In tenth grade, I was a socialist and told my friends I was a socialist. My reasoning was simple: socialists are good people who want the best life for other people and I was just such a person and therefore a socialist. Meanwhile, all those folks around me who were not socialists meant that much future missionary work remained.
Then one day, while in study hall staring out the window, I had a thought that was potentially detrimental to my socialist beliefs. The thought itself is less important than my reaction to it. I tried to swat it like it was some buzzing, stinging insect that should be quickly crushed. The reaction seemed almost instinctual. A bit surprised, I then had a couple of thoughts about that thought. First, given my strong belief that the entire world should be organized on the principles of Socialism, it might be a good idea to think the matter through. Second, having attended parochial school, I recognized the impulse toward my own thought suppression. Occasionally, I would question the divinity of Christ or the Virgin Birth and suppress these thoughts because there was that whole damnation thing to worry about. Of course, the divinity of Christ deals with questions beyond the material realm. Socialism, however, is all about the material realm.
So I hopped on the train of thought that eventually undermined my faith in socialism. At the same time, I thought about my reluctance to get on board. I decided my self-identification as a Socialist had a lot to do with it. This was sixty years ago and at the time my political identification was of only a few months duration so, who knows, with a few more months of self-inoculation against contrary thoughts I might have become Bernie Sanders.
Still, we can't question everything and, given that reality, accepting received wisdom is useful. At the same time, I've noticed over the years that most individuals who are hyper-critical of the status quo treat their ideas for sweeping, transformational change, as a matter of faith. National interest was often equated with imperialism and opposed. True American patriotism, in their telling, demands loyalty to an improved nation that we can build using a blueprint that no one quite has access to. Also, holding distinctly contradictory opinions -- being for hydropower one minute and against that damn dam the next -- is a side-effect. Interestingly, these same individuals were often quite conservative -- imperialist, even -- where their personal life was concerned.
If I asked an awkward question, the topic would suddenly change. During a conversation, I might point out that a failure to act in the national interest will only cause confusion among foreign nations, and make our own actions less predictable. Then I would say (after the topic was changed) that segregation was a government program aimed at social planning (in a "careful about what you wish for" sort of way). The nuclear power industry they now oppose was created by the federal government, using the expertise of government scientists and the output of government labs. Politicians promised energy so abundant that it would no longer need to be metered. Unmentioned was the highly toxic nuclear "waste" plutonium the reactors would produce -- handy for H-bomb building and powering aircraft carrier battle groups. The utility executives The China Syndrome portrayed as endangering the entire planet were basically doing what they were told. So, designing our green energy future using the same approach may produce a result different from the one envisioned. After all, a million windmills draining energy from the atmosphere could also change the climate.
The reluctance to question socially acquired beliefs may be a good thing on an individual basis since we have to take much on faith as a practical matter. Lately, it's become a strong -- perhaps even dominant -- social force tangled up with politics and used in the allocation of vast sums of government resources. As a result, we shall choose our next future exercising less care than when we chose our last phone.
The unexamined Utopia is not worth pursuing.
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