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Jump to navigationJump to searchLotteries in Public Life by Peter Stone (editor) (view source)
Revision as of 11:47, 5 March 2012
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Whatever paper one looks at here, whether based upon scientific methods of achieving randomness, on the literary description of a lottery-based society envisaged by the great fantasy writer Borges or a more philosophical discourse upon the nature of fairness, this collection asks one essential question - 'When would we trust our judgments to chance?'.
The essential issue here is that mere chance seems to fly in the face of the common sense of contemporary society which assumes that all decisions are subject to rational balance and considerations of merit. But the text makes us realise that there are points at which this comforting assumption of controlling logic runs out, where for instance more who deserve an organ than can possibly have it. And the articles also question whether the end results of a lottery for jurors, or for a senate for instance) , actually results in more equitable balance of personnel, and whether thus the decisions taken by a random group are more appropriate than those taken by the experts.
Lotteries appear often to have been derived from historical cultural circumstance, from the legacy of the past, sometimes even a distant past which consigned choice to magic and fate, through rituals of divination and the interpretations of signs by the oracle. And whatever mechanisms and methods are put in place to ensure true randomness, absence of bias, or even subtle combinations of measuring need with random allocation within a section of the community, I was still left feeling that lotteries can be seen almost as what is left when supernatural agency is taken out of the equation of casting the runes.
I was left thinking that when we allow ourselves to be mastered by chance, perhaps we are closer to admitting the limits of human knowledge and capability, and thus perhaps we are more genuinely close to an almost spiritual acceptance of fate. At the heart of any attempt to make the process of lottery more scientific lies a fundamental dichotomy of human perception between a view of humanity which puts the rational process in control, or one which accepts that chance is the powerful agency in human affairs.
A book which explores how another philosophical concept can work its way through human decision making, in this case in private as well as public life, is [[The Spirit Level: Why Equality Is Better For Everyone by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett]]. For perhaps an antidote to Stone's anthology in both tone and in that it focuses upon the practical application of choice in the public world I would recommend a look at [[Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World by Tina Rosenberg]].
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