Something Bigger than The People has Taken Over

I continue to read The Great Transformation, and Polanyi's analysis continues to fascinate me. The transformation he refers to was the transformation caused by the Industrial Revolution, or the Market Economy.

He does not mention one important effect, however - how this huge change affected people's ability to understand their new world. They knew something big had happened - but also that they were not supposed to understand it. And this prohibition has persisted to this day.

This situation is not new - those in power have often suppressed dissent - sometimes violently. And people under their control, have done the safe thing - and kept their mouths shut.

This created two kinds of subjects to discuss - safe subjects, and forbidden subjects. And people knew instinctively what these were. These social instincts were part of what made them human - and had served them well for thousands of years.

Now, all of a sudden - these instincts were not serving them so well. They had to think about a new situation - and that often meant being critical of it.

There were plenty new thinkers around, and some of their ideas were attractive. People had to choose between them - but they also had to be like everyone else. They were pulled two ways at once.

Their most important choice was - which group to belong to? And once they made that choice -  they had to defend it. This sometimes conflicted with their personal choices - but usually the group choice won out.

All this was made much more difficult, because issues were often poorly defined. Complicated situations are common, and are not well suited, for the simple thinking, that people want to make.