the complexities have to be ignored. The simple, practical version of the theory is never as good as the fully elaborated version.
The areas of knowledge that especially interest me are theories about how to make society more just and equal, in particular to eliminate various forms of domination. There’s lots of high-brow theory about this. Most social science journals, for example, are theoretically daunting. The jargon can be frightening enough on its own, and the ideas expressed by the jargon often do not make much sense to outsiders. Consider, for example, the following impressive sentence:
“It’s TV then, not just as a technical object which we can hold apart from ourselves, but as a full technical ensemble, a social apparatus, which implodes into society as the emblematic cultural form of a relational power, which works as a simulacrum of electronic images recomposing everything into the semiurgical world of advertising and power, which links a processed world based on the exteriorisation of the senses with the interiorisation of simulated desire in the form of programmed need-dispositions, and which is just that point where Nietzche’s prophetic vision of twentieth-century experience as a `hospital room’ finds its moment of truth in the fact that when technique
us, when TV is the real world of postmodernism, then the horizon finally closes and freedom becomes synonymous with the deepest deprivals of the fully realized technological society.”
If you are brave enough to criticise the analysis, a common response is that “you don’t really understand.” Occasionally some pearls of wisdom for activists come down from the great scholars. What is one to make of these, not really understanding where they came from?
In summary, the usual procedure for many intellectuals is to first develop a good theory and then work out its implications. To be sure, there is a lot of talk about the importance of “learning from practice,” namely not theorising in a vacuum. The key thing, though, is the great importance put on developing a good theory. Simple interpretations of complex theory are denigrated, as in the case of “vulgar Marxism.” My argument is that this emphasis is wrong.
Simple ideas and associated actions should be the centrepiece, the foundation for theoretical development. The goal should be to develop effective actions and simple, effective ideas to go along with them. Sophisticated theory should be built up in a way that is compatible with the simple ideas.
Simple ideas
Simple ideas are ones that are relatively easy to understand, communicate and use. Some simple ideas in our society are
money,
roundness of the earth,
birthdays,
melodies,
telephones.
Most people (at least in industrialised societies) are familiar with these things at an elementary level.
Needless to say, most people do not understand their full complexities. Not many people are familiar with advanced bodies of knowledge associated with these simple ideas, such as
econometric modelling,
geophysical measurement techniques,
the origins of the calendar,
musicology,
electronic engineering.
Unfortunately, even the concept of a simple idea isn’t all that simple! What’s simple for one person to understand may be quite difficult for another. What is simple depends on experiences, formal education, social class, mass media, gender, and many other factors. Nevertheless, I’m going to proceed using “simple ideas” as a simple idea, trying not to get bogged down in complexities.
Michael Schudson in a book on advertising makes some points about how products are democratised. These points also apply to ideas.
“First, they become more standard as they come to be produced for a mass audience. They are easier to handle, easier to `do it yourself’ without great skill on the part of the user; both a mediocre cook and a great cook make equally good cakes from a cake mix.”
Simple ideas are like this. Anyone can grasp them and use them to get results.
“Second, products become not only more standard but milder and easier to use.” Children can grasp and apply the ideas.
“Third, there is democratization when goods are consumed in increasingly public ways.”[2] When people use ideas at work or in discussions on the bus, they have been “democratised,” and this commonly happens only for simple ideas.
For example, the idea that bodies and behaviours are influenced by genetic factors is becoming ever more widely used, especially when media stories tell of genes for alcoholism or aggressiveness. Biologists may cringe when they hear inaccurate interpretations of genetic theory, but there is no doubt that the simple version is widely used.
Just because I’m commenting on the value of simple ideas doesn’t mean that what I have to say is simple itself. Because I’m questioning the standard way of thinking about ideas, what I have to say may be hard to grasp
