Many political differences can be attributed, I feel, to the level of “consciousness” an individual adopts when considering policy proposals. While the title is a nod to the failings of the myopic view that conservatives often take, I think it is clear that the below are not mutually exclusive; none of these perspectives is always the best one. Some quick thoughts:
- Only I exist – I think we’ve all seen now what the result of extreme narcissism and sociopathy looks like.
- Only I / my family matters – A sort of libertarian individualism very dominant in American society. This perspective is also tied closely to market capitalism, in which the aggregation of individual inputs and decisions is often effective at creating efficient outcomes. An irrational belief that if we each just look out for ourselves, everything will come up roses. I’ve been amazed to see this viewpoint pushed forward in confronting the pandemic, a clear case where more collective action is critical.
- Only my community matters – Even the most egocentric are generally able to raise their level of awareness to their immediate geographic community, probably in part because it is hard to survive as a modern human without community infrastructure such as clean water and schools. This is also the level at which personal action can usually lead to tangible outcomes, and so you have sayings like “think globally, act locally.” Abstracted a bit further, “community” can mean economic class or race and be equivalent to a sort of tribalism.
- Only my country matters – In some ways, “globalist” liberals disregarded this in the recent past at their own peril. It may be utilitarian to lift ten million Chinese out of poverty at the cost of five million American jobs, but borders and elections still exist, and it is important for policy-makers to be attuned to the needs and desires of the polity. This is also the level at which wars generally happen, which drives a lot of more macro decisions.
- Only humans matter – Climate change and its obvious negative impact on human life have reduced the need for environmentalists to rely on people’s sensitivity to the lives of plants and other animals.
- Gaia hypothesis – Why stop at living things?
- Individual existence is an illusion – Applied to social organization or governance, maybe as dangerous or impractical as the first item on the list.
