Conflict of Visions: HOW ‘CONSTRAINED VISION’ leads to better outcomes!

Dr. Thomas Sowell, one of the leading public intellectual alive today, describes vision as our sense of how the world works. For example, primitive man’s sense of why leaves move may have been that some spirit moves them, and his sense of why tides rise or volcanoes erupt may have run along similar lines. Newton had a very different vision of how the world worked, and Einstein still another. Visions set the agenda for both thought and action.

The capacities and limitations of man are seen in radically different terms by those whose philosophical, political, or social theories are built on different visions.  The ramifications of these conflicting visions extend into economic, judicial, military, philosophical, and political decisions.

Dr. Sowell has explained how the visions that have shaped our world can be classified into two broad categories, The ‘Unconstrained Vision‘ (as exemplified by the guiding principles of the French  Revolution) and the ‘Constrained Vision‘ (exemplified by the  Constitution of the United States). I will attempt to explain the basic foundations of these visions and their impact. (Due to limitation of article length, I may have over-simplified. Please do read Dr Sowell’s book)

THE UNCONSTRAINED VISION:

FOUNDATIONS & PRINCIPLES

• Human beings are ‘perfectible’ through guidance & supervision.
• Man must seek to benefit others without seeking to benefit himself. This is the definition of ‘true virtue’
• Leaders have ‘unconstrained power’ to decide what is best for society
• If the cause is seen as desirable by a leader or leaders, the cost to society in terms of lives lost or freedoms denied is justified.

OUTCOMES

• Marxism, Fascism, Communism & Socialism
• Personality cults
• High Taxation & Big Governments
• Human-centric manufacturing & quality management systems

THE CONSTRAINED VISION

The Constitution of the United States written after the American Revolution is an example of Constrained Vision.

FOUNDATIONS & PRINCIPLES

• Human being  have flaws and ways must be found to enable society to flourish despite the flaws.
• Knowledge & wisdom of an individual or group has limits.
• Leaders must have ‘checks’ on power or else it will be misused.
• Human beings must be incentivized to benefits others (in order to benefit themselves)

OUTCOMES

• Democracies with small governments focused on essentials.
• Free market system with transparency & strict rules.
• Application of the ‘Scientific Method’ in most areas including ‘Double Blind’ experiments & peer reviews.
• System based manufacturing & quality management, largely independent of human bias.

CONCLUSION: In my humble view, idealism as exemplified by the naïve belief that perfect societies can be ‘constructed’ by compliant, selfless humans dedicated to the ‘greater cause’ defined by a great leader must be replaced by realism as exemplified by the ‘Constrained Vision’.  This vision aided by robust systems & strong institutions can drastically reduce ‘Bias‘ as well as ‘Noise‘ in human judgements and can greatly improve the quality of our lives.

Jai Hind.

Gaurav Sarup