Big Ideas and Bad Ideas

Big Ideas; Handmade; Bad Ideas, Good Intentions; Logical Fallacies; Spotting Bad Ideas

I.

Big Ideas

What do Communism, Capitalism, Conservatism, the U.S. Constitution, and the Ten Commandments all have in common? They’re all big ideas that just so happen to start with the letter C.

Big ideas have the potential to change the world and our understanding of it. They can be many things: good, bad, simple, complex, practical, controversial, inspiring, or revolutionary. But when big ideas are made manifest—that is, they’re transformed from a thought into a thing—they can be really disruptive. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. 

We’re not quite sure where big ideas come from—whether they’re the product of human ingenuity, “downloads” from the ether, metaphysical entities—but they all seem to enter the world through the human mind. Once in a mind, it’s up to the infected human to manifest the big idea or let it go. Manifestation is not synonymous with hoping or wishing or wanting; rather, the word manifest comes from the prefix mani, meaning “hand,” and root -fest, meaning “to make.” To manifest a big idea, one must use their own two hands. Turning a metaphysical notion into a physical thing requires labor.

One way to begin manifesting an idea is to write it out. Writing allows you to transfer the idea from your mind onto paper, where you can refine it and share it with others. The more minds the idea infects, the greater potential it has to become real. More minds means more hands.

II.

Handmade

Action produces information.

Founder proverb

Humans are the medium through which big ideas become manifest. But there’s a problem with using such middlemen as a conduit for conception, and it’s not just our tendency towards laziness. It’s our flaws.

Let’s say a big idea crosses your mind and you decide to bring it to life. You write it out, talk about it, or dedicate time to work on it. Eventually, through willpower and action, the idea will make its way into the world. But it never quite comes out the way we envisioned in our minds. That’s because a human will strain an idea through a filter of their personal experiences, beliefs, and attitudes. But they also add their own creative flair and finishing touches. The resulting idea is a handmade one.

I experience this phenomenon firsthand every time I sit down to write these 5 Big Ideas. I’ll begin with an overarching idea or notion, bullet points, and five tentative headlines. But while translating the idea from my mind onto a document, it changes. This is how manifesting works. When we put in the effort to bring a big idea to life, it comes out differently than we anticipated. Sometimes it comes out worse, sometimes better.

III.  

Bad Ideas, Good Intentions

In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels begin their treatise by laying out the societal problems which they believe can be resolved through communism. The opening line of Part I asserts that all societies originate from class struggles, and that every society throughout history has an oppressor class and an oppressed class. This idea serves as the foundation upon which communism is built. From here, Marx contends that the oppressor class (i.e., the capitalists) has established a system where the oppressed class (i.e., the laborers) are treated as commodities—interchangeable cogs in the capitalist machine.¹ He argues that, due to capitalist values, all professional work² has lost its dignity and respect, as it has devolved into wage slavery.

Depending on whom you ask, they may agree with these assertions. It’s not uncommon to feel like a “cog in the capitalist machine” when you’re working an underpaid job that lacks purpose or direction. People want to feel valued, respected, and recognized for who they are, not just what they do. And, unfortunately, many people do not feel as though their wealth is fairly representative of their worth.

Perhaps an idea to address wealth disparity was what sparked Marx’s thoughts in the early days. Perhaps his intentions were good. But, like all big ideas, communism became a product of a human’s making. It was molded by the hands of an imperfect person with their own set of biases and motives. Towards the end of Part II of the Manifesto, Marx reveals a bitter prejudice against capitalists as human beings. He claims that they do not work for their wealth, start families only for private gain, exploit their wives and children, seduce each other’s wives (as the wives and daughters of laborers are off-limits), and possess no real culture or tradition apart from exploitation.

Once you grasp Marx’s view of capitalists as diabolical figures who deserve to be thrown off their high horse, he presents his grand solution to address economic disparity. His idea?

Gain political power; abolish the right to private property; implement a heavy progressive tax; control all capital via a national bank; control all news, media, and transportation; hand over all factories and means of production to the state; dictate the educational agenda; require obligatory work; and abolish all traditional values, eternal truths, religion, and morality.

Um… Couldn’t we just start with creating more jobs and paying worthwhile wages?

IV.  

Logical Fallacies

Because there are many approaches to solving society’s most pressing problems, competing ideas arise. For example, many ideas exist about how to best govern a nation—democracy, monarchy, oligarchy, autocracy, theocracy, anarchy, etc. But how do we determine which ideas are best?

We examine the ideas logically and avoid fallacies.

Logical fallacies are errors in reasoning that can undermine an idea’s logic. Sometimes they’re used intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. But all logical fallacies aim to manipulate or persuade people into accepting an idea without fully comprehending it. And despite their lack of a rational foundation, many people buy into fallacious arguments because they’re biased towards specific ideas, people, and movements.

To better understand logical fallacies, let’s explore some examples from a domain where flawed reasoning reigns: U.S. Politics.

1. Ad hominem: In Latin, “ad hominem” means “to a person.” This logical fallacy refers to attacks on people rather than their ideas. You can spot an ad hominem in a discussion or debate when someone avoids answering a question and resorts to insults. The purpose of this fallacy is to damage an opponent’s reputation while distracting from the actual idea.

Example: A 1943 Communist directive advocates using ad hominem attacks to undermine those who stymie their agenda. It reads, “When certain obstructionists become too irritating, label them—after suitable buildups—as fascist or Nazi or anti-Semitic, and use the prestige of anti-fascist and tolerance organizations to discredit them. In the public mind, constantly associate those who oppose us with those names which already have a bad smell. The association will, after enough repetition, become fact in the public mind.”

2.       Red herring: Back in the olden days, fugitives were said to smoke herring—turning the white fish red and stinky—then drag it along a dead-end trail to throw bloodhounds off their scent while being hunted down. Today, a red herring is used metaphorically to describe irrelevant information that distracts from the main issue. The intent is to divert attention away from the idea.

Example: Yesterday, the story of a pet squirrel named P’Nut went viral after New York officers raided a man’s house, seized the pet, and euthanized it. While any pet owner would find this story tragic, some Republicans used it to shift blame onto the Democratic Party. But in reality, the story of P’Nut has nothing to do with partisan politics. (Source)

3.       Appeal to emotion: This fallacy occurs when someone tries to persuade others through emotional manipulation instead of logical reasoning. Sometimes, political figures appeal to our positive emotions (e.g., “joy”), but more often than not, they appeal to negative ones. As the adage “if it bleeds, it leads” suggests, stories that evoke fear are more likely to attract attention because our evolutionary survival has depended on our ability to recognize and respond to threats. An appeal to emotion aims to exploit feelings rather than provide logical support for an idea.  

Example: J.Lo stirs emotions in her appeal to voters without offering logical evidence for her agenda, saying, “I promised myself I wouldn’t get emotional, but you know what? We should be emotional. We should be upset, we should be scared, we should be outraged—we should. Our pain matters, we matter, you matter. Your voice and your vote matters… A non-vote is an agreement. It just makes it easier for them to do whatever they want, whatever serves them. And this election is about your life...” (Source)

4.       Appeal to authority: This fallacy asserts that an idea is true simply because an authority figure says so. In politics, this often manifests as celebrity endorsements. Most celebrities lack expertise in politics, and their endorsements typically reflect personal biases rather than a deep understanding of the issues. The purpose of this fallacy is to persuade others by citing an authority figure in lieu of providing logical evidence.

Example: While celebrities often endorse political candidates, they are not policy experts. While endorsements from politicians and media outlets often come with bias or conflicts of interest. (Source)

5.       False analogy: This occurs when two things that are not truly alike are compared. In politics, serious comparisons are frequently made between disparate things that vary greatly in terms of their purpose, impact, and societal significance. False analogies are used to mislead the audience by equating two dissimilar things, creating the illusion of a logical conclusion.

Example: MSNBC uses a double whammy of fallacies. They begin by calling Trump a fascist (an ad hominem), then use a false analogy to compare a Trump rally to a Nazi gathering simply because both events took place at Madison Square Garden. Other prominent events that have taken place at MSG include the 1924, 1976, 1980, and 1992 Democratic National Conventions; President John F. Kennedy’s 45th birthday celebration; a Blessing Ceremony by Rev. Sun Myung Moon, WrestleMania, WrestleMania X, and WrestleMania XX; thirteen consecutive nights of Phish; and Nikola Tesla’s demonstration of the first remote controlled robot using radio control. (Source)

V.  

Spotting Bad Ideas

We see things not as they are, but as we are.

Anaïs Nin, Seduction of the Minotaur

While stopping bad ideas is a topic for another day, here are five potential signs to spot bad ideas:

• Presumptions: In the Manifesto, Marx claims that Communists fully understand the plight of the labor class and have no interests apart from the laborers. The problem is, neither Marx nor Engels experienced the harsh realities of manual labor firsthand. How could they claim to fully grasp the oppression they speak of? And how could they claim to have no interests of their own when they are biased and corruptible and egoic just like the rest of us? When someone says they know what it’s like to be you, chances are, they really don’t.

• Utopian Thinking: If an idea purports to resolve the big injustices in the world—social, financial, political, etc—it probably belongs in Utopia, not Earth. There’s no such thing as equal outcomes when we all embark on different journeys. And that’s what makes life on Earth special, exciting, and rare.

• Arrogance: The best stance an ideator can adopt is, “This is my best idea in this given moment, based on what I currently know.” As we gain new knowledge, our ideas should evolve. A refusal to acknowledge that one’s understanding could be flawed, and therefore, their idea may be flawed, should signal a red flag. Ideas should be brought into this world with humility and with recognition that all ideas carry consequences—even the seemingly good ones.

• History: If an idea has been tried in the past and failed, it’s likely to fail again. The more we learn from both our own mistakes and those documented in history, the less likely we are to repeat them.

• Intuition: You know more than you realize. Don’t take what others say too seriously. Don’t be dumbstruck by what the experts say. And don’t be afraid to trust in your own common sense. If an idea doesn’t sit right with you, try to explore why that is. What is it about the idea or ideator that smells fishy? Is it a red herring? Or a rat?

1. In the Manifesto, the oppressors are called the “bourgeoisie,” while the oppressed are called the “proletariat”

2. *The Manifesto claims that even doctors, lawyers, priests, writers, and scientists have been “converted into paid wage-laborers”