Education: The Progressive’s Panacea

Covid policy and the failure of technocracy

The Liberal solution to all issues is always “more education.”

They have this worldview where there are “gaps” that need to be filled with better education. All issues result in people not being informed properly, and enough. This is why “misinformation” is feared so much, because these “gaps” in knowledge are being filled with “disinformation.”

This also explains the obsession with expertise. The technical manipulation of information which can guide public policy is the antidote to all social ills, according to the progressive gospel. It is an obsession with facts and figures, and if only all the facts were believed all the time, we could reach heaven on earth.

In this view, eduction is nothing more than data entry. The more data entered, the better society is. When we create public policy, using the most data, then that public policy is unequivocally good.

I’ll use Covid policy as an example of the liberal theory of education as the end-all-be-all for every dilemma.

Lets say that all of the information about Covid is unequivocally true (just pretend). Let’s imagine a world where masks are effective at reducing the spread of covid, lockdowns prevent the overcrowding of hospitals, and the vaccine has a 100% success rate at stopping infection and transmission.

All of this can be true, and yet a public policy of mandatory vaccination, lockdowns, and mask requirements is still bad public policy.

This statement is total heresy to Liberal Orthodoxy. If someone left of center reads what I just wrote, they may end up convinced I’m out of my mind. After all, how could a public policy informed by nothing but facts be bad? Two reasons I can think of:

First, even if a policy is informed only by accurate information, it is no guarantee it will be effective. And if I were to design public policy, I’d prefer it to be effective, first and foremost.

You might be saying, “well Lionel, no shit. Who doesn’t think public policy should be effective?”

A surprising number of people!

The reason I know effectiveness is not the top priority for policy specialists is because they keep pushing for really innefective policies. But more than that, they always seem to have an excuse for why their preferred policies aren’t working.

In a world run like a game of Sims, where you could force every last NPC into isolation, double masked, and perfectly compliant without a hint of “misinformation” in his or her empty little head, you might have a shot at eliminating Covid. Maybe. But we do not live in a game of Sims. It comes down to,

“This policy would have worked, but all of these things that made it not work were in the way.”

If your policy doesn’t work because of X and you have no way of eliminating X, then it’s a bad policy. Plain and simple.

Secondly, a bureaucracy can do some very nasty things with all of the correct information.

The CCP might genuinely believe they have all of the facts at their disposal, and all the facts might suggest locking people in their apartments and feeding them cats to reduce the transmission of Covid, guaranteed. The CCP might actually be able to run the country like a game of Sims.

But this is a horrifying policy, even if all of the facts suggest it will be successful at achieving the stated goal. It is unethical, even if on a spread sheet somewhere, all the facts have been fact-checked.

This whole thing is made even worse, considering my generosity towards the Covidians - they’re public policy proposals are BOTH ineffective and unethical.

If I were a cold hearted Machiavellian I could perhaps look past a wicked public policy if I knew it was working. But seeing as even the most Orwellian policies are not stopping Covid, I am forced to believe our leaders have failed morally and strategically.

At this point you’re probably thinking about how none of this makes any sense. And you’d be right. So maybe our frame of reference is off. Maybe the problem isn’t amoral technocrats, but rather hyper-moral technocrats.

The stated goal of Covid policy is a lie. No one wants to stop the spread. The unstated goal is the truth, and the unstated goal is to punish perceived immorality rather than stop a behavior. And in this case, covid policies are very effective.

If our technocratic elite are actually religious zealots, then all of a sudden we begin to see that lockdowns and mandates are effective because they are punitive.

Viewed through this lens, the Covidian has the same view of justice as Erlichman on drug use. That is, even if the law doesn’t prevent drug use, it is nonetheless important as a public moral condemnation. Even if Covid policies don’t work, they act as public moral condemnation.

But at least Ehrlichman knew he was a moralist, and could offer up a strong foundation for his punitive justice. The Covidian is unaware that he is a moralist, and unable to justify his hidden moralism, he says,

“just follow the science.” Unaware of the knot he is tied up in.