Directory of Lost Causes (By Quentin S. Crisp)

Economists and Psychopaths

I have, for a very long time, maintained that scientific models of human behaviour that treat humans as machines are a simplistic and destructive projection on the part of scientists. Such models have been particularly prominent since the work of Francis Crick and his colleagues in discovering DNA. My own view has been that the metaphor of a computer is simply that - a metaphor. The computer itself is a human invention, in other words, an offspring of the human mind. It is something contained within the human mind, and yet scientists have reversed this to advocate the idea that everything is contained within the metaphor of the computer. The metaphor becomes literal. People begin to emulate this simplified version of human life, to turn themselves into computers to fit there own projection.

All of this I find to be quite vile and sinister. However, I know very well that if I express such views, I am merely a lay person speaking out of his own intuition. I am very grateful, therefore, when someone else can put in the time and join up the dots for me. Such a person is Adam Curtis, with his new documentary series The Trap - What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom?. If you have a chance to watch this documentary, I very much recommend it. I don't have the time to give a digest of it here, I'm afraid. However, I will leave you with the thought with which the second part of this documentary ended:

It has been found that the only people who really fit the simplified mathematical model of self-interested rational behaviour at all times are economists and psychopaths.