People often don't know what they'e doing, but that's not really a problem. The thing is sort of set up for that. What causes problems is people thinking they know what they're doing. That's when things start to go awry.

That's just something I've observed at my workplace, but I now realize that you can find no better example of it than, uh, everywhere. You have to look high and low for reasonable things to read in the papers, or reasonable things to watch on TV, and it's not mere incompetence that is the cause. That's really no barrier to making a point of some kind.

I hate to say it, because it sounds nuts, but I do get the impession that many successful people tend to favour some sort of dogma in whatever it is they're doing. Sometimes a guy will be talking quite interestingly about web pages of education or something, but he'll keep returning to some sort of important principle, and you feel that there's a manifesto that you missed and you're half-expecting him to conclude by saying, “as promulgated at the XXIst Party Congress” or "as His Holiness has made very clear for us”. People make fun of Scientologists, of course, but it could be that there are a lot of implicit scientologies around, and that to get anywhere in life, you should probably sign on to one.

The other side to this is that shared memes and beliefs make people feel comfortable: they know where they are. Everyone likes fellowship. Unless they're Batman!

Labels: Please Sign our Membership Form