Cornett: Do I detect some cognitive illiberalism?*

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(Hall & Hall)

You guys. I call myself a cynic, but you guys! Well, some of you guys. Did you see the responses on Facebook to Nevil Speer’s factual presentation on Mandatory Cool?

Jack Elam 2Speer made a very solid argument, backed up with numbers and graphs that read clear as day. To me, at least. The COOL experiment came at the start of a cyclical upturn in prices. It did not create the better prices. It didn’t impede imports. Imports increased. The cattle markets in Mexico and Canada increased with the US. Consumers expressed little interest.

The up market was a coincidence. You youngsters listen up: These markets are cyclical. Good times come. Good times go.

Speer’s piece was plumb, plain “what happened” history. At least it seemed so to me, a person who already thought that. (Who among us is immune to cognitive illiberalism?) And yet, the response from readers was over-the-tippy-top negative.  Not all, of course. But of those who chimed in, it was like “The only way anybody could find fault with COOL is to be ‘in the pocket of the packers’.” Or, apparently worse, in cahoots with NCBA.

Speers’ case, hardly new, was so sound I would have figured anybody would see the logic of it. I mean, I don’t like the way my cows get to looking this late in winter, but the facts are the facts. My job is to deal with them as they are. Its ok to curse the weather, but add a little cake, too.

Why are so many people, good people, smart people, so adamant in denying plumb, plain facts?

I wondered enough to go to Psychology Today, where I found a reference to this paper https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1818&context=facpub on “cultural cognition.” It’s a little wordy, even for my taste (and there’s plenty of evidence I like wordy) but it basically reports a study in which conservatives and liberals were shown footage of a protest. One group was told it was against abortion. The other said it was against gays in the military.

“Cultural cognition” refers to the unconscious influence of individuals’ group commitments on their perceptions of legally consequential facts. We conducted an experiment to assess the impact of cultural cognition on perceptions of facts relevant to distinguishing constitutionally protected “speech” from unprotected “conduct.” Study subjects viewed a video of a political demonstration.

Half the subjects believed that the demonstrators were protesting abortion outside of an abortion clinic, and the other half that the demonstrators were protesting the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy outside a military recruitment center. Subjects of opposing cultural outlooks who were assigned to the same experimental condition (and thus had the same belief about the nature of the protest) disagreed sharply on key “facts”—including whether the protestors obstructed and threatened pedestrians. Subjects also disagreed sharply with those who shared their cultural outlooks but who were assigned to the opposing experimental condition (and hence had a different belief about the nature of the protest).

The two groups saw two different protests, apparently. Different levels of violence and such. Saw what they wanted to see.

And so I read some more about that sort of stuff.** Why do we insist on seeing what we want to see? Why, with facts laid before us, are we so stubborn about admitting we may have been wrong? And I say “we,” because I’m not immune. Part of it, I just don’t like admitting I was wrong. But 51 years of marriage and cattle buying and futures trading have given me some hard lessons n that illiberalism business. It’s one reason I’m so wishy washy. I’m like the out-cow considering what might be lurking in the “get-yer-butt-back in-hole” gate when it comes to making decisions.***

My favorite example of all this is a friend who, during the energy crisis of the 70’s,****invested in a machine that used water to create energy. Before he got rich, the lawmen took apart the inventor’s prototype and found it had a hidden battery that made it look like it was creating energy.

So, I said to my friend, “didn’t you maybe see that coming?” And he said to me that the inventor had contacted the investors to tell them he had put the battery in there to protect his secrets from the lawmen. And, by golly, my friend sank some more thousands into it.

Anyhow, I’ve noticed through the years the enthusiasm for COOL is stronger in the North Plains. I’ve always figured that had to do with all those high-grading Canadian cattle passing their front gates. But now I know a little about “cultural cognition,” which I believe we know better as living, and thinking, in an echo chamber.

When everybody you know seems to agree on something, it’s a lot easier to believe it, too. And believe it more!

A part of me envies the cock-suredness of the guy who said of Speer’s piece:

“Everybody’s in somebody’s pocket when it comes down to it. COOL is a definite win for the American producers. Will it be reinstated? Figure this guys in somebody’s pocket that wrote this article! As far as Washington political scene we will see who’s padding their pocket if it goes South!

No argument with the facts presented, you’ll note. Just “the only way anybody can think differently than me is if he’s corrupt.”

That is so intellectually easy. I know it’s the modern way. The internet way. But if a person isn’t willing to consider that she might be wrong and listen to an opposing opinion—much less plumb, plain facts—well… In this case it’s just blab. Neither he nor I have anything to do but yammer about the matter. But a business person that won’t question the echo chamber in unsettled times such as these? If she can’t look at the facts that are facts and adjust her thinking, she better have a rich mama or an altruistic banker.***

I’ve been a COOL agnostic since the debate started back about the time that stock photo of me  Drovers uses was taken.**** I trust Speer’s numbers on what little good it did. Have no evidence of any great harm it did. But that’s not my suggestion for young folks planning a future in this tough and getting-tougher cattle business.

Open your ears and let uncomfortable thoughts circulate in your brain.

Send me your thoughts: scornett9163@yahoo.com

*”Cognitive illiberalism” was a strange new term to me. None of my friends use it. Looked it up and found it defined as “an inability to recognize how cultural background influences one’s own (as opposed to others’) decision making.” So, that’s like when I go to Austin and see the tattoos and funny clothes and I go, “what are these people thinking?” And they meet me and go, “Geezo, I thought he was panhandling. Why would anybody want to see pictures of that old man’s grand daughters?”

**If you want more of that learning, here’s an interesting piece https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/finding-purpose/201810/what-actually-is-belief-and-why-is-it-so-hard-change

***THE energy crisis of the 1970’s. Not MY energy crisis of MY 70’s. The former went away with Jimmy Carter. The latter lingers.

Steve Two

****If I’m to keep this up, I want a new picture. I want one where I have that Jack Elam look because I doubt everybody, too.

 

***** Which is why I dusted off the cobwebs and came back to the typewriter. I’d sure like to convince some of those folks that they’re fixated on the wrong shiny objects. And trust me, I am in nobody’s pocket. My thoughts are home grown and mesquite-aged. My dog in this fight is hoping to see a viable body of independent producers stay solvent until my kids come to their senses or my granddaughters get old enough to take over the place. I’m sorry, but I just don’t see COOL or government mandates on marketing methods as contributing to that goal. I think we’re scratching a phantom itch.*****

*****Which is what I’ve been saying all along and which could be confused with a case of cognitive illiberalism. If it were someone else, of course. Not me. (Says me, anyhow. But none of us is immune.)

 

 

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