Thanks! Great comment!
The Social Justice religion is a postmodern stew of previous egalitarian religions/ideologies: a definite base of Marxism, with a splash of punitive Puritanism, seasoned with a few dashes of Bolshevism and Jacobinism. Makes for a potent yet toxic meal!
Left Egalitarianism has been the de facto religion (or secular …
The Social Justice religion is a postmodern stew of previous egalitarian religions/ideologies: a definite base of Marxism, with a splash of punitive Puritanism, seasoned with a few dashes of Bolshevism and Jacobinism. Makes for a potent yet toxic meal!
Left Egalitarianism has been the de facto religion (or secular theology) of our educated class since maybe the 60s, but after a 50-yr-campaign they have at last seized the means of cultural production and are salivating at the chance to brainwash an entire generation and at last fulfill their destiny as omnipotent infallible philosopher-kings.
They are a committed band of fanatics who seem to have seized the moral high ground (as in, You can't disagree w me, think of the marginalized children and their feelings!).
They will cause a great deal of destruction until the inevitable Thermidor arrives.
Well said. I also remember writing a college paper in favor of a global philosopher-king based on Plato's Republic, and against national democracy. It earned high praise from my professor. The indoctrination is overwhelming, and only getting more extreme. I think I was only able to see through it because I spent most of my adult life outside of the bubble I grew up in, working in Asia and the rural mountain west. Had I remained in progressive cities (as most people raised in progressive cities tend to do), I would in all likelihood still be an unwitting believer in this ever-more ludicrous religion, like the proverbial frog in the boiling pot.
Yes! Same! I barely escaped. Grew up in honolulu in the eighties and had lots of conservation scaremongering. The former is fine with me, the later not so much. But it’s hard to separate the two until you leave. I ended up in the Netherlands where it is arguably worse at the moment, but at least the move provided a moment of clarity. And instead of the exasperation my mother responded with to all the antagonism I brought home, I can laugh and talk to my kids about what really matters. And it’s not wearing a fucking purple shirt on sexual diversity day. 🙄
If I were to put a year on it, I would say 1968. Prior to that, the established religion was American nationalism, featuring belief in progress, freedom, democracy, fair play, and a down-home style. That was a religion too, with its own faults, but it did have the virtue of being inclusive of all reasonably loyal Americans.
The Social Justice religion was one I instinctively loathed, even as a child. Its takeover wasn't instantaneous, and there remained outspokenly conservative teachers even into the 1970s. But one by one, you noticed its poisonous tendrils inserting themselves into our institutions, choking off the roots of our culture. Suddenly, every want-ad in the newspaper concludes with the obligatorily-asserted oxymoron of being an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Now, at the start of a new year, the school has dropped our old children's book club vendor that sold warm, broadening, exciting stories, histories, science, and humor, in favor of a new one that sells nothing but disheartening accounts of discrimination and suffering. In the cartoons and movies, every featured circle of white people must now contain a token black person, as a hat on the pole, to cow any organic community feeling into nonexistence. Heroes that used to be fun and hearty have all turned into cold, resentful SJWs.
Since the end of the 1960s, it's been pretty much all imposed 'woke'. What David describes from elementary school in the 1980s sickens me, but doesn't surprise me. Being out of school, I could no longer see it directly, and could only hope that it wasn't that bad.
Agree. Larry Fink, of BlackRock went to high school in a suburb of Los Angeles. The same school I went to and I can't find my yearbook. IF I am remembering correctly, he was one of a few kids who were *obsessed* with Nixon, and then, Watergate. By "obsessed" it was this groups ONLY topic of discussion and not even "Earth Day" (April, 1970) mattered to them - then. Now, ESG to install Socialism is what Fink is all about.
Yes! As I state elsewhere, but bears repeating (perhaps more concisely). A core tenet of Marxism and its cousin philosophies is that man is a blank slate, that humans are basically all the same. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Humans vary enormously in many traits, and among those is educational aptitude. The only way one can have equality of outcome is by lowering standards until anyone passes. "No child left behind" in practice, then, can only occur if no one is allowed to advance. The result is stagnation.
A corollary to the above: many of society's problems are due the attempt of ideology to deny underlying realities. The Left is by no means the sole possessor of this flaw, but they sure are its prime exponents for the past century or more. Magical thinking doesn't work very well. Long ago (Grandma's time, maybe) a high school diploma meant something. Turns out the secret is not solely in the piece of paper however. Apparently if Little Johnny can't read or do sums, even a piece of paper attesting that he "graduated" doesn't confer those abilities.
The Blank Slate is holy dogma for Leftists because it allows for maximum social engineering. Remember, their religious crusade is based on the idea/fantasy that they are egalitarian philosopher-kings who will create a world of pure and total equality where no one goes to bed hungry or ever has their feelings hurt if only we hand them total power.
If they had to acknowledge barriers or limitations based on biology, psychology, individuality etc, that would set inherent limits on their project and force them to debate instead of damning and denouncing. Thus everyone who presents a challenge to their sacred narrative (see what they did to EO Wilson, Napoleon Chagnon or Steven Pinker) must be mercilessly attacked and destroyed.
Thanks! Great comment!
The Social Justice religion is a postmodern stew of previous egalitarian religions/ideologies: a definite base of Marxism, with a splash of punitive Puritanism, seasoned with a few dashes of Bolshevism and Jacobinism. Makes for a potent yet toxic meal!
Left Egalitarianism has been the de facto religion (or secular theology) of our educated class since maybe the 60s, but after a 50-yr-campaign they have at last seized the means of cultural production and are salivating at the chance to brainwash an entire generation and at last fulfill their destiny as omnipotent infallible philosopher-kings.
They are a committed band of fanatics who seem to have seized the moral high ground (as in, You can't disagree w me, think of the marginalized children and their feelings!).
They will cause a great deal of destruction until the inevitable Thermidor arrives.
Well said. I also remember writing a college paper in favor of a global philosopher-king based on Plato's Republic, and against national democracy. It earned high praise from my professor. The indoctrination is overwhelming, and only getting more extreme. I think I was only able to see through it because I spent most of my adult life outside of the bubble I grew up in, working in Asia and the rural mountain west. Had I remained in progressive cities (as most people raised in progressive cities tend to do), I would in all likelihood still be an unwitting believer in this ever-more ludicrous religion, like the proverbial frog in the boiling pot.
Yes! Same! I barely escaped. Grew up in honolulu in the eighties and had lots of conservation scaremongering. The former is fine with me, the later not so much. But it’s hard to separate the two until you leave. I ended up in the Netherlands where it is arguably worse at the moment, but at least the move provided a moment of clarity. And instead of the exasperation my mother responded with to all the antagonism I brought home, I can laugh and talk to my kids about what really matters. And it’s not wearing a fucking purple shirt on sexual diversity day. 🙄
If I were to put a year on it, I would say 1968. Prior to that, the established religion was American nationalism, featuring belief in progress, freedom, democracy, fair play, and a down-home style. That was a religion too, with its own faults, but it did have the virtue of being inclusive of all reasonably loyal Americans.
The Social Justice religion was one I instinctively loathed, even as a child. Its takeover wasn't instantaneous, and there remained outspokenly conservative teachers even into the 1970s. But one by one, you noticed its poisonous tendrils inserting themselves into our institutions, choking off the roots of our culture. Suddenly, every want-ad in the newspaper concludes with the obligatorily-asserted oxymoron of being an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Now, at the start of a new year, the school has dropped our old children's book club vendor that sold warm, broadening, exciting stories, histories, science, and humor, in favor of a new one that sells nothing but disheartening accounts of discrimination and suffering. In the cartoons and movies, every featured circle of white people must now contain a token black person, as a hat on the pole, to cow any organic community feeling into nonexistence. Heroes that used to be fun and hearty have all turned into cold, resentful SJWs.
Since the end of the 1960s, it's been pretty much all imposed 'woke'. What David describes from elementary school in the 1980s sickens me, but doesn't surprise me. Being out of school, I could no longer see it directly, and could only hope that it wasn't that bad.
Agree. Larry Fink, of BlackRock went to high school in a suburb of Los Angeles. The same school I went to and I can't find my yearbook. IF I am remembering correctly, he was one of a few kids who were *obsessed* with Nixon, and then, Watergate. By "obsessed" it was this groups ONLY topic of discussion and not even "Earth Day" (April, 1970) mattered to them - then. Now, ESG to install Socialism is what Fink is all about.
Nailed it
Yes! As I state elsewhere, but bears repeating (perhaps more concisely). A core tenet of Marxism and its cousin philosophies is that man is a blank slate, that humans are basically all the same. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Humans vary enormously in many traits, and among those is educational aptitude. The only way one can have equality of outcome is by lowering standards until anyone passes. "No child left behind" in practice, then, can only occur if no one is allowed to advance. The result is stagnation.
A corollary to the above: many of society's problems are due the attempt of ideology to deny underlying realities. The Left is by no means the sole possessor of this flaw, but they sure are its prime exponents for the past century or more. Magical thinking doesn't work very well. Long ago (Grandma's time, maybe) a high school diploma meant something. Turns out the secret is not solely in the piece of paper however. Apparently if Little Johnny can't read or do sums, even a piece of paper attesting that he "graduated" doesn't confer those abilities.
The Blank Slate is holy dogma for Leftists because it allows for maximum social engineering. Remember, their religious crusade is based on the idea/fantasy that they are egalitarian philosopher-kings who will create a world of pure and total equality where no one goes to bed hungry or ever has their feelings hurt if only we hand them total power.
If they had to acknowledge barriers or limitations based on biology, psychology, individuality etc, that would set inherent limits on their project and force them to debate instead of damning and denouncing. Thus everyone who presents a challenge to their sacred narrative (see what they did to EO Wilson, Napoleon Chagnon or Steven Pinker) must be mercilessly attacked and destroyed.