Politics – Think Bensonium

Christianity, The Republican Party and the Prisoner’s Dilemma

Roderick Benson — Mon, 17 May 2021 20:01:18 +0000

In this video I consider the current upheaval that the US Republican party is currently experiencing due to Trump’s continued hold over the party post his 2020 election defeat. As part of the analysis I consider a famous game theory thought experiment known as the Prisoner’s Dilemma and explain how the Dilemma sadly allows despotic individuals to maintain power even when the majority wish to see the back of them.

I then consider how the teachings of Christ offer a real possibility for the Prisoner’s dilemma to be resisted because his teaching and example exemplify upholding the truth independent of the negative consequences that may result from such an action.

I surmise that this might be one reason why totalitarian regimes and despotic leaders instinctively hate Christianity and historically have often attempted to eliminate the church via intense persecution.

Finally, I deal with the obvious counter-example to my claim and that is the capitulation of US Republican politicians to the power of Trump as many of them display the classic behaviour that is predicted by the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Of course most of these lawmakers would claim to be Christians. However, I suggest that their cowering to the dominance of Trump politics, within the party, is actually just one more demonstration that their expression of the Christian faith is flawed in a similar way to other Christian heresies that have arisen over the centuries; beginning with Gnosticism and Judaizers that are critiqued within the pages of the New Testament.

What’s causing Twenty-first Century Cultural Wars?

Roderick Benson — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 09:38:34 +0000

In this video I explore the cause of what many commentators have commonly referred to as the 21^st century culture wars. In general, we are now living in a time where political thinking has become extremely polarised around a very limited and defined set of ethical issues which include women’s reproductive rights and LBGTQI issues. Unfortunately, these issues are now dominating how people choose to vote resulting in the election of governments that are much further right economically than in previous generations.

In this video I critique the simplistic idea that most ethical questions occupy the binary space of simply right/wrong. Rather I suggest that the ethical issues, which are now dominating Western culture, occupy an ethical spectrum. Furthermore, if more people engaged in thinking about these ethical questions, in terms of viewing them on a moral spectrum, they might choose to deprioritize some of their ethical desires for other important political considerations when they exercise their democratic vote at the ballot box.

During the presentation, I give a working example of the ethical spectrum in terms of examining the two polarised positions around female reproductive rights: critiquing both the left (pro-choice) and right (pro-life) positions in terms of showing how neither position is considering the ethics of abortion on a normal ethical scale that possesses degrees of wrongness. Rather both camps are assessing the issue using a simple right/wrong dichotomy.

Finally I argue that because so many people are adopting binary views on hot-topic issues, there is not a intense peer group pressure for people to move away from balanced positions because those who try and hold a middle ground view, are rejected by both political camps and so there is a strong pressure for individuals to adopt ever more uncompromising positions so they do not receive harsh criticism and rejection from their peer group.

Voter Apathy

Roderick Benson — Wed, 17 Mar 2021 09:37:51 +0000

This week’s video considers in more detail the problem of voter apathy and how it is damaging to Western democracies. I also explore the possible causes of voter apathy including the commonly held view that all politicians are equally bad and show why this belief is both wrong and foolish. Other topics discussed in this video are related to how the mainstream media have moved the Overton window of viable political options to the right in the last thirty years. This has resulted in the degradation of the social safety net for the poorest and most vulnerable in society while also failing to address the concentration of large quantities of wealth into a tiny minority of super wealthy individuals and corporations.

Who are the Real Enemies of the People?

Roderick Benson — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 09:36:49 +0000

This video explores how certain sections of the modern media spread such falsehood, hate and bile that it could be argued they are an enemy of the people in the sense that their overall effect on the population as a whole is largely negative. Yet sadly, these same outlets control the narrative so often newpapers are able to avoid criticism by cleverly moving the focus of people’s anger from themselves to whatever public figure they have decided should be attacked. The most recent example of this is Harry and Megan Markel. The narrative that most people discuss are who is at fault: Harry and Megan or the Royal family. Yet in reality, once again the most culpable agent in all this sad mess is the british gutter press owned by their billionaire media moguls.

The importance of Non Distortive Vote Tallying (NDVT) for the Health of Modern Democracies

Roderick Benson — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 09:35:40 +0000

In this video, I consider why it is important for democracy that a voting system truly reflects the majority vote. Systems such as the US Electoral College and the UK’s “First Past the Post” system are dangerously antiquated and need to be replaced as soon as possible. Leaving them in place opens the possibility that one day a really dangerous government could come to power on the back of a sizable minority vote and the distortive tallying of these flawed voting systems. I argue in this video that the idea these systems are not deeply problematic is based on the premise that given an obviously dangerous political party, or individual, the vast majority will recognise the candidate or party’s unsuitability for office and so will vote against them accordingly. However, recent and less recent early 20th century history demonstrate that this premise is utterly false. Although, I would argue that at the present time we can rely on a technical majority of individuals to reject an objectively destructive and dangerous political movement, this will only ever be a “technical majority”. In fact, there will always be a sizable minority who will support such a party no matter how bad their policies are for the general health of a nation. Given this stark reality, it is important we make sure that all voting systems that allow the possibility of a party coming to power via the votes of a minority are consigned to the dustbin of history or else, it is only a matter of time before one of these flawed vote tallying systems produces a government that has the potential to be every bit as bad as the one that plagued the world in the late 1930s.