Reclaiming Reality: Struggling with the What The World Actually Is

February 5, 2021

I was amused by the odd ball headline “Reclaiming Reality From Chaos” which contained not one business story in the Business section of the estimable New York Times but two. What was it that the odd duck at General Motors said? Oh, right, something like two objectives is no objective. Two separate business stories under one headline makes clear that “chaos” is alive and quite healthy in the Gray Lady’s printy and digitally world.

The segment which caught my attention is “How the Biden Administration Can Help Wean Americans from the Scourge of Hoaxes and Lies.” (I will not bring up the scourge of veracity issues which have clung to the Gray Lady’s rayon garb with the tenacity of fur shed from my French bulldog and my polyester track jacket. That lovable dog’s fur is “sticky.” Good for social media: Not so good for fashionistas.

The write up consists of suggestions in the business news section of the newspaper for the Biden administration. The sources of these suggestions seem to be academia, non governmental organizations, and one cyber centric outfit in the UK. (The UK? Definitely on top of the US thing because Merrie Olde Angleland has done a bang up job with civil unrest, the California Royals, and the extremely well executed Brexit thing.)

What are the suggestions? Here’s my understanding of the principal outputs of “real business news” research into America’s national reality crisis. I am tempted to bring up that old chestnut relished by philosophy professors asking 18 and 19 year olds to define “reality.” I won’t. Reality is an issue which has reduced some thought wizards to insanity. Obviously this is not the Gray Lady’s crossword. To the suggestions:

Create new labels for malefactors. Don’t call the Proud Boys terrorists like the Canadians. Get a new hashtag.
Create a reality czar. When I read this idea, I thought of Frank Zarb, the “energy czar” appointed by President Gerald Ford. Mr. Zarb was okay, but his junior czar was a piece of work. And I will not bring up, “What is reality?” again.
Vet the big boys’ algorithms. I wonder if the Facebook and Google type outfits will talk or print out the code and allow US government contractors to dig through the information. I wonder if Deloitte or Booz, Allen would get this job. My next question, “Where will these firms find the contractors to do the code work?” Most MBAs are not able to make sense of trivial algorithms like those crafted by the Facebooks and Googles of the world in the last few years. No disrespect, but consulting firms have other competencies. (See my article about McKinsey in today’s Beyond Search stream for a timely example.)
Do the social stimulus thing. The idea is to fix “people’s problems.” That’s a great idea. How are the social programs to deal with the Covid Rona thing working out?

Let’s step back. I want to offer several observations:

First, what the heck is this type of editorial – opinion thing doing in the business section of a major newspaper? What’s wrong with the editorial page or, better yet, the Style section. But business news? Nope.

Second, the use of terms like chaos and reality. The references to the cause of the reality / chaos problem are interesting. In the philosophy class in which I suffered in my sophomore year in college, the failure to define terms would have evoked sharp criticism from the wonderful but mostly off kilter person who taught the course.

Third, the idea that using new words to create categories for people is interesting. Jacques Ellul explains this process in his book Propaganda. Yep, categories work in certain contexts. I won’t explain those contexts. Ellul does a good job of this.

Fourth, the notion that social programs will solve problems is interesting. I wish I could think of a social program which has worked to change people. Readers are invited to remind me so I can fill in the gaps of my knowledge.

Net net: How about business news in the Business section. Put the reality chaos stuff someplace else? Maybe Medium or Substack or on a Gray Lady podcast.

Stephen E Arnold, February 5, 2021

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, News, Publishing

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.