is that they’re arguably our world’s top thinkers. What’s also important to realize is that there is absolutely no one anywhere near their stature among our world’s other top thinkers who disagrees with them, and believes we humans have a free will.
So, for now, while laying down our plan to, issue by issue, election by election, use our knowledge that free will is a myth to hack away at what remains of Conservative ideology, we’ll rely mainly on this argument from the authority of Darwin, Freud and Einstein that free will is an illusion. In future articles, I’ll explain, reason by reason, why a human free will is completely impossible. Okay, if you’re somewhat impatient, and truly serious about clearly and strongly understanding this point, let me now refer you to three-time New York Times bestselling author and neuroscientist, Sam Harris’ 2012 book, Free Will, a short read at only 96 pages, to guide you through the reasoning.
How do we Progressives use this knowledge that free will is a myth to deal a death blow to Conservative ideology? We do it by repeatedly, implicitly and explicitly, challenging the free will notion every time Conservatives try to blame and punish someone for being who they are, or doing what they’ve been destined to do.
Here’s a good example of how it’s done. We all know that Conservatives spend restless nights conjuring up diabolical new ways to blame LGBTs for being LGBTs, and then punishing them as much as possible for this lifestyle “choice.” A very astute Kelly Bryan recently asked John Kasich a very simple, but powerful, question (here's the video): “Are people born gay?” The ensuing exchange:
"I'm not gonna get into all the analysis of this or that," Kasich said at the San Francisco town hall. "I'm not gonna do that."
But the questioner pressed again: "It's not analysis. Are people born gay?"
Kasich replied, "You know, sir, probably."
"I mean, I don't -- I don't know how it all works, OK?" he added. "I mean, look. Are they? You know, probability they are."
After some hemming and hawing, a clearly frustrated Kasich finally admits that gays do not choose to be gay; they are born that way. With that admission, Kasich conceded a key foundation to his attack on gays. Kasich essentially admitted that gays do not of a free will choose to be gay, and now every time he or some other Conservative Hater advances some new form of punishment for this lifestyle “choice,” we can remind them that people are not fundamentally responsible for, and should not be held fundamentally responsible for, how people are born.
I think you’re beginning to get the picture. Conservatives blame the poor for being poor, blame women for being women, blame Blacks for being Black, blame the obese for being obese, blame criminals for being criminals, blame the mentally ill for being mentally ill, and we could go on and on and on.
And they use this completely illusory notion of free will to justify their mindless, hateful and completely misguided blaming. Conservatives use free will to justify the very foundation of their hateful political ideology. And now that their Party is down and in disarray, we Progressives have a unique opportunity to launch a full frontal attack on this house-of-cards foundation to virtually all of their discriminatory positions, policies and programs.
In the 1960s, when Buckley Jr., Goldwater and their cronies crafted the modern Conservative strategy, they knew it would take years for their plan to mature into the powerful force it ultimately became, guiding all three branches of the U.S. government for much of the last half century. It’s now time for us to borrow a valuable lesson from their playbook, and launch a new Progressive era founded on promoting the very powerful truth that we humans do not have the free will to choose who we are, and what we do. We humans do not have a free will, and the sooner we all appreciate this absolutely irrefutable fact, the sooner we can hammer down the final nails on the Conservative movement’s coffin, and get on with the serious work of fixing our Country, and fixing our world.
Many who read this will not yet be close to accepting that Darwin, Freud and Einstein were right about free will being nothing but an illusion. Many who read this will not yet appreciate how instrumental our belief that we have a free will has been in strengthening Conservative ideology, and how that ideology can now be made to completely crumble through a sustained assault on the pernicious myth. Many who read this will not yet appreciate the vast harm free will belief causes our world in ways that span far beyond justifying the Conservative movement’s hateful and indifferent ideology. Let me now help with this last point.
In 2014, I published an extensively referenced, but brief, 56-page scholarly work titled Free Will: Its Refutation, Societal Cost, and Role in Climate Change Denial. It begins by explaining the physics of why free will is absolutely impossible. But its more important and original thesis is that our belief in free will is amplifying the widespread climate change denial that, in large measure, has stymied any significant progress in tackling this serious climate crisis. Here’s the basic argument, so that you can appreciate the logic and corroborating research, and understand what we’re up against:
5. Free Will Belief and Climate Change Denial
Free will belief also contributes to climate change denial. A correlate to free will belief is that humans are fundamentally, as distinct from pragmatically, responsible for their actions. Pew Research Center (2014) reported that Americans ranked global warming near the bottom of Presidential and Congressional priorities for the years 2009 through 2014, and that only 44 percent of Americans currently believe there is solid evidence the phenomenon exists and is anthropogenic. Seeking a partial explanation for this indifference and denial, Crompton and Kasser (2010) cited evidence that individuals overcome guilt about global warming by denying their actions, refusing to care, and shifting the blame to others. In her study of Norwegian villagers relatively well informed about climate change, Norgaard (2009) found that individuals reported feeling guilty about over-consuming resources and "being a bad person." (p. 32). Guilt is a self-attribution that requires a belief in free will. Because it is more difficult to rationally feel guilty about behavior over which one believes one has no control, guilt-induced climate change denial is fueled by free will belief.
Individuals whose self-identity is threatened by climate change information reduce the threat by redefining or dismissing the information. Gecas and Burke (1995) suggested that the need to preserve a positive self-concept leads individuals to avoid or selectively accept threatening information, and to work hard to not change their identity. Norgaard (2009) found that individuals re-define situations that threaten self-identity, and Baumeister (1998) reported that individuals dismiss such information. Because positive self-identity is largely predicated on a favorable evaluation of one's personal morality, and the personal morality construct is dependent on the idea of free will, identity-based redefinition and dismissal of climate change information is also attributable to free will belief.
Crompton and Kasser (2010) recommended the practice of mindfulness, described as "a non-judgmental awareness of one's experiences," (p. 26) for one to manage environmental threats to identity, and referenced Brown and Kasser (2005) who found that the practice is empirically associated with positive environmental behavior. Mindfulness practice cultivates through meditation and intent the same attitude of non-judgment that disbelief in free will cultivates through rational assessment. As one deepens one's understanding of the implications of free will being an illusion, it becomes increasingly difficult to rationally blame others and oneself for held attitudes and expressed behaviors. Freeing oneself of assumed fundamental moral responsibility with its often paralyzing sense of accountability may make it easier to more positively respond to climate change through an empowering attitude of genuine concern.
Kellstedt, Zahran, and Vedlitz (2008) found that helplessness also induced climate change denial. This mechanism is insidious in that the better informed individuals are about climate change, the more helpless they tend to feel, and the greater their need to deny the threat. Individuals value the feeling of efficacy free will belief can foster. Free will belief likely conditions individuals to maintain a sense of fundamental efficacy and, notwithstanding its illusory nature, avoid or deny circumstances that threaten the attitude. Overcoming free will belief may allow individuals to better accept their fundamental, as distinct from pragmatic, helplessness, and thereby reduce their need to deny climate change. While overcoming free will belief would not be easy, humanity may find this fundamental restructuring of human psychology useful. As the world experiences increased climate change impacts, guilt, blame and helplessness may increase, and induce greater denial in a downward spiral. While there are other causes of climate change denial, free will belief-based denial may render humanity psychologically less capable of confronting them.
But why buy what you can get for free? You can download a free pdf of the book here..
Now that you hopefully appreciate why our belief in free will is very much like the devil incarnate, with all of the harm it causes our world, let’s return to our main theme. Conservative ideology is built on the mistaken notion that we humans have a free will. Now that Conservatives are down, and Trump is sure to drag them down deeper and deeper, it’s time to deal a death blow to the belief in free will, and use this messaging strategy over and over during the coming months and years to deal a final death blow to the modern Conservative Party.
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And if you happen to be interested in a strategy for getting Garland appointed to the Supreme Court, check out my Feb. 27 DK piece that has so far been shared on Facebook over 50,000 times (yes, 50 thousand!!!)
How Obama Can Appoint Supreme Court Judge without Senate Consent