And what if it’s not all a government conspiracy?
With all the fun & games of Sunday’s UK Emergency Warning test, the thing that worries me most isn’t that some people didn’t get the message broadcast. Obviously, for those who didn’t get it, that may have been a bit of a concern. But you know, it’s technology, so it’s going to go a bit wrong. I’m sure they’ll eventually work out what didn’t quite go according to plan.
No, what worries me is how easily it is for some people to go straight to: “Oh no, the government conspiracy are out to get me again!” All over social media I’m seeing people claiming it’s all some government plot to keep us on our toes. Frequently the same people who were telling us three years ago that Covid was all a hoax, but let’s not go down that particular rabbit-hole.
Seeing government conspiracy everywhere
It must be so exhausting to constantly believe the people elected by the system you help support with your taxes are all evil geniuses intent on doing you down! Personally, I prefer to believe that the majority of elected representatives are good people. And intent on making our lives a little bit better.
I can’t deny, there are a good number of deluded fools who think they have an answer us mere mortals can’t understand. Their faith in their solution carries a very attractive energy. Especially in a complex world where most of us are struggling with how all the myriad influences work on each other. What the US military loves to call VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous).
So they get elected, and when elected, they find it relatively easy to garner support, and to rise to the top.
I have to admit there are a fair few complete scoundrels too. People who are either knowingly criminal, or simply too devoid of any sort of moral and ethical compass to realise they’re breaking some pretty fundamental rules of human conduct.
They don’t play by the rules. Or in some cases, even realise there are rules the rest of us play by. So if we’re not careful these miscreants also have a habit of sneaking their way to the top.
Because the confident often suffer from what one author eloquently described as “the sin of certainty”, and the unsavoury simply don’t care, these charismatic leaders are very hard to challenge. The fools dismiss any opposition as foolishness. The scoundrels simply disregard it.
Which all sounds a little like I think they’re all out to get us, doesn’t it? And the easy option is probably to believe that.
Why easy?
Because if you accept that these all-powerful demagogues and tyrants are acting against your best interests, you have a simple choice: to confront or to avoid.
Confrontation may indeed be productive in dealing government conspiracy. Many ill-conceived or badly-executed policies have been changed in the past by direct action. But it usually comes at a rather high cost, fiscally and societally. Avoidance, on the other hand, generally takes the form of sullen non-compliance. Or possibly operating outside of the system (and outside of the law). And it rarely makes much of a difference at all.
A different choice
But I believe there’s a third choice: to engage.
And that’s going to take a lot more effort.
In Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Habit 5 is “Seek first to understand, then to be understood”. A wise man* once advised me that in business one should always assume good intent. I believe that is also true of politics. He also shared a very useful question. “What has to be true in their [model of the] world, for that behaviour [or policy] to make sense?” This is at the heart of true engagement with those with whom we disagree. And it’s why engagement is such hard work. It requires us to think differently.
It requires us to find the sense in the nonsensical.
Another point of view
When you start to see the world from the point of view that makes the government’s seemingly-nefarious activity something rather less wicked, you are then in a position to alter it. If you don’t like the way things are, you have to convince the powers-that-be that they’ve got it wrong. When the argument starts from the reasons they think they’ve got it right, it’s far more likely to be persuasive. It’s far more likely to create change.
So my invitation to you is to choose to believe that government, and those in it, have a genuine desire to improve your nation’s lot. And if you think they’re getting it wrong, to engage in the democratic process and help them to help you.
Because the alternative is just too depressing to even contemplate.
More on a similar topic here: https://life7bn.com/assuming-good-intent/
*William Buist, erstwhile president of the now-defunct (officially at least) Ecademy Blackstar network, with whom I don’t always agree but with whom I’ve had many interesting and challenging conversations over the years (and not a few beers).
Photo by Jordhan Madec on Unsplash
