Consider two norms for how to critique those who violate your standards:
L: Focusing critique on those in power, who have the greatest opportunity to cause harm. R: Focusing critique on those who it most accurately applies to, who most often cause harm.
In an extreme, they also both have failure modes. Too much of policy L, and you destroy valuable organizations for unimportant transgressions. Too much of policy R, and you leave no room for slack or diversity.
But you can’t totally drop either of them because good incentives are important. With none of L, your world ends up run by strongmen who grab all the resources for themselves. With none of R, your world ends up with destructive people running rampant, and lacks incentives for productivity.
I suggestively named these policies L and R because they seem to somewhat resemble leftism and rightism respectively.
It is probably also important to not obsess too much over the levels of these. L and R are one or two degrees of freedom. If they are set wrong, then yes, that can be a serious problem, but if they are set ~right, there’s not much more you can do with them. Meanwhile, actually acting in the real world rather than moving norms, there’s an infinitude of problems and opportunities that you can work on.
Musings on the appropriate targets for standards
Consider two norms for how to critique those who violate your standards:
L: Focusing critique on those in power, who have the greatest opportunity to cause harm.
R: Focusing critique on those who it most accurately applies to, who most often cause harm.
I think both of these are to an extent needed, but also that they are to an extent conflicting with each other, because society is somewhat meritocratic and power therefore somewhat correlates with virtue.
In an extreme, they also both have failure modes. Too much of policy L, and you destroy valuable organizations for unimportant transgressions. Too much of policy R, and you leave no room for slack or diversity.
But you can’t totally drop either of them because good incentives are important. With none of L, your world ends up run by strongmen who grab all the resources for themselves. With none of R, your world ends up with destructive people running rampant, and lacks incentives for productivity.
I suggestively named these policies L and R because they seem to somewhat resemble leftism and rightism respectively.
It is probably also important to not obsess too much over the levels of these. L and R are one or two degrees of freedom. If they are set wrong, then yes, that can be a serious problem, but if they are set ~right, there’s not much more you can do with them. Meanwhile, actually acting in the real world rather than moving norms, there’s an infinitude of problems and opportunities that you can work on.