Cobb: Occam's Evil Razor

October 21, 2003

Occam's Evil Razor

I used to like Tariq Aziz. Well, I respected him at any rate. Considering that he had a gun to his head and lived with his head up Saddam's ass, I think he did an admirable job of stating the Iraqi case. But that was in the first war. This time around, I simply hoped, based on that sentiment that he might have some role in the future of Iraq. He could confess to the Allied powers and give some real dirt on Saddam. He wasn't very high on the list of 52 and probably wasn't a killer so maybe. He did negotiate his surrender, but Aziz has had his chance and won't be given another. Sorry.

Part of my respecting Aziz many years ago had to do with the Sivanandian imperative. Sivanandan, whom I only read briefly, had a dictum that could be expressed thusly: Don't travel the world helping poor people in the Third World, stay at home and disable those things within your country that hurt people in the Third World. This seemed entirely reasonable. Sivanandan was against the McDonaldization of the world. As an organic, this made perfect sense to me. If Aziz could say things about America that Americans were afraid to say, he could shine light on American corruption; I could use that in a Chomskyesque search for the whole and hidden truth.

I am no longer such an organic. I am a willing and able participant in the system employing enlightened self-interest having been struck by:
1) the remarkable resiliancy of the American middle-class
2) regimes of tyrannical chaos elsewhere
3) the prerogatives of wisdom and age.
4) the fantastic vapidity of lefty wishful thinking
5) the concrete reality of collaborative skills

There were several big secrets that kept me feeling quite self-righteous about my opposition to the 'No Blood for Oil' Gulf War. The secret I refer to is the influence of the Kuwaitis and Saudis on institutions like Citibank and certain rules which keep all third parties from know about the size and extent of their investments in American banks. Word was that there was at least a trillion dollars invested in American securities which were at risk if the US didn't intervene militarily. The implication was that the American invasion was kinda bought and paid for by secret Saudis and Kuwaitis whose identities could never actually be revealed. I had, and still have a strong aversion to the American Military being used as mercenaries. So I had a pro-American reason to refuse and resist. Also Tariq put a good face on Iraq, and certain Jewish public radio station manager unnerved me to no end as she cut off caller after caller who suggested Israel's future did not hang precariously in the balance. But that was then. This hardly applies to the recent war against Iraq.

As I heard Aziz' name surfacing the other day, I am brought to mind about this Sivanandian imperative and the conspiratorial nature of big Chomsky-sized secrets. What is better at motivating strident insurgent political activism than the existence of secrets and a pledge to correct America from within? This is a potent combination. There is a huge problem with it however. It forces the insurgents to assume evil motivations and elide the complexity of real power relationships.

Nothing illustrates this quite like the gutteral noises made by lefties whenever they utter the word 'profits'. People who don't understand business generally don't understand how profits are created. The complexity of running a business is a big mystery to them. It's a secret. They just understand that people at the top get lots of money, people at the bottom don't, and that 'everything' is all about profits. Even Sivanandan himself criticizes the left for not understanding how capitalism is actually working and relying on old Marxist dictums.

The same fallacious attribution of evil applies to war, naturally. But there's also no reason moralists of any political persuasion are immune to this type of error. Reducing Saddam Heussein to one dimension of Evil is clearly the kind of mistake GWBush has presented steadfastly.

Nevertheless I am noticing, and you may to, how Left moralizing often employs they mystery of complex power relationships, business practices and substitutes simple venality as the cause. Also note how Christian Conservatives do so with human sexuality and reproductive science. Both types of these morally outraged loudmouths refuse to have their arguments clouded by details or mitigated by extenuating circumstances. To them, this is more mealy-mouthed excuse making. The moralists pervert Occam's Razor to suit their purposes, the simplest explanation, Sin, is the most likely as far as they are concerned.

We would all do well to remember unintended consequences. Perhaps the best we can do many times is judge in hindsight and find out who knew what and when. Even if that knowledge doesn't prove intent. What I sincerely hope is that a better parsing of the details of complexity will serve us all when we seek to find out what went wrong. It's not always simply evil.

Posted by mbowen at October 21, 2003 06:30 AM

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