Entry 2255, on 2023-01-16 at 21:48:53 (Rating 5, Philosophy)
Many people think the world is failing, especially the "developed, Western" countries, like most of Europe, the US, and other, similar nations. This failure is often ascribed to a lack of confidence in the systems which have lead to these countries becoming rich, safe, and technologically advanced.
Others might say that this progress has come at a price, and that price is often seen as environmental harm and exploitation of some groups in order to progress the society, mainly for the benefits of the "elite", which are usually seen as older white men (those of us who are stale, pale, and male).
Both sides of this story have some merit, but one has a lot more than the other, and I guess you know by now which side that is, at least in my opinion.
I think the progress the world has made in the last couple of hundred years is remarkable in many ways, and that progress is primarily because of the Western values of democracy, science, individual freedom, and free markets. Note that I am not saying there are any examples at all of perfect democracies, use of science, freedom, or markets, just that they are relatively advanced in many of the most successful countries.
The counter-narrative, that this apparent progress is due to systemic oppression and of environmental exploitation, is not completely false, but it is primarily untrue, and any factual basis which might have existed at some time has been warped beyond recognition.
There is no doubt that oppressive practices, like slavery, have been major drivers of economic and political success in the past, but that really is in the past, and the lack of slavery today, at least in the advanced countries I mentioned, is primarily due to those exact same country's policies.
And there are environmental issues, including climate change, which we should be aware of and make efforts to improve, but environmentalism itself is also primarily an invention of the advanced Western countries, and most pollution today exists in less developed nations.
So where does this pernicious attitude: that the Western world is corrupt and systemically racist, sexist, and exploitative (as well as many other criticisms, no doubt) come from?
Well, it seems that it might primarily come from applied postmodernist ideology, originally spread by academia, but now also common in education, corporations, and many branches of politics.
What is postmodernism? Well, it's hard to define (using convoluted and deliberately confusing terminology is an acknowledged aspect of it), and the latest, applied version of it is different in many ways to the original formulation of so-called intellectuals like Derrida and Foucault from the 1960s. But one of the main claims, which is particularly relevant to this post, is that knowledge is gained and maintained relative to a cultural framework, that all facts exist in this state, and that one framework of knowledge isn't better than any other.
From this we now have theories around racial dominance, gender suppression, trans and queer issues, and intersectionality.
Again, it is clear that, in the past, these things all really did exist, but the natural progress of society has eliminated them almost entirely, independently of the efforts of the postmodernist zealots. Now a person belonging to a previously disadvantaged group is just as likely to gain benefits from being in that group as suffering negative consequences.
Yet the postmodernists, and their modern descendants, don't seem to have noticed, and still demand that what they see as biased institutions should be reformed - or more ominously "deconstructed" (a nice way of saying destroyed) - even though they already have become egalitarian. Why?
It seems to be for the same reason that some religious people cling to ridiculous theological beliefs, that some people think the Earth is flat, and that some believe other conspiracy theories. That is, it has become like a religion (or worse: some similar new-age version of a religion). Many belief systems are like massive conspiracy theories where all evidence which contradicts the conspiracy is seen as part of it.
When fossils were first discovered, indicating the Earth was older than the 6000 years some people thought the Bible stated, they were seen by some as being left by the devil in order to deceive people. If fossils were real, why would the devil have needed to put them there? And the photos of the Earth, clearly showing it as a sphere, are part of a conspiracy by NASA to hide the flat Earth. If the Earth wasn't flat, why would NASA need to create these fake photos to prove it?
Any good conspiracy, or other irrational belief, has a mechanism within it to avoid it being diminished by facts. The ultimate expression of this is to make any evidence contrary to the ideology become supporting evidence instead, by portraying it as being a desperate and fake attempt to discredit the ideology, or of completely rejecting it by denigrating the underlying epistemological mechanisms used to create the contrary ideas.
This all sounds absurd, but ultimately it often is the mindset that many people in the world today base their beliefs on. And ultimately, that is the insanity which has taken over many parts of modern society, including some governments.
Modern postmodernism insists that science is part of the white men's system of oppression, used to maintain their power. So nothing scientific can be trusted and alternative systems of knowledge, such as mysticism and traditional beliefs, are at least as good, and probably better (because they haven't been used to establish and maintain the dominant Western culture).
So any science, or other evidence using Western logic and methodology which contradicts postmodernism is part of the conspiracy and can be used to support it instead. If a well designed social science study (assuming such a thing even exists) shows that postmodernist beliefs might not be true, that is used to show that they are, because why else would the patriarchy need to use its weapons of oppression, like science, against the new way of thinking?
Additionally, the opponents of this new theory, don't even require any actual action on the part of their enemies to arouse their opprobrium. In postmodernism, speech is seen as a major contributor to the problems they think exist. So speech is seen as a form of violence; a claim we often hear today, and suppression of free speech is a significant outcome, and maybe the most damaging aspect, of this new insanity.
My description above makes these ideas look absurd, and you might think I am exaggerating to support my argument, but this really is the way these people think.
In New Zealand recently we have had a classic example of this, where some educators wanted to introduce traditional Maori (the New Zealand native people) ideas into the science education. They want to have "Maori science" as part of the science curriculum, maybe even giving it equal status to "real science" and dedicating half of the course time to it.
But there is no Maori science, at least in any reasonable interpretation of the word. There is knowledge which Maori people had before the Europeans arrived, but that isn't science. And there is mysticism, but that also isn't science. Science is a methodology which originated primarily with the Greeks and became dominant at the Enlightenment, which (not coincidentally) also signalled the beginning of many modern trends towards better health, education, freedom, equality, and other positive outcomes.
In the incident I mentioned above, some real scientists objected to the idea of "polluting" science with unscientific beliefs, but they were attacked by members of the Royal Society here. It is shameful that an organisation which has supported science in the past, has become part of the anti-science hysteria taking over some parts of our culture.
And, of course, we also saw a manifestation of that ultimate tool commonly used by what I call the "woke mob": cancellation. Because anyone who dares to present anything which contradicts their beliefs is met with accusations of racism, or misogyny, or transphobia, or one of the other words which have become so overused that they have lost all meaning. A more reasonable approach would have been to engage in a fair debate and show why they thought the contrary ideas were wrong, but that is a very "Western" way of thinking, so can be safely rejected.
Here's another belief which is both absurd and, quite honestly, disgusting. These people say all white people are inherently racist. Every one of them, because that's just the way they are. Not only that, but black people cannot be racist. If you can think of a more racist belief than that I would be very surprised. Why do they believe this? Well, there's really no good reason, but it is something they just take as a fact with no actual justification. Again, these are educated intellectuals. Are you surprised that some people think that some social sciences (which often aren't science at all) and humanities are becoming a joke?
I found listening to an audiobook criticising these theories ("Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity - and Why This Harms Everybody" by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay) quite depressing actually, because I value truth and support genuine progress, and I see these postmodernist ideas as being completely contrary to, not only their own stated aims, but also to the aims any reasonable person might have.
Because of the built-in mechanism postmodernist theory uses to protect itself, there is no way to contradict any of its ideas. In the same way that any evidence I show a flat Earth believer that the Earth isn't flat is seen as part of the conspiracy to support a spherical Earth, any evidence I present against postmodernism is seen as the dominant societal group (which I, quite incredibly, am seen as part of) protecting itself from criticism and deconstruction.
Here's another example of the absurd lack of rationality involved: they know racism exists because either a person will confirm it exists, or will reject it. But if they reject it that is because of their systemic privilege which itself is part of racism. No matter what you do, you cannot disprove their theories, at least using their own logic, so clearly we have to use real logic instead and completely reject every aspect of their ideology.
So let's be clear: the postmodernists in certain modern institutions are the enemy. The original version of postmodernism just noted the alleged existence of these societal mechanisms and commented on the absurdity of it (and of life in general). The evolved version of today involves many people actually taking this seriously, and they are determined to act on it, through dangerous ideas like cancellation and deconstruction.
All ideas, especially incredibly stupid ones, have their own natural life, and there are already signs that people are getting sick of "woke" extremism. It will reverse itself, but to help with accelerating the demise of these ideas we need to be aware of them. When you understand the philosophy behind them, they start making sense... in a very nonsensical way!
I'd responded to an email from you, commenting on my original sending of a related email, and he replied again to me. I was so impressed with his blog post, I sought his permission to forward it.
Comment 2 by OJB on 2023-01-22 at 15:44:13:
Thanks for the positive comment. If anyone else finds my blog useful, please tell everyone else about it. And please, please comment people!
Comment 3 by KN on 2023-01-22 at 15:44:47:
Nobody could have clarified the situation better than this guy.
Throughout the LG campaign I encountered all the points he makes, particularly when I spoke to the parliamentary committee on race-based representation.
It was fascinating to experience the likes of Nick Smith cleverly manipulate meetings with what the people wanted to hear, but even in the short time since then, society seems to have taken heed of what Owen is stating.
Comment 4 by OJB on 2023-01-22 at 15:45:50:
Again, thanks for the positive feedback. I sometimes wonder if anyone else has really noticed what is happening to our culture, so it is great to see that some people actually get it.
Comment 5 by Ken Spall on 2023-01-28 at 09:55:06:
Yes, it is a collective insanity, and yet these attackers on western culture and values are themselves benefiting from that very same culture and values.
Comment 6 by OJB on 2023-01-28 at 10:09:32:
Postmodernism is full of inconsistencies, hypocrisy, obvious falsehoods, and bigotry. But they just make it all go away by making up arbitrary rules. It's exactly like a massive conspiracy or a cultish religion, which deliberately cannot be negated through design.
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