The Incompetence Theory

Before I start posting political commentary, I thought it best to begin with some personal perspective. All of us see the world through the prism of thousands of experiences and assumptions, some conscious, most not. Our views of politics and public policy, for example, are directly related to our faith, or lack thereof, in our fellow humans -- their intelligence, their judgment, and their capacity for good. For example, I have always believed that random chance, ignorance, and and human frailty play a greater role in human misery than "evil." For this reason, I have never given much credence to conspiracy theories -- most groups of people lack the degree of intelligence, efficiency, and coordination required to agree on where to go to dinner, much less assassinate a president. Or run the world. I call it the Incompetence Theory, which I didn't invent but gladly appropriate: "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence" was how Napoleon allegedly put it, but whatever its provenance, it has great explanatory power.

What I mean by the Incompetence Theory is simply this: most of us are essentially lazy or selfish, at least to some degree, and due to this, and due to differences in education and experience, as well as emotional and psychological factors, many of us are incompetent in at least some areas. Some of us are even incompetent in our chosen profession. Of course, human nature being what it is, people won't admit their deficiencies, and in fact expend considerable energy covering up their mistakes, passing the blame, and taking credit where none is due. (Politicians are the experts at this, of course.) This constant blame-shifting and credit-hogging tend to obscure incompetence, or even simple lack of efficiency, and so when things go wrong people suspect that sinister forces are at work. This explanation has the added value of being simple to understand, and simple to solve -- just root out the bad guys.

I believe that this generalized lack of competence, together with the randomness and cruelty of life on this planet, explain reality far better than conspiracy theories. Conspiracies are like religion in that they offer decipherable answers to vexing questions -- 44 years later, people simply cannot accept that a bitter loner could cut down a vital young President. (No, I'm not expressing any opinions on the Kennedy assassination, or saying that there are not legitimate questions about the Warren Commission's conclusions; I'm merely offering a theory as to how and why conspiracy theories arise.) Yes, there are evil people out there, and yes, they do sometimes conspire to do us harm (9/11), but the modern world is the product of vast (and often, unfortunately, in the case of the United States) imperfectly understood historical forces that are often immune to the designs of humans.

With this background in mind, The Extreme Center will approach political questions with what I call principled pragmatism. Reality is complex and inconvenient, and the ideological bromides of the left and right are no longer adequate to the task of governing the country. We should not fear what FDR called "bold, persistent experimentation" in public policy, particularly at the State level. Of course, none of us should discard deeply-held beliefs; we should always bring our principles to bear on the problems that face us. But perhaps we can at least eschew empty rhetoric and worn-out formulae: To quote Lincoln, "we must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."