problem solvers and dreamers

A reply to a comment of mine on another site has lead me to propose a new theory of politics. Of course nothing is really new, so it’s probably an old idea that needs reviving.

The commenter described my approach to politics as hardheaded, as opposed to the softheaded approaches that are all too common. The way I’d put it is that those with an enthusiasm for politics can be divided into two camps. Not left and right, liberal and conservative, socialist and capitalist – these categories aren’t really relevant any more. The two camps that are relevant are the Daydreamers and the Problem Solvers. You could call them the Ideologues and the Pragmatists but I think that could lead to misunderstandings. So I’ll go with Daydreamers and Problem Solvers.

Daydreamers respond to political problems emotionally. They either respond with sentimental slop or with anger and hated. Because they see things through an emotional lens they’re more interested in assigning blame than fixing things. And, again because they’re emotion-driven, they’re incredibly prone to wishful thinking. Social Justice Warriors are an obvious example, but nice white church ladies, squishy “conservatives” and the alt-right are also Daydreamers. And, obviously, libertarians.

Problem Solvers try to respond to political problems by looking for solutions that have worked in the past. Of course simply trying to turn the clock back won’t work (that’s Daydreamer thinking). But you can learn from the past and you can pick the things that seem like they might work today. If there’s no appropriate solution from the past that can be adapted then Problem Solvers will look for new ideas that appear to be based on an actual understanding of the real world. The test they apply is whether, putting emotion and ideology to one side, the solution looks workable. Problem Solvers are also flexible. They’ll cheerfully borrow ideas from communists and capitalists and anyone else. They’re not looking for ideological purity, they just want results.

A good way to understand these two radically different mindsets is to consider how they’d react if they discovered their car wouldn’t start. Their approaches both to diagnosing the problem and fixing it would be quite different. An SJW Daydreamer would assume that the car wasn’t working because of Donald Trump. An alt-righter would assume that his car had been sabotaged by the Jews, or maybe the blacks or maybe the Freemasons. A libertarian would blame the government. They would all respond with anger and emotion.

A Problem Solver by contrast would take a look under the hood.

Nice white church lady Daydreamers would try to fix the car by making it feel more included. SJW Daydreamers would form a healing circle around the stricken car, and organise a march to protest anti-car bigotry. An alt-righter would announce that the problem can’t be fixed unless we send all the immigrants back. Before mass immigration cars always worked perfectly. Squishy mainstream conservatives would announce that tax cuts will fix the problem. Libertarians would do nothing – they’d just wait for the invisible hand of the market to make the car go.

A Problem Solver would resign himself to getting his hands dirty and grab a spanner and get to work.

There’s nothing wrong with emotion but it’s not a very good basis for sound policy. It’s also not a very good basis for choosing a candidate on election day. Problem Solvers might not reach us in an emotional way but they do tend to, you know, solve problems.