Vulcan Tendency

          “It is wrong always, everywhere and for anyone to believe anything upon insufficient evidence” *. If this assertion popped up in an online survey, I would tick the “agree” box. I would then be keen to see the result of the survey though, even prior to its publication, I ‘believe’ that the majority would have ticked the “disagree” box. My evidence? Well, for a start, the fact that proven liars and science-deniers have been elected, by due democratic processes, to the governance of rich and powerful nations makes it a nonsense to conclude otherwise. Maybe I should follow my own principles and wait for the result of the imagined survey but – and this illustrates my dilemma – human behaviour is not entirely driven by logic. I may aspire to be Spock of the Starship Enterprise but, since I am not Vulcan, he is probably an inappropriate role model. And so, burdened as I am by adherence to a principle that is at odds with being Human, life can get tiresome. Whenever someone states a belief, I expect a rational explanation, only to find that the word itself is slippery, for ‘to believe’ can also mean ‘to have faith’ – a state of mind that defies logic.

          The best I can hope for is that there will be a pendulum swing of the socio-political zeitgeist, away from irrational populism and towards rational cooperation. Such a swing would need the impetus of an event that has widespread repercussions and it could be that Covid-19 serves that purpose, by leaving in its wake the turbulence required to shake us out of our collective complacency regarding the current direction of travel. Here I am thinking at the macro level, where academics, professionals and other experts are analysing the damage that has been done to society by years of neo-liberal excess. There is movement on several fronts: to re-establish the credentials of science-led governance; to reckon up the destructive effects of austerity economics; to reinvent capitalism for the common good; to address the inequalities of pay for keyworkers; and to plan for the repercussions that are about to explode as a result of climate change and the next industrial revolution. All these issues – and more – are inter-twined and inter-national. But how many people, while coping with their daily life-struggles, have the capacity to follow the arguments and act upon them? How can they be persuaded to vote rationally for jam tomorrow, when they are preoccupied with finding enough bread today, especially when the pandemic has added layers of difficulty and danger to everyday life.

          But despite the gloom and doom, there are signs that to be Human (as opposed to Vulcan, say) is not to be a basket case. Some things just cannot be explained by reason. Take the compulsion to socialise, for example. Why do we feel the need to do it? City-dwellers may have been locked in their apartments for weeks, but they have found ways to mingle-at-a-distance. In our block, where some apartments face each other across a small courtyard, the residents gather on their balconies at the cocktail hour each Friday. The event, especially as it follows Thursday evenings’ applause-for-the NHS session, is building a community where, before lockdown, each resident went their own way into the weekend. And, thanks to fine weather, minimal traffic and reduced pollution, people are beginning to take advantage of eased permissions to meet each other outdoors for takeaway coffee. Better still, there are even a couple of impromptu ‘beer gardens’ popping up in disused car parks near one or two pubs. On this evidence, we see that people are drawn together – though it’s not clear why. Perhaps they seek not the truth but something more fundamental, what Joseph Addison asserted are the “Three grand essentials to happiness in this life… something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.”

* William Kingdon Clifford, mathematician and philosopher (1845-1879).