Ignoring the Unexpected

The human predilection for regularity underlies large numbers of human behavioral patterns. For example, we feel more secure when things happen as we expect. Societies - especially modern ones - are dependent on predictable situations, such as driving on highways. Highways themselves are human attempts to impose order on Nature, as they define a linear route cutting through natural geography, allowing traffic to flow within humanly set bounds from one humanly important place to another. Almost everything we do everyday  waking at a set time, dressing in fashioned clothes, performing eating, drinking and sleeping rituals  involves a perception and expectation of stereotypical, patterned reality.

One of our most treasured activities is "science," the acquisition of knowledge or, alternatively, the reduction of observation to experience. Experience is structured, as in cause and effect, whereas observation is not. Of course, a traditional problem is the bias of observation which seems inherent and inescapable in human beings. We have figured out how to use machines to make observations, which presumably avoids biological bias. But, machines have to be constructed and programmed to make the intended observations, so machines acting as our agents are never free of human subjectivity. Ironically, Quantum Mechanics reinforces this dilemma, as observers, whether biological or mechanical, are always interconnected with the observed; i.e., it is impossible to separate the things of this Universe into agents and patients. For that reason, "do this, get that" has an entirely different meaning in the 21st century than it did during the Victorian era. Now, in order to make any sense of the situation, human beings have to act minimally and carefully notice the response, guiding the interaction to the intended result by a series of course corrections.

 Most social institutions  governments, businesses, tribes and families  are human attempts to produce and guarantee orderly lives. 'Do thus and so, and you will get what you want.' One of the purposes of traditional marriage arrangements is to prevent dissolution of the partnership, which placates fear of abandonment at the cost of some unhappiness. (People are not modular plug-in units.) Locked-in familial arrangements construct a seemingly permanent social structure on which people can rely in their decisions. Just as highways suggest traffic laws, social structures enable rules of behavior. Highways and societies are used efficiently when those regulations are followed. The interactive effect is that users must behave according to the rules, so they must adjust themselves to being rule-followers; i.e., conformists.

The arts are yet another example of the love of order. We admire classical statues for their idealization of form: the human being not afflicted with varicose veins and the other burdens of biological materiality. In the theater, personal and social situations are depicted in a refined, abstracted way. Willy Loman forever depicts the eventual lot of most of us, committed buggy whip salespersons. Even abstract paintings reveal something about our order, seen through this or that prism. The one thing art cannot represent easily or fairly is the lack of any order, that which exists without pattern.

Difficulties always arise in History. The Appian Way developed ruts from cart wheels: stone was not forever resistant to the friction of objects in contact with it. The same effect is observed in many ancient stairways worn down by human feet. The curves and ruts worn into stone make it less useful for its purpose. Wheel tracks make it difficult to remove the cart from the road, and can even cause wheel or axle breakage when the ruts are not well matched to the cart wheels. Similarly, despite the security of traditional family life and societies, those social structures can malfunction in a changed world, even preventing useful adaptations. For example, what works well in rural, dispersed agricultural settlements may not be functional in urban, industrial societies.

Nonetheless, what human beings always try to do is fit changed circumstances into old methods of coping. This is true even in the sciences, which are ultimately conservative of established knowledge despite their mission of gaining new knowledge. Relativity and Quantum Mechanics came along a century ago, but are still resisted. Most people, including physical scientists, continue to think of their worlds in the Newtonian manner. Half a century ago, biology was revolutionized by Crick & Watson's double helix, the further consequences of which continue their rapid progress. Although people are being cured of dread diseases on account of the New Biology, most people, including biologists, see themselves in the same way as their parents and grandparents. For example, the myths of the special status of humanity and the existence of human souls are as rampant as they ever were.

Human beings prefer the myth of order, the persistence of invented patterns, to the fact of unsettled conditions. This psychological fact explains the absurd responses of Islamic suicide bombers as well as the consternation of Wall St. financiers to a changed world. Rather than give up a paradigm, most people will adhere to it all the more firmly in the face of existential denial. Thus, the reason the Islamic world is impoverished and powerless is lack of obedience to Mohammad's Qur'an (thus, also, Allah), not lack of scientific knowledge or modern social structures. The reason for repeated stock market and other failures of Capitalism is lack of following Adam Smith and his latter day economic saints, not lack of economic knowledge or appropriate structures. Especially during the last two or three decades, the mantras of religious and economic fundamentalism are repeated loudly and often everywhere. Their high priests not only insist upon obeisance, but sacrifice as well, to their gods.

Behaving as expected is considered acceptable and proper, even if not rational. What else is one to do? In the absence of a proven alternative, the established order seems safer or, at least, more likely to produce a minimally satisfactory result. Unfortunately, this sort of thinking has tragic results when driving through thick fogs, when the established rules do not apply. It is an error to assume an uncluttered highway lies ahead as long as one desires.

Posted 02/20/2008 06:17:32 AM                Last update: 02/20/2008

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