On: A Time to Build

Episode: N/A

Date: March 2, 2020

Background: Author and political scientist.

Key Subjects:

• Institutions.
  • Structures aimed at achieving a common purpose …
    • Emerge out of cohesive communities with shared goals.
  • … by working together.
    • Often on a voluntary basis.
    • Requires (and builds) trust among its members.
• Culture and conformity.
  • In the collective pursuit of a common purpose, a mold, a certain way of doing things emerges.
    • Development of an institutional culture.
      • [Culture = people working together to resolve a recurring problem, see “How Will You Measure Your Life“).
  • The institutional mold shapes its members,
    • Development of formal or informal norms and rules.
    • Conformity: members are shaped by and behave in line with norms and rules of the institution.
• Trust and social expectations.
  • Our social infrastructure is populated with institutions.
    • Family, marriage, professions, company, political parties, healthcare system, etc.
  • We expect these institutions and its members to behave a certain way.
    • Based on the institution’s norms, goals, status and culture.
  • If behavior is different from expectations, we lose trust in the institutions.
    • Corruption.
      • Abuse of institutional power, self-interest, gaming the system.
    • Non-conformity.
      • Resistance to adjust to institutional culture, norms are not enforced.
• Evolution of societal perspective on institutions.
  • Post-war: institutions are formative.
    • Conformist culture.
      • Be like everyone else, work together.
      • Also, be a better version of yourself.
  • Late 60s and onward: institutions are too repressive.
    • Progressive, libertarian culture.
      • Be yourself.
      • Pursue your own wellbeing and freedom.
  • Next stage: institutions are needed to re-unify?
    • Solidarity culture.
• Outdated institutions.
  • Performative rather than formative structures.
    • Individuals use the platform, but don’t bother to adhere to the norms, rules, ways of doing things.
      • Or, norms and rules are no longer enforced (bad behavior goes unpunished).
    • Hollows out institutions, people lose trust.
    • [Seems mostly bad: corruption and abuse.]
    • [Likely requires breakdown or reform.]
    • [Example: US politics.]
  • Lack of need for collective action:
    • Current institutions were built to leverage mainstream collective action.
    • Trade-offs have changed:
      • No more mainstream: fragmentation.
        • Technology has created many profitable, small worlds (in terms of financial rewards and status).
      • No more collective action: individualization.
        • Technology allows us to be functional loners (we don’t need to come together as much to achieve things).
    • [Seems mostly good]
    • [Individuals absorb functionality of the institution.]
    • [The institution needs to evolve or lose its purpose.]
    • [Different institutions may emerge.]
    • [Example: journalism.]
    • [See also: this is what happens when external constraints, a different label for trade-offs, change – Complexity — David Krakauer, Part 3]
• Institutions need to evolve (or we need to build new ones).
  • We need to be formed.
    • To be more effective and virtuous.
  • We may not recognize the costs of losing certain institutions.
    • Long-term impact, hidden costs.
  • We need to connect.
    • If there are no institutions, people don’t connect.
      • People only come together to do something.
  • We need to balance individualism and moral communitarianism.
    • Allowing different groups to live together within larger society.
    • Imbalance today:
      • Excessively high expectations of the individual.
      • Excessively low expectations of our institutions.
  • We need to disagree productively.
    • When interacting with people repeatedly, being productive requires:
      • Civility.
        • Rooted in the premise that the people that I don’t like aren’t going anywhere.
      • Compromise.
        • Instead of always seeing the other party as the problem.
  • Solutions.
    • Get members to behave better.
      • Awareness that everyone has a role to play in societal flourishing.
      • Then, ask the question: given my role, how should I behave.
      • [Feels like pushing on a string, idealistic.]
      • [External constraints to drive individual behavior (incentives / rewards / punishments)]
    • Reform the institution.
      • Change the institution’s rules and norms.
      • [Perhaps makes more sense.]
      • [Very difficult to figure out how to change a complex system or how to intervene in it effectively.]
    • Increase awareness of hidden costs.
      • [Difficult to get people to notice or care about long-term effects.]