Why Ideology Doesn't Help You Roll a Kayak

The central role is played by experiments…… this requires the ability to tolerate uncertainty ….. and being wrong most of the time. Dave Macleod. Clocking Up Moves Isn’t Enough to Improve at Climbing.

We’ve entered the anti-science age of ideology where expert opinion is more important than what works. Which is largely why, enshittification, is also the word of the year for 2024. Many things are getting a bit worse, mostly because ideology has trumped utility. Non-ideologues can simply dump any theory that does not work and move on to the next experiment, but, if your status and identity is wrapped up in ideology then you have no choice but to plough forwards, like a bull moose in the deep snows of northern Canada, up to your neck in faceted snow and getting hungrier by the day, but still a slave to ideology. 

Ideologues don’t care if you win, lose, or place DFL (dead fucking last), as long as the ideology remains intact. The idea never fails only the person attempting to implement the idea. It’s the classic “vegan harder” of the early 2000’s. Remember those years: when the ideologues told us veganism would save your life and health but, for the people who got sicker, weaker and even fatter on a vegan diet, the answer was always “vegan harder.”

Some of the most egregious examples of ideology come from the nutrition world where “very experienced dietitians” produce dietary plans that literally make people vomit during their race and then make the preposterous claims that the plan didn’t work because the athletes heart rate was too high. Well, wakey, wakey, it’s a race, the point is to win, not doddle around at your grandmothers pace and finish DFL. Your plan, underwritten by your ideology didn’t work. Experiment, find something that does.

Yesterday was the first surf and roll the kayaks day of the season. As happens at the beginning of every season, I was pleased to find my roll was intact, although sweep rolling with a wing blade is so much easier than using a flat blade. The wing gives so much lift that the roll is effortless. I had one failure on my off-side with my flat blade, but that gave me the opportunity to confirm I can still do a re-entry and roll. I got up, the usual slow, heavy roll and immediately the kayak was so unstable with that amount of water in the cockpit. My flat blade rolls need work, especially on my off-side. I’ll experiment with different techniques, because there would be nothing stupider than continuing to fail because my ideology rendered me incapable of logical thought.