I’m not steven0461, but I’m pretty sure the intended meaning is: Asking for a “rationalist political being” is like asking for a “clean sewer”; it’s a contradiction in terms because politics is fundamentally anti-rational. So when you say “How do you become a rationalist political being if …” you have already made a mistake.
(I don’t think I agree; politics is part of the real world and I see no reason to think that rationalists should never find sufficient reason to become involved. I might agree with the more modest claim that most of us most of the time would do well to pay much less attention to politics than we do.)
There is the obvious counterargument of “Try ignoring your sewer system for a few years and see where it gets you”. I suspect that drowning in shit is not a pleasant experience.
Maybe. But most of us get to influence government policy mostly via involvement in politics, and if (in someone’s opinion) politics is fundamentally anti-rational then they may conclude that almost all rationalists should try to minimize the time and effort and emotional investment they give to government policy.
But I’m engaging in the usually-futile activity of defending the position of someone else with whom I don’t entirely agree, and who is in fact (I assume) here and able to defend himself. So I’ll stop.
“How do you get a clean sewer system if you insist on separating it from the rest of the city?”
I’m having trouble parsing the intended meaning. Can you clarify?
I’m not steven0461, but I’m pretty sure the intended meaning is: Asking for a “rationalist political being” is like asking for a “clean sewer”; it’s a contradiction in terms because politics is fundamentally anti-rational. So when you say “How do you become a rationalist political being if …” you have already made a mistake.
(I don’t think I agree; politics is part of the real world and I see no reason to think that rationalists should never find sufficient reason to become involved. I might agree with the more modest claim that most of us most of the time would do well to pay much less attention to politics than we do.)
There is the obvious counterargument of “Try ignoring your sewer system for a few years and see where it gets you”. I suspect that drowning in shit is not a pleasant experience.
Then steven0461 should taboo “politics” and perhaps for the purposes of this thread replace it with “government policy.”
Maybe. But most of us get to influence government policy mostly via involvement in politics, and if (in someone’s opinion) politics is fundamentally anti-rational then they may conclude that almost all rationalists should try to minimize the time and effort and emotional investment they give to government policy.
But I’m engaging in the usually-futile activity of defending the position of someone else with whom I don’t entirely agree, and who is in fact (I assume) here and able to defend himself. So I’ll stop.