Social Science As Intellectual Self-Defense

“It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.”
~Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy

Intellectual self-defense is a priority, as those like Noam Chomsky point out. But that is easier said than done. How we are manipulated, from deception to demoralization, isn’t only about straightforward issues of cognitive biases, rhetoric, propaganda, disinfo, and perception management (astroturf, narrative framing, gatekeeping, etc). There are far more subtle means of social control. Or else, intentional or not, by surrounding conditions, environments, systems, structures, transgenerational effects, and other shared factors, pervasive and persistent. All of this typically operates unconsciously, unless through knowledge we actively bring it into self-awareness and social awareness. But we are struggling against the current in our society. There is no one within the dominant system who will promote this understanding; not within education, media, or politics. It will require collective self-education by the public.

The possibility for collective self-education, though, requires greater neurocognitive development and neurocognitive capacity. A stressed-out, sickly, and stunted populace doesn’t easily form into an informed citizenry. That is the point we brought up about health, both personal and public, and why we emphasized something like diet and nutrition that is generally under the control of individuals and families. The greater point, though, was how all aspects of health have a profound affect on human psychology, identity, and behavior. This is based on an overwhelming amount of social science research that cuts across numerous areas of study and theory. Yet within political and economic circles, this knowledge is almost completely unknown and, when mentioned, there is almost total disinterest or dismissiveness. It doesn’t fit the dominant paradigm and even most alternative thinkers struggle to see outside of the ruling mindset and worldview.

So, we remain stuck repeating the same patterns of failure and defeatism. That is the case because we lack the understanding to see what has gone wrong and how we could change it, along with what has gone right and how to reinforce and promote it. As we tilt at old windmills, our collective energy gets wasted and our collective resources get used up in a disempowering state that leads to personal and societal frustration, discouragement, despair, hopelessness, outrage, pessimism, and cynicism; further resulting in learned helplessness, complex trauma, victimization cycle, and conspiracy of silence (Derrick Jensen). But instead of getting lost in self-destructive futility, we could focus our attention where it matters most and so multiply the effects of our actions. As Archimedes put it, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” So, what lever might we use and where is the fulcrum?

For those interested to seek new understanding and new possibilities, we’ll do a brief survey of the territory. Basically, it’s about chronic stressors of all sorts: malnourishment (Weston A. Price’s ‘moral health’), poverty and mortality (fast life history strategy), inequality (inequality hypothesis), segregation (Eric M. Uslaner, Segregation and Mistrust), adverse childhood experiences (increasing conservatism in adulthood), violence (regality theory), violent media (cultivation theory & mean world syndrome), pathogen exposure (behavioral immune system), parasite load (parasite-stress theory), and such. Chronic stressors can be as or more traumatizing than a single acute stressor like being violently attacked; and such trauma can get passed on through intergenerational and transgenerational effects, by way of culture, modeled behavior, abuse, oppression, and epigenetics. But chronic stress is often hard to see as it often operates in the background as slow violence.

These are part of different forms and expressions of a group defense response that variously results, depending on the specific stressor, in population-wide increases and/or promotion into power of: sociopolitical conservatism, right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, dark personality (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, & sadism), vertical ideologies (collectivist & individualist), conventionalism, conformity, groupthink, fundamentalist religiosity, purity concerns, xenophobia, etc. And: distrust, paranoia, fantasy-proneness, conflict, aggression, violence, punitiveness, polarization, partisanship, stress-related diseases, mental illness, addiction, alcoholism, impulsivity, short-term thinking, etc. In a single population and across generations, combine many of these stressors and stress-caused consequences — one example of what you’ll get is the ‘shit life syndrome’ of a permanent underclass, as maintained through systemic prejudice, environmental racism and classism, and other such entrenched oppressions.

Further involved are mortality salience, threat reactivity, disgust response, sickness behavior, conservation-withdrawal, etc; including high ‘conscientiousness’, high ‘need for closure’, and low ‘openness to experience’ (Observing Ideological Mentalities). We should include Steven Pinker’s ‘moral Flynn effect’ that explains the conditions that, as part of neurocognitive health, simultaneously increase or decrease average IQ and interpersonal violence rates. Plus, there are related theories involving factors and effects like anxiety (Jonathan Haidt), atomization (Elizabeth Wolgast), disconnection (E.O. Wilson, biophilia, nature-deficit disorder), isolation (Johann Hari), loneliness (Hannah Arendt), dislocation (Jürgen Habermas), disenchantment (Max Weber), alienation (Karl Marx), anomie (Émile Durkheim), etc.

This puts into greater context the many common concerns of those on the political and economic left. Consider poverty, scarcity, and cost of living; such as in term of present global inflation. Ultimately, the problems related to these things are simply secondary effects of high inequality, power disparities, and dominance hierarchies. Inequality is never only about wealth but about everything: ownership, resources, opportunities (and second, third, etc chances), protected rights, privileges, legacy systems, crony social networks, education, healthcare, nutritious food, clean air and water, access to green spaces, platforms of speech, political representation, legal protection, and on and on. But there is also how high inequality destabilizes and deranges all of society, even harming the rich (Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett, The Inner Level; Keith Payne, The Broken Ladder; Peter Turchin, End Times; & Walter Scheidel, The Great Leveler).

It’s fine to criticize authoritarianism and much else on the reactionary right, but that isn’t enough. We need to understand what these things mean and represent, what causes them and politically weaponizes them. And we need to do so with both intellectual knowledge and self-knowledge, both social awareness and self-awareness. That is to say we need discernment and humility. Many people, including on the Left, are pulled into these toxic and harmful worldviews without realizing it. We are all living in highly stressful times and the stress fractures begin to show. We should start paying close attention when we see leftists, liberals, and progressives enforcing groupthink, promoting identity politics, demanding ideological purity, and scapegoating this group or that; all of which has been noticeable lately. This means that, though those on the left might have greater resistance, all of us can become vulnerable to these mentalities and behaviors (hence, the strange phenomenon of illiberal ‘liberals’ and inegalitarian ‘leftists’). Then we can fall prey to manipulation.

Fortunately, this kind of knowledge, far from being mere abstract scholarship, is slowly spreading in the population. Particularly the inequality factor is more commonly familiar now. And lead toxicity was finally acknowledged by the United States Congress some years back. So, we are moving in the right direction. Like earlier last century with progressives and municipal socialists, a present shift toward public health is steadily taking hold again. But at times, it can feel excruciatingly slow and coming way too late. And often the focus can feel misguided, such as Obamacare that was health insurance reform. Americans lack affordable and effective healthcare, not health insurance. The challenge is that it’s not any single issue and factor of chronic stress but how they all interact, accumulate, and exacerbate across all of society. We need a totalizing paradigm change, and for that to happen we need a revolution of the mind.

That brings us to the last point to be made here. As someone reminded us, narrative is centrally important. We’ve had various narratives we’ve been promoting for a long time. Starting in the Aughts, we were advocating a liberal, leftist, and progressive framing of the and founding (e.g., like ). And in the decade after that, were endlessly repeating the interpretation of the American public and citizenry as (AKA the real Moral Majority). More recently, we’ve increasingly turned our attention to the above view of public health as public welfare and public good, but specifically as a narrative of the major changes, good and bad, across American history; akin to Steven Pinker’s ‘moral Flynn effect’ but with a less Whiggish slant. If we leftists are to compete against the elites who control the political and media systems, we are going to have to have a way of talking that is more compelling and persuasive, uplifting and motivating. We need a coherent shared vision.

[12/23/2024 — Edited: Text was extended, information was added, and argument was clarified. But basic article is the same.]