# Through the Lens of Power Cultures (Part 1 of 2) Date: 2022-06-27 Next Part: https://disrael.github.io/blogs/raw/through-the-lens-of-power-cultures.part2.md --- --- ### Through the Lens of Power Cultures Ideology no longer works to explain how America works. Why are Republicans [indifferent](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/24/have-republicans-stopped-caring-about-big-government) to larger and larger federal government? Why do Democrats expand free trade and allow union busting? We define a power culture as a culture that distributes power to its participants using a strategy that risks being detrimental to some. For instance if men tend to hire men more often and at higher salaries than women, that is a power culture. No ideology is necessary — the scheme works best when these men believe women are equals but just don’t act on it. Some say the continued use of the bayonet in the military was a result of a power culture. Officers who were good with the bayonet promoted others who demonstrated the skill. On the other hand a culture dedicated to the distribution of music to its members is not a power culture. Distributing the music doesn’t risk negative consequences. Now let’s say the music culture is distributing copyrighted music. Perhaps with enough members the copyright protection might lose legal status altogether — that’s a power culture. Its easy to see how the American right make extensive use of power cultures. Trump clearly had no interest in traditional conservative ideology and his offer of MAGA while blowing every dog whistle, race, gender, religion and anti-elitism, available to him is pure power culture. Luther [argued against](https://www.luther.de/en/95thesen.html) the Catholic church’s ability to sell spiritual merit and thus glorify human achievement. In theory Christianity is not about power in this world but in practice Catholics and Protestants fought wars for centuries. Similarly racists will argue that the Civil War was a question of state’s rights. The South was fighting for their local culture and that culture *just happened* to include slavery. Ditto for cultures where locally banning abortion *just happens* to be a means of controlling women. **But progressives are just as equally a power culture.** Sir Francis Bacon, famous for popularizing the scientific method, said: “But arts and sciences should be like mines, where the noise of new works and further advances is heard on every side.” Progressive culture offers dominion over the natural world and a resulting ever expanding consumerism. While that form of power allows diminishing religion, race and gender culture, it comes with its own danger of ever increasing destructive technology in the hands of societies obsessed with individual consumption. From the story of Vasili Arkhipov [saving the world](https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/the-man-who-saved-the-world-about-this-episode/871/) from nuclear missiles, to climate change, to the possibility that Covid was [man made](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2202769119?fbclid=IwAR2t5_5E5TjYFfGbpu1ESaQ-A4Kd_iUeLXTPL_CfLlJLxpKQlP0cIATd-TY), we are bombarded with evidence that unregulated technological advancement is not any more of a sustainable culture than religious wars / theocracy, slavery or subjugating women. In the end no one can win the culture wars because each culture is selling power we can’t afford to give. Progressives deny that the power of unregulated tech is central to their culture but we are still pushing science and consumption forward at all costs and only worrying about the mess later. Justifying this try it and see what happens approach has become a [cottage industry](https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/22/economists-globalization-trade-paul-krugman-china/). Though when humanity 2.0 technologies become available the genie might be far larger than the bottle. Kant’s essay on [what the enlightenment is](http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/CCREAD/etscc/kant.html) starts by explaining this boldness as the defining point: > Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one’s own understanding without another’s guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one’s own mind without another’s guidance. *Dare to know!* (*Sapere aude.*) “Have the courage to use your own understanding,” is therefore the motto of the enlightenment. Unfortunately “dare to know” (Sapere aude.) is a recipe for disaster with today’s powerful nuclear, genetic and AI technologies. But dare to know serves as the foundation of a culture that can go viral in a way that “be careful what you know” never can. From a 21st century standpoint humanity’s self-imposed nonage (the period of immaturity or youth) is really our continuing fascination with power based cultures. We want to be part of some large righteous powerful group and are willing to allow ethical shortcuts to make it happen. In our defense most of us are unaware that these ethical shortcuts are even happening. As books like “The Enigma of Reason” explain much of the brain’s logic circuitry is the result of arguing our position. We are biologically biased towards defending our culture against others. Nor is a teenager reading science fiction books or the bible necessarily even aware of joining a culture. Even as someone becomes vaguely aware of a “left” and a “right” in politics they might still be blind to the power team based ethos that drives both of them. Perhaps the only way to fight a power based culture is too form an opposing power based culture. For instance is full on feminism the only way to fight patriarchy? Must we go full Luddite in order to have any hope of regulating research and new tech? Is union membership the only antidote to inequality? If opposition based power cultures turns out to be TINA (there is no alternative) it will be ugly. Women hiring only women will be just as unpleasant for women as men hiring only men will be for men. Our society would crumble in a culture war explosion. One reason that modern power cultures fully dominate is the [winner-take-all markets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winner-take-all_market) that our technology allows. Where in the past each country had its own different kinds of musical instruments, these days a successful piano or guitar is sold around the world. Similarly, today’s scientific problems are not solved by one or even a handful of people — they are solved by thousands or even tens of thousands of researchers. Furthermore most of our jobs have shifted towards fulfilling needs that are far from basic. Therefore we join power cultures to promote our work. So the nature of our workforce encourages a team up or lose mentality and the resulting teams can expand around the country or even the world. Maybe power cultures rise is the result of our current form of capitalism? But even capitalism has of late devolved into opposition power culture dynamics as Russia and China make clear they are following their own path. And our current form of capitalism formed during the cold war with similar conditions. So its seems more that power cultures caused our current capitalism then capitalism caused power cultures. Going even further back the 1450 invention of the printing press is the mother of winner-take-all tech. So the 1620 publication of Francis Bacon’s [Novum Organum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novum_Organum) enjoyed near first mover advantage along with the earlier 1517 publication of Luther’s [Ninety-five Theses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-five_Theses). Even more broadly humanity never fully managed the fallout of any technology. Abortion was never really disputed until the technology became easier. The war in the bread basket Ukraine is still the fallout of the invention of agriculture. Racism was possible without modern travel but most people never went further than one village over. Power cultures started with the invention of language. --- **[Continue reading Part 2 of 2](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/raw/through-the-lens-of-power-cultures.part2.md)**