The combination of analytical despair and adversarial nihilism
can lead radical critics of social-control policy into some strange
directions. Consider the assumption of complexity (which I suggested
in chapter 5 as an in-built cognitive bias in the professional
world view). If, indeed, mere social reforms can never touch the
real causes of social problems (which are fundamental, deeply
rooted and complex), then reforms are doomed to failure in advance.
This might be a correct analysis, but how are its implications
to be distinguished from the conservative position that root
causes (human nature and the social order) are beyond change?
Here is a random example of what I mean. An altogether plausible
analysis of the complex reasons why decarceration went wrong,
concludes that such reforms 'simply reflect the wider economy of
power relations under welfare state capitalism. Except for continued,
perpetual tinkering at the' organizational level among interested
professionals in the crime control business, we cannot expect
much change in this state. After all, it is part of the order of
things. '6