Podcasting “What Is Peak Indifference?”

A theory of change.

This week on my podcast, I read my recent Medium column, “What Is Peak Indifference?” in which I try to unpack my 2016 theory of change about the role that “self-radicalization” plays in addressing thorny problems.

https://craphound.com/news/2022/03/21/what-is-peak-indifference/

Many of our most urgent problems embody a paradox: while these problems are urgent (in the sense that they are matters of life-or-death), they’re also part of causal chains that are so long that they’re hard to trace and understand.

Think of smoking: the link between a lungful of smoke and a lung-tumor is separated by so much time and space that there is plenty of room for denial to take hold (especially when the denial is amplified and reinforced by Big Tobacco’s disinformation campaigns).

The same goes for nuclear disarmament, the climate emergency, corporate monopolization and many other serious — even existential — problems.

But because these are problems, ignoring them allows them to fester and worsen. Eventually, the number of people who recognize their existence and seriousness starts to go up of its own accord, without any need for activist agitation or public education campaigns.