The Blind Spot of Power
[ This content was developed using this site and Google Gemini based on an interesting video called “Why Politicians Keep Getting It So Wrong“, and is a recent video posted in “Barry’s Economics”. ]
You are a high-ranking official in charge of the nation’s welfare system. During a live televised interview, a journalist asks if you could personally survive on £53 a week—the amount your department claims is sufficient for the poorest citizens.
Your monthly phone bill is higher than that. You live in a £2 million home. But the cameras are rolling.
You say it with confidence: “If I had to, I would.” Within 48 hours, hundreds of thousands of people sign a petition demanding you prove it. You retreat into your office, but the noise doesn’t stop.
You feel attacked. Why don’t they understand your “go-getter” attitude? You decide to look into why there is such a massive disconnect between your view and theirs.
You step away from the political spin and look at the hard data. You find the work of researchers like Dacher Keltner and Michael Kraus.
The data is startling:
- The Power Paradox: As your wealth grew, your capacity for empathy measurably decreased.
- Mirror Neurons: Your brain’s “neural architecture” for modeling what others feel is less active than it used to be.
You realize you aren’t a “bad person,” but your brain is physically under-weighting the evidence of others’ hardship.
You realize you are trapped in Homophily.
- Your friends are wealthy.
- Your advisors are from the same schools.
- Your information is filtered.
It’s like a “Water Safety Consultation” where everyone in the room has only ever swum in shallow pools with lifeguards. You’ve been designing life jackets for people in open water without ever feeling the current yourself.
You propose a new “Science-Underpinned” approach to policy.
Proposed Reforms:
- Citizens’ Assemblies: Selection by sortition (like jury duty) to ensure socioeconomic reality is in the room.
- Lived Experience: Giving people who actually live in “deep water” decision-making power, not just advisory roles.
- Bias Mitigation: Treating policy like a medical trial—accounting for cognitive bias before the “treatment” is prescribed.
It won’t be easy, but you’re no longer pretending the blind spot doesn’t exist.
You decide it’s too risky to change the “Village Meeting” style of politics. You continue to let the biggest landowners sway the debate.
The economic models look perfect on paper, but in the “deep water,” the life jackets continue to fail. You look into your crystal ball and see a handful of IOUs where a pot of gold should be.