The Tragedy of Reductionism
An Uncomfortable Antidote
Listen to the podcast.
Human science fragments everything in order to understand it, kills everything in order to examine it. - Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
The year is 2022, and we are at an uncomfortable crossroads. We as a nation and a people are more divided than ever. In the West, we have segregated ourselves into ideological camps rife with dogma and its pursuant intellectual stagnation. Gone is the philosophical golden mean that once governed our ways of life, public policy, and thoughtful discourse. These have been replaced by the entrenched and embattled cries from organizations that find their roots in both sides of the political spectrum. Whether it is the Black Lives Matter movement, or the “Make America Great Again” clarion call, these cries seek to appeal to the reductionist in all of us. This reductionism aims to break down complex issues such as economics, racial issues, and even forms of government and break them down to more palatable components which our baser and more tribal selves can comprehend and contend with. It births these conceptual shadows into a form that we can actively combat and provides us an ideological “other” to combat and an enemy with a true and human face. This zeitgeist of reductionism is our striking answer to the existential crisis that our atomized and infantile generation faces. The tragedy of this reductionism and adherence to groupthink is that it bereaves us of our own capacities for individual reasoning and intellectual integrity. We outsource our thinking to our party’s call to arms of whatever issue strikes as the flavor of the day. We allow pundits to influence what information is presented and how we are to perceive this information. We march lockstep with the proclaimed narrative of the day, knowing only that this is the line we must toe, not knowing why we must toe it! This is one of the great tragedies of our generation and one that each one of us should actively seek to combat.
What is the antidote to this accursed reductionism? It is to be found where it has always been found: a healthy curiosity in the face of the unknown. Before straying blindly into the fray armed only with the party’s talking points of the day, seek first to understand. Seek to understand the workings of economic systems before you debate them. Seek to understand the form of government and the machines you are raging against. Do not be satisfied with a piece of superficial knowledge, but only with deep and reasoned understanding. Seek out original sources and ponder these ideas without societal noise. Discuss these ideas with intellectuals you respect but don’t merely be satisfied to be told what to think about a particular concept. Shuffle off this mortal coil of ignorance and this culture of groupthink and combat your own ignorance before seeking to combat the perceived ignorance of another. Once armed with this understanding, we can again enter the realm of respectful discourse, and the meritocracy of ideas can resurface once again. In the light of this new culture of individual understanding, we may find ourselves charting humanity’s course into a bold new renaissance and worthy future.