Political Self-Leveling

As humans have the resiliency to adjust and find personal stability in almost any situation,¹ so societies and nations have the same capability. Everyone, collectively, adjusts to the “new normal.” And they adjust their views as need arises. Take, for example the current divide in our country toward reconciling “socialism” with “capitalism.”²

Every modern, self-declared socialist—at least in America—backs away from the traditional definition of the word: government ownership and control of the means of production and, by extension, transportation and distribution, à la the Soviet system. Even the most progressive politicians—think of Barack Obama—refused to acquire an ownership position in General Motors, when it became available, and styled their Affordable Care Act as a form of medical insurance rather than government ownership of hospitals and employment of medical staff. This wasn’t just baby steps on the way to a socialist paradise but a recognition, as shown by the failure of the Soviet system and others around the world promoting classical socialism, that government bureaucrats are not suitably employed making automotive or medical decisions and taking responsibility for their outcomes. And every government pension plan is invested, to some extent, in the stock and bond markets to preserve and grow their assets.

Every modern, self-declared capitalist—at least in America—backs away from having every facet of modern life provided by a private company selling products and services on an individual basis and collecting payment at point of purchase. Most businessmen and entrepreneurs recognize that public infrastructure like roads and bridges need to be planned and built for the use of everybody and paid for with taxes or other communal funding across all economic classes. They also realized that total laissez-faire capitalism would be a disaster, where goods would be made—even by the staunchest capitalists, succumbing to cost and market pressures—with the cheapest materials and least robust designs. And even if most capitalists themselves did not resort to this, they would fear their competitors might, believing that consumers have a short memory. Medicines with the most fantastic claims would be made with chalk and spit in dirty pans. Cars with the flashiest looks would be made with pot metal engine blocks and leaky gaskets on frames stamped out of the thinnest sheet steel. Someone—presumably a government with enforcement powers—would have to set and impose standards for components that customers themselves cannot observe and test, in order to provide for the public health and safety.

This is a long-standing equilibrium. Four of the U.S. states were originally and are still styled as “commonwealths,”³ a term that has no legal distinction but is a nod to shared prosperity among its citizens. From colonial times, the country has supported public schools, paid for by local communities, in the belief that education should not be the province of the wealthy few. And while local, state, and federal governments pay for roads, bridges, water and sewage systems, and in some cases local electrification, the Department of Transportation or Department of Water and Power might do the planning and arrange funding for their projects, but they almost never directly employ teams of graders and pavers, ditch diggers and pipelayers to complete the work. That’s all done by private contractors. And the biggest public benefits—think of Social Security and Medicare—while being managed by the federal government are paid in, at least in part, by their users and employ services provided by private hospitals and doctor groups.

So, anymore—and for a long time to come—the question for most Americans is not socialism or capitalism, one or the other, but what blend and in what areas? And this is an equilibrium we find year by year on a practical level.

1. Well, except in death. Or rather, maybe completely in death.

2. And I put these words in quotes because, when people use them in current political discourse, they almost never mean what their traditional, economic definitions imply.

3. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky.

Self-Leveling

It is human nature to try to find equilibrium, a state of “normalcy,” and an enduring level of self and sensation in almost every condition.

Change of season, change in the climate, change in location, change in fortune—say, from well-off to straightened circumstances, or from relative freedom to captivity or slavery, or from a companionable relationship to sudden loneliness and grief—all will be experienced as a new shock, and then a familiar condition, and finally, despite any deprivations, as “the way things are.” This is personal self-leveling.

This tendency explains the “Stockholm syndrome” experienced by kidnap victims. It explains how people can adapt to the limitations imposed by stroke, amputation, or blindness. And it also explains a mode of thinking by those experiencing mental illness called anosognosia. This is the patient’s insistence, despite hallucinations, delusions, and psychotic outbursts, that “I am not sick. I do not need help. I don’t need medication.”

Most health impairments—a broken leg, a bout of flu—are acute and temporary. You want to get them fixed to get over them. But most mental illnesses—schizophrenia, bipolar, depression—are chronic and the mental states are long lasting. After the onset, the patient adjusts. This is life now, and the old way of thinking is forgotten.

Add to this chronic perspective the fact that most psychotropic medications have side effects. Aside from affecting your attention span, motivation, or reward system—as dopamine blockers do in the role of antipsychotics—they often have physical effects. Some cause muscle twitches and facial tics. Some make your mouth dry. Some cause weight gain. And after the medication has silenced the hallucinations and muted the delusions, the physical effects are still there and bothersome. So, the patient feels well again, dislikes the discomforts, and stops taking the medication. That is, the physical side effects are not absorbed into a “new normal” any more than the constant itch of a skin condition can be accepted as part of life.