Living Madison’s Nightmare

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Sunday, April 24th, I caught an exceptional interview on a global, international news-station that I found utterly resounding and spot-on with America’s recent dumbing-down of internet consumers. The interviewee was Johnathan Haidt, an American social psychologist, author, and Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University Stern School of Business. Haidt also wrote an exceptional article on this subject for The Atlantic Magazine which I found poignantly true called, Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid: It’s not just a phase. He examines the uncanny similarity of an ancient Jewish biblical story with what James Madison, in 1786-1787 in Federalist No. 10, feared most about our Republic Democracy’s vulnerable, fragile Achilles’ Heel:

The story of Babel is the best metaphor I have found for what happened to America in the 2010s, and for the fractured country we now inhabit. […]

Babel is a metaphor for what some forms of social media have done to nearly all of the groups and institutions most important to the country’s future—and to us as a people.

jonathan haidt – The atlantic, april 2022

Jonathan Haidt further explains, the top five behemoth ‘Social-media companies [at the time] brought web-connected Americans into enhanced virality by 2009 to 2012 and deep into Madison’s nightmare.’ Madison’s prophetic knowledge of human nature was:

…the innate human proclivity toward “faction,” by which he meant our tendency to divide ourselves into teams or parties that are so inflamed with “mutual animosity” that they are “much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to cooperate for their common good.”

jonathan haidt – the atlantic, april 2022

I have written a few blog-posts about this very topic and how it is a mystery to me, that ordinary internet-browsers seem to contract all too often Critical-thinking Amnesia once they get on social-media sites or the sensationalizing tabloid-news platforms known for conspiracy-theories and ill-repute, let alone spreading blatant misinformation. Suddenly their ability to think independently, question opinions or claimed facts or ideologies, or to do necessary fact-checking… just vanishes! Is it because we all desire confirmation bias? Are we afraid of what the real facts will be, challenging our tiny comfort-zones? Where did our U.S role-models and 1776 motto of E Pluribis Unum go?

A quick list of those posts before I continue to The Atlantic’s link to Jonathan Haidt’s article…

In a November 2019 issue of The Atlantic, Haidt wrote another equally exceptional article with Tobias Rose-Stockwell called The Dark Psychology of Social Networks: Why it feels like everything is going haywire. There is a link from the first Haidt webpage to this one with Rose-Stockwell. I highly recommend both articles, in any order.

But gradually, social-media users became more comfortable sharing intimate details of their lives with strangers and corporations. As I wrote in a 2019 Atlantic article with Tobias Rose-Stockwell, they became more adept at putting on performances and managing their personal brand—activities that might impress others but that do not deepen friendships in the way that a private phone conversation will.

Once social-media platforms had trained users to spend more time performing and less time connecting, the stage was set for the major transformation, which began in 2009: the intensification of viral dynamics.

jonathan haidt – the atlantic, april 2022

So here’s the link to Jonathan Haidt’s Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid. When you’ve read it, or both articles, feel free to share your own thoughts, point-of-view, or questions to startup a discussion. Hopefully a discussion of how we can better manage these private social-internet platforms without violating our Constitution’s First Amendment of free-speech—that is…while simultaneously upholding (in the public sectors) the legal accountability and any criminal/civic Accessory charges upon the (free-)speaker or writer. These are called Speech Crimes. After all, it is the latter case that most Americans forget or are ignorant of their own Constitutional laws.

A “free-speaker,” under our said comprehensive, federal Constitution, must be held responsible for what she/he publicly proclaims. Otherwise, defamation, threats, inciting violence, or obscenities can (and often do) run rampant without consequences. This is, in my opinion, a large untreated cancer that exacerbates our current U.S. sociopolitical stupidity, as Haidt puts it, and fuels our sinking into “factions” and severe polarization of which Haidt alludes and eerily James Madison foretold.

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27 thoughts on “Living Madison’s Nightmare”

  1. “… they became much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to cooperate for their common good” — Sums things up pretty darn good, IMO.

    I did not read both articles (TOO MUCH reading), but I did take a look-see at Jonathan’s article related to the stupidity of American life — and what I did read was Spot On!

    Thing is … can any of this be changed? And when one considers the potentiality of Musk acquiring Twitter … and opening the door to you-know-who … is there any way to avoid things going from bad to worse?

    In many ways, what is happening is just another sign of the downward trend of humanity. Yes, there are “good people” still doing “good things,” but it seems their numbers are dwindling. I used to bemoan the thought of “missing out” as I considered my demise. Now? I’m not sure I’m all that unhappy about leaving …

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    • Thing is … can any of this be changed? And when one considers the potentiality of Musk acquiring Twitter … and opening the door to you-know-who … is there any way to avoid things going from bad to worse?

      Changed? Not an easy task, it seems Nan. America’s severe addiction to & dependency on our phones, WiFi-internet, gazillions of phone apps, laptops, the ultra-convenience of streaming-content from some 30-50+ providers, etc, et al, and all of the Information and DISinformation spewed out, unfettered and unchecked—by both insufficient institutions and organizations, and even less so by individual web-consumers—seems too daunting an ask and reform. 😟

      Furthermore, we have way too many unlicensed, non-attorny’d non-Constitutional citizens screaming “violation of freedom of speech/press and expression” that IF internet oversights were begun and enforced also from the REQUIRED speaker’s side of accountability/responsibility standpoint, i.e. Speech Crimes it would seemingly cause a civil war! 😬 And as recent history has shown, the popular movement of erroneous “Carte Blanche freedom of expression,” Trump- & Putin-style and Twitter-Facebook style—that is only half the equation of the First Amendment concept—sadly, disastrously wins out.

      It’s glaringly obvious to me that high school level government, civics, and core Constitutional concepts & application have NOT been adequately taught to students or to adults given U.S. citizenry so as to be well and correctly educated in our Founding documents. This MUST change along with a much higher awareness & utilization of critical-thinking and analysis skills. If not, as I recently heard from Ken Burns’ outstanding series Benjamin Franklin, you get…

      Too much [ignorant] Pluribus, not enough [exemplary] Unum!

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    • Yep. just heard it as well. Now it is up to individual Twitter-consumers to apply and/or enforce exactly what I mentioned in my previous reply to your concerns and in this blog-post.

      Along those lines though, a NY state federal judge has ruled that there IS enough evidence to bring Trump to court or else he suffers $10k per day in Contempt of Court! Election 2024 is slipping away more and more for D. Rumpsky, especially now that Mark Meadows has turned over 2,300 text messages to the Jan. 6th Committee and likely will be forced to handover more! Woooohoooo! 🙂

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  3. Tildeb,

    As I think you know, I don’t mind extensive detailed elaboration, nuts-n-bolts of minutia, and earnest extensive time and energy on a topic or issue or conflict. One of my principles most of my life and taught to me by my father was…

    • 1) sufficient assessment of pre-commitment (or not),

    • 2) then 110% commitment to the task of seeing it through to the end, e.g. my family and my Mom’s physical-mental health her remaining years DESPITE the fact I must do it inside a debilitating Red-state such as Texas (principles),

    • 3) do as splendid and as perfect a job as your capacities allow you—give it your all(!), and

    • 4) be prepared and open for necessary modifications based upon good, reliable critiques of progress.

    Geeezzz, it is because I am so stubbornly staunch in my core principles that at 59-yrs I am still single since my divorce in 2002 😄—because 1) I’m still true to myself, 2) I am honest at the expense of hurting the (temporary) feelings of others, even loved ones, 3) I will therefore NOT be ashamed of exactly who I am, not ever, and 4) in one aspect of doing/living numbers 1, 2, and 3, I am not now and will NEVER go back to exclusive, monogamous romantic/lustful or roommate-only relationships… for an over abundant amount of real-life experiences with basic human nature of us Primates, me included.

    I cannot sacrifice any of these personal core principles, ESPECIALLY just to “fit in,” be/feel accepted, or assimilate for the sake of not feeling/being alone. I can’t do it! No matter how many people/women choose to be in that world, that Land of Oz lifestyle that makes me very frequently an outsider… no, I don’t care. I won’t trash my principles! I will die single, lonely, and merely admired or “too different, too risky” before I (n)ever return to disastrous, unfulfilling mediocre SAFETY and later dying with too many regrets of I never did this, I never took a chance, could I have loved more? Could I have become more whole a human being with more impactful, intimate relationships? Nope. NO FREAKIN’ WAY! Ain’t gonna happen! 😄

    So that’s my alignment with your #1 Tildeb, which goes further into personal dynamics with others as well as appropriately outward. It also includes WHY I will most likely always be an Independent (politically), a quasi-Socialist (economically), a Humanist (religiously), and a Bohemian Free-thinker and Alt-life Kinkster (socially). And I am DAYUM PROUD of all four-five of those identifiers! 😉

    I think my above raw description of Dwain the Professor also addresses (in part or full?) your #2 Tildeb. However, I would add THIS to your #2: If someone pushed me for a stereotypical label I didn’t even SLIGHTLY feel comfortable with… I would simply tell them, “I am always first and foremost an Earthling. Period, stop.” And I would not budge from that stance one iota even if they pushed & pushed, or attempted tricks or traps to coerce an answer THEY want. Principles.

    Regarding your #3, I find I’m agreeing with one very large portion of your elaborations, but unsure about agreeing with the other smaller portion. I’ll need 2-3 re-readings of your third “Untruth” before I can spell out that which rang odd to me. And as you know Tildeb, my time-limitations (with my 82-yr old Mom) greatly affect my WordPress engagements, particularly if they include YOUR considered, thoughtful comments my Friend. 🤭 😉

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    • The operative word in all that is “parables.” The modern common definition of parables according to Merriam-Webster…

      1) a usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle, 2) something (such as a news story or a series of real events) likened to a parable in providing an instructive example or lesson [not necessarily true], or 3) Parable comes from the Latin word parabola, from Greek parabolḗ, meaning “comparison.” The word parabola may look familiar if you remember your geometry. The mathematical parabola refers to a curve that is shaped like the path of something that is thrown forward and high in the air and falls back to the ground [and splatters, shatters upon impact].

      Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/parable

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    • But in all seriousness, I think you MIGHT be focusing too obsessively on Haidt’s biblical metaphor, Arnold. Try to step out of your small religious or faith-based bubble and consider the ENTIRE bigger content of both articles or the main article, and the primary picture. 😉

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    • Ahh, perhaps a fabulous Stephen Colbert satirical “Truthy-ness”? He does have an incredible talent for revealing the extreme far-right’s intentional ability to make everything partisan, a do-or-die conflict, and violating their individual’s ME-ME-ME Prima-donna rights, while completely ignoring the other operative half of the laws & spirits of our Republic democratic, sanctified, Secular documents that our six (6) core Founding Fathers established!

      Everyone LOVES a good satirical comedy, right? I have a long list of my own favorites, but two I’ve discovered was Dave (Kevin Klein) or Veep (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) that could be easily tweaked for the circus that is this decade’s internet-social-media laughable propaganda. Yes, as ridiculous as it might sound, it would be a clear hit to mainstream American audiences/consumers. 🙂

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      • Pink, in my opinion way too many Americans (of a specific demographic) honestly think in their own delusional reality that our Constitution, Amendments, and the full letter of those First Amendment laws/rights only apply to ONE SIDE of the free-speech, freedom of press, freedom of expression concept, i.e. all the rights & laws favor heavily the speaker/writer with Carte Blanche. We see this lop-sided favoritism in political election campaigns especially!

        The other side of this coin is that Speech Crimes get almost no attention, much less prosecuted or heard in courts… unless of course there is tons of money to be won from a wealthy person or corporation—e.g. Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard (2022), or Matal v. Tam (2017), Beauharnais v. Illinois (1942), or Snyder v. Phelps (2011). Hence, the average layperson American wrongly thinks that speakers—on public property, not private—have unfettered freedom to say whatever they want, whenever, and however they wish. According to the explicit & implicit rule of law in our First Amendment, that simply isn’t true. Period. Yet, our courts let it slide all too much. Granted, it is a gargantuan task to monitor & enforce or protect every single citizens’ (less so big corporations) expressions and hate speech or blatant disinformation as it is to protect the victims of it. I mean, look what our previous 45th President got away with constantly, and still does!!! 🤦‍♂️

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      • P.S. Ugh, Pink… if common decency and respect in public speech for fellow Americans—even the ones you disagree with on private social-media platforms—isn’t extinct already, we are damn sure headed quickly to its extinction, particularly if PRIVATE social-media platforms do NOT want to help protect both sides of the First Amendment coin! It must be both sides or this monster will become radioactive toxic and destroy more lives. Guaranteed.

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    • Eh, some more so than others. I suspect you are once again projecting your world-views upon me. Not wise my faith-based friend.

      As an ardent Humanist Earthling, I don’t search for multiple ways to go out and divide or seperate or raise myself above my fellow human beings… as TOO MANY faith-based Christians (or Christologists) do. It is only when I’m approached and challenged by Evangelical-Fundamentalist Christians/Christologists that I must DEFEND my (God-given?) right to be unconventional, secular, and in their eyes a heathen that I must always explain/defend MY reasons why I NO LONGER believe in their/your way of life. And believe you me, I know extensively what your “divisive group” believes. But that doesn’t make it 100% or 50% true. 🙂 Hence, I feel much pity and sadness for Christologists who wrongly call themselves Christians.

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  7. All very interesting, but I still don’t see how or why we shouldn’t have among the ways we analyse society, the way in which power structures operate. Long before Marx, Plato wrote extensively on these topics. Aristotle believed slavery was natural. All human history is organised around the way we distribute power and resources. Only property owners could vote. The word of a nobleman was presumed true in court over the word of a plebeian. Macron is opposed by the hard left and the hard right because he is too “bourgeois”. How could we possibly set aside such a massively important aspect of human history, sociology and even anthropology?

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    • …it’s easiest to create an enemy than it is to work and build common solutions.

      On the emphasized part Tildeb, you reminded me of one of my favorite, prolific examples of just that… putting (forcing little choice?) opponents/enemies together vis-à-vis to find solutions together and they cannot leave until compromised give-n-take are accomplished. A video illustrating exactly this, breaking down presumed notions of “Them vs. Us”:

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      • Ahh, when you mentioned “…anyone in sports” it clicked for me, and continuing, “should understand this concept perfectly well where cooperative play towards a competitive goal produces a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts (unity, e pluribus unum in Madisonspeak).” Yes! And this: “discarding principle for pragmatism” I TOTALLY get!

        Agree completely with all this Tildeb because I’ve seen it work brilliantly firsthand in my sports career. 🙂 👍🏻

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    • I like how you’ve framed it now, this makes sense. The way it was ordered before looked like a torso missing its limbs. So if we put our cards on the table, is the real problem that society is less capable of accepting hierarchy as a reality?

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  8. Okay Tildeb, after re-reading your #3 point above, I’m struggling with making heads or tails about your sub-#1 within #3. You state that Haidt coddles our American minds by promoting…

    “3.1 – Always trust our feelings”

    I’m not making that connection when Haidt says in this April 2022 article:

    The [further & further] tweaked platforms [became] perfectly designed to bring out our most moralistic and least reflective selves. The volume of outrage was shocking.

    It was just this kind of twitchy and explosive spread of anger that James Madison had tried to protect us from as he was drafting the U.S. Constitution. The Framers of the Constitution were excellent social psychologists. They knew that democracy had an Achilles’ heel because it depended on the collective judgment of the people, and democratic communities are subject to “the turbulency and weakness of unruly passions.” The key to designing a sustainable republic, therefore, was to build in mechanisms to slow things down, cool passions, require compromise, and give leaders some insulation from the mania of the moment while still holding them accountable to the people periodically, on Election Day.

    Is not Haidt referencing Madison’s worst fear for an American Republic Democracy “by [building] in mechanisms to slow things down, cool passions, require compromise, and give leaders some insulation from the mania of the moment” [and volatile emotions]? Did I miss somewhere in the two articles or forget Haidt wrote something along the lines of your interpretation of him promoting “Always trust our feelings”? His quote above seems to me to promote the opposite of trust our feelings. Help me with my confusion here.

    More (apparent?) Haidt promotion…

    “3.2 – what doesn’t kill you makes you weaker”

    I’m a bit lost here. I don’t understand what you mean and I couldn’t locate where Haidt promoted this. Perhaps I totally missed it. Clearly I need direct (quoting?) help with this one. 😄

    And given that just examining & discussing these two sub-points, #3.1 and #3.2 in such depth, I should probably wait on asking you about #3.3 until we are done with 3.1 and .2, yes? We’ll tackle that one later given my own time-restraints at home with my Mom. 😉

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    • Ah! Now I see what I mistook. I thought you were saying that Jonathan Haidt was teaching, promoting the coddling. But you’ve further clarified that you meant that PARENTS and TEACHERS are doing the coddling. Plus, I only realistically had time to read the main April 2022 article and Haidt’s Nov. 2019 article, not the book. That probably explains my confusion. Thank you for laying it all out so well Sir. 🙂

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