Imagine there were a political party whose only goal was to get as many people as possible to salute a yellow flag. The yellow flag symbolizes nothing. It’s just a joke. But in today’s political climate, a compelling joke. The joke goes viral.
Leaders arise, who propose more or less preposterous ways of increasing membership. Leaders are elected to positions of power, according to how successful they are in increasing membership. Some of the leaders lie and engage in dirty tricks against their opponents, because
- it’s effective.
- there is no political price to pay, since loyalty to the flag is all that matters.
- reasonable parties don’t want them.
If this sounds fanciful, try to remember that US president Donald Trump has been convicted of crimes and accused of many more, but his support base is completely indifferent. Why? White nationalism is his yellow flag.
If this sounds like a political aberration, the lesson has not been learned. This is a deep truth about our reality: When political support is based on the acquisition of political power as an end unto itself, political power becomes evil.
How Yellow Flags Work
Some bankers commit financial crimes, and some do not. However, all bankers wear ties. Demonstrating foolishness of wearing a suit and tie at the height of summer’s heat is no obstacle to becoming a banker. Financially ruining a small country, like, say, Greece, is not an obstacle to remaining a banker. Reporting financial crimes to government agencies – this is an obstacle to a successful career as a banker. This would get you black-listed.
A religion that forgives mafia dons gets donations from mafia dons. A company that does not punish employees for environmental crimes, saves operating expenses.
Over and over, history teaches us: where group membership is more important than the group’s achievements, group members sometimes commit crimes. Those crimes which lead to increased power get repeated. Because natural selection guarantees this, we needn’t be concerned whether bad faith was at play. It happens sooner or later, with or without criminal intent.
If you have ever wondered why bad-faith actors continually appear in history, it is due to Yellow Flag logic more than it is to human stupidity or malevolence. Once a Yellow Flag organisation is founded — for any reason — it has the potential to enter a positive feed-back loop. “Mistakes” get made. Advantageous mistakes get repeated. It’s that simple.
Honest Parties
Now we need to look at the opposite case, namely, groups that care about truth. Such a party would want to outcast members that lie, or members would resign if the leaders lie. Unfortunately, a party that loses members due to lying, is a smaller party than one that doesn’t. This is an awful truth for people who believe in truth, human rights, sustainability, and social progress: If you don’t show the same loyalty to your organizations that your opponents do, you lose members and the advantages that come from misuse of power.
Federation
For honest organisations, the answer to this quandary is federation. If you cannot bear to work with some of the people in your group, start a splinter group, but remain federated. You must remain in communication and you must put your attention on your commonalities, not your differences. The differences have already caused the split, which administratively solves the problem of differences. The only thing left to work on are commonalities. For example, if the original group promotes three protests this year, and you agree with only two, support those two. Do not refuse your support because of hostility to the original group. You can obey leaders you dislike for specific, time-limited projects. In order to get your support, those leaders are likely to make some compromises that you would not have gotten as rank-and-file members.
If anything good is going to happen in this world, it is going to be carried out by people who understand the logic of natural selection. Insisting that this world shouldn’t or oughtn’t operate by natural selection is to self-deselect.
