Forms of Turbulence in Society: Normal and Political

Since late in the nineteenth century, economists have mostly bought into the ideal of a stable society as a place that people potentially can inhabit. The advent of Keynesian-style economics in the 1930s transformed that ideal into a political program. To be sure, many economists prior to KeynesKeynes, J.M. had already bought into a political program of state control over commercial activity. Yet turbulence and placidity are both part of the human experience. We can well wonder whether humans are capable of living without turbulence. Orthodox economics makes it seem so, but this is due to a theoretical sleight of hand. It works with a presumption that individuals are solipsistic in that each person mostly pursues his or her own interests. The Keynesian style of macroeconomics that quickly took a commanding position in economics after 1936 assumes that the relation between individual persons and the entire economy is a matter of adding up all the individuals. Each person makes individual choices, with all individual choices added to generate the total. Social reality, however, is far more complex than simple addition will allow. The sort of turbulence we see play out in society turns crucially on which conception of democracy we are working with.