I am a great believer in assessing the evidence and appreciating the context before arriving at a conclusion. It’s a process philosophers call “inductive” and I believe it to be the most effective and practical way to view life. It is fundamental to the Right wing way of looking at the world.
The opposite approach is “deductive”. It starts with a an overarching principle or belief and then comes to the evidence from its predetermined point of view. The evidence is required to conform to the principle, the belief or the preconception which exists in the mind of the researcher or reviewer. Evidence must be explained according to an ideological context – it cannot lead us to a conclusion which conflicts with sacred Tenets.
In the real world, of course, the inductive approach must have priority. That is how the police must operate when they investigate a crime; that is what the courts of Justice must do in order to arrive at critical decisions with real world consequences for people’s lives and livelihoods.
So, why this lesson in philosophy ? Well, because it explains the prevalent mindset in political and media thinking today. With the right diagnosis for the problem, we at least have the opportunity to come to the right solution. With the wrong diagnosis, we cannot even begin to get it right. Again I draw a real world analogy: the practice of medicine. The medical practitioner must know what the disease is, firstly, in order to prescribe the appropriate treatment. Obvious !
But the blindingly obvious is not the forte of many in government and media today – as we have seen in both the campaign and the aftermath of Brexit, and now too in the current crisis created by governments in response to Covid 19.
Whatever the problem and whatever the real issues, those with a deductive approach ie those who are Ideologically preset [in common parlance prejudiced] will see everything in accordance with their preconceptions, instead of going where the evidence leads. They will find the strongest possible proof for their belief on the basis of the scantest evidence. Indeed they will take evidence which points in one particular direction and tell us it points the other way. Black is white and white is black.
An article was published by the Guardian online yesterday, 2nd March 2021, an article which provides prima facie evidence of what I am saying.
The Guardian, of course, is an organ of the ideological Liberal Left elite’s worldview. It subscribes to the Materialism of Enlightenment philosophy characterised by atheism, internationalism and absolute Rights. It is therefore automatically hostile to national independence and unquestioningly loyal to international organisations and agendas like the European Union.
To them, the stupidity of Brexit is self evident and requires no explanation. All events are therefore construed through this lens. So bureaucratic failings in the UK are presented as a problem of Brexit in an article about criminal records.
Apparently over 100,000 criminal records imposed on EU nationals while in the UK during the last 8 years have not been reported to the criminals home nations as required by an EU law of 2012. The Guardian concludes:
The continuing Remain campaign at the Guardian dictates such a spin on the facts. The foolish little island of Britain is incapable of getting even basic record keeping right; and now that it is out of the EU, it cannot be held to account by nanny Europa for this gross dereliction of duty. The sooner the incompetents are brought back under the parental supervision of Brussels the better.
Thankfully the benevolent EU is granting much goodwill to UK police despite British incompetence, while Brexit is to blame for the loss of access to EU databases ! When was it ever necessary for the Americans, or the Japanese or the Australians or whoever to be a member country of the EU in order to co-operate against crime ? Was provision not made in the various Brexit agreements to continue security co-operation ?
But the facts show that the matter was covered up by a Europeanised British bureaucracy all the while we were fully fledged members of the EU – ie in the years 2012 to 2016. It began to be addressed after the 2016 Brexit Referendum vote; and according to the Guardian’s own report, the matter is now actively being put right by Brexit Britain.
And in view of all the talk and planning about the desirability of digital ‘passport’ for those who are vaccinated against Covid 19, it is a salutary reminder of the incompetence of government administrations regarding the most critical of issues.
But the Guardian is not alone in pursuing the outdated Remain Campaign. The Observer is caught out by FullFact.org for its claim on the 6th February 2021 that UK exports to the EU fell by 68% in January 2021 compared to January 2020 BECAUSE OF BREXIT.
On 17th February 2021 Full Fact .org published this assessement of January’s export figures. That assessment cites government stats showing that rollon-rolloff figures were down by 27% – not 68%, a figure which no-one is willing to explain. The Full Fact assessment also puts it the statistics into a 2 year perspective and recognises an impact from lockdown measures in response to Covid.
We clearly have two leading social justice oriented journals viewing the evidence according to their own preconceptions [prejudices], failing to recognise the broader context and refusing to acknowledge where the evidence might lead them.
In other words, they are acting true to their philosophical predisposition. For their consistency, they may be congratulated. But for straining significance out of facts which do not support their predisposed position, they are culpable. A wise person would re-examine their prejudices and learn the lessons.
But Ideologists have necessarily come to their conclusions beforehand. Their Philosophy is beyond all moral question. They are therefore right, even when they are manifestly wrong!
Ray Catlin
Conservatism Institute 