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Oct 9, 2022·edited Oct 9, 2022

This essay nicely states the conundrum - thank you for this insight.

As to your comment: "the adoption of rational and evidence-based policies by governments worldwide ... It’s just not gonna happen", I have found that I have recently come up against this in American politics in the search for a viable third party. As a former Libertarian, (who left because I set myself an empirical test of this political philosophy which failed), I noticed that they are proud to say that they are "The party of Principle". This is a stark example of cognitive bias at its worst. As they said in the George W. Bush White House, this is faith-based politics. The problem is that, if they come up against disconfirming evidence, their tendency is to reject the evidence and stick to their principles. So, if confronted with the failures of laissez-faire Capitalism, they argue it away instead of recognizing that regulations and financial laws help. I am sorry to say that the Green Party in America has a similar problem: they tend to be anti-Imperialsts, so they are blaming the current invasion of Ukraine on American machinations and excusing Putin's behavior. A third recent example is in England with Conservative Party Prime Minister Truss's embrace of tax cuts for the rich - something Krugman refers to as Zombie economics.

There has to be more that can be done than a "candle in the dark". I hope that eventually we can come up with a way to say to someone to do as I did: if you have faith in your beliefs, then you should be able to make a predictive test of these beliefs. Then if the prediction come out false, accept reality as it is and change your beliefs. This is one of the basic principles of the scientific method.

It may even be possible that the solution to this problem is relatively simple, it's just that we haven't approached it the right way. What I am thinking of could be the political equivalent of Semmelweis's discovery of antisepsis - wash your hands, at least! Or in this case, practice political hygiene.

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Il faut imaginer Sisyphe heureux.

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