Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio.
This is: Why do social movements fail: Two concrete examples, published by NunoSempere on the Effective Altruism Forum.
Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org.
Status: Time-capped analysis.
Introduction.
I look at two social movements which I think failed in their time: the Spanish Enlightenment (1750-1850), and the General Semantics movement (1938-2003). The first one is more similar to the effective altruism community, and the second one is more similar to the rationality community.
Example 1: Why did the Spanish Enlightenment movement fail (1750-1850)?
Why do I care about this movement?
The Spanish Enlightenment was probably the closest thing you could find in Spain to the EA/rationality movements in the 18th century. I'm interested in seeing why it failed, and whether any lessons can be carried over.
Note: Followers of Enlightenment values called themselves liberals / neoclassicists.
Cause 1: The movement played politics, and lost.
The French, under Napoleon, invaded Spain. The Enlightenment movement aligned itself with French revolution ideals and values, whereas the common folk hated the invasion. Liberals took positions of power in the new administration, for which they were perceived as traitors.
After the French were defeated, most of the Spanish elite went into exile by royal decree (not only those who had worked with the French, but also those who had received offers). In general, liberals and their ideas were perceived as foreign to Spain; to a certain degree, because they were.
Cause 2: Lack of organizational power?
This seems to not have been the case. "Sociedades de amigos del pais", which roughly translate to "societies of friends of the country" seemed to be abundant. Several institutions which remain until this day were created:
The Royal Spanish Academy (entrusted with the Spanish Language) (1713), the Royal Academy of History (1738), the Royal Botanic Gardens (1755), the Prado Museum (among the top 10 museums in the world) (1819).
Cause 3: Their literary works were not that popular
Example: Cartas marruecas (Letters from Morocco). A Spanish Noble and his Moroccan Noble friend talk about stuff pertaining Spain. While insightful and interesting for me, I do not believe that they were interesting for a majority of Spaniards.
Example: Moratin, Spanish playwright, wrote 5 comedies. Consider his most popular comedy El sí de las niñas (The consent of the maidens)
Pro: Wildly popular Was watched by 37 000 people, 25% of the population of Madrid at the time.
Pro: The plot is about the right to choose; a 16 year old girl confronts an arranged marriage with a 59 old man. It may have had an effect on arranged marriages?
Counterexample: Ramón de la Cruz. Started as neoclassicist, but couldn't make enough money. He tried seducing the public instead, which made him wildly popular. He wrote more than 300 theater pieces, which people liked but which weren't particularly Enlightened.
Note: This is a 60x factor over the previous author. 300 vs 5 works.
The Spanish public developed a strong dislike for moralizing works; works which pushed for the reader to, in some sense, become more virtuous. This remains today: A bright friend of mine gave her dislike of "prosa didáctica" (didactic prose) as the reason for not continuing to read HPMOR after the first few chapters.
Anyways, there doesn't seem to be that clear a connection between their fiction and their actual work, unlike in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, or in Yudkowsky's HPMOR. Interestingly enough, the EA movement doesn't yet have such fiction, that I know of.
Cause 4: Lack of permanent political power.
Example: Carlos III, King of Spain, embraced Enlightened absolutism (everything for the people, nothing by the people), and is generally considered to have...
view more