The Deeper Structures in the Current Political Melee
Many people have noted the shakiness of the "left-right" spectrum as a way of accurately analyzing politics. Here I offer a more scientific analysis, based on reaching down to the core motivations behind various groups. As such, this analysis will have little to do with "left" and "right", and we will find some people from each of my groupings being placed on the left, and some people from each grouping being identified as "right-wing."
The three major categories of actors in Western politics today -- at first these terms may not make sense, but explanation will follow:
Philosophers: Here, I use the term in its original sense, as "lovers of truth," not in its modern sense of "people who analyze sentences." First and foremost, philosophers are those who recognize an objective order to the world, one not created by human beings, to which humans are obliged to conform their actions. (This order has, as one of its components, an objective moral order.) This recognized order may be called ma'at, or "the way of heaven", or the Tao, or the law of Karma, or the Law, or dharma, etc. Whatever it is called, the recognition of this order lies at the root of every high human civilization.
It is important to note a great lie here: the misosophists have undertaken a great effort to convince the philodoxers that anyone who recognizes that there is an objective moral order also thinks that they have complete mastery of that order. This lie is as absurd as claiming that anyone who thinks there are real scientific facts thinks they know all scientific facts. Nevertheless, this lie has had great effect in getting people to shut down as soon as anyone even starts mentioning objective moral truths.
The philosophers' stance: "2 + 2 = 4"
Misosophists: The misosophists are the haters of truth. They are in rebellion against any order they themselves have not authorized: in short, they are in rebellion against reality. They wish to impose their own wills on the universe, but, since that is not possible, they generally will accept destroying as much as they can, out of spite. (The great mythical archetype of the misosophists, is, of course, Satan.) Typically they will grab at an ideology that justifies their destructiveness: Communism, Nazism, racism, and so on. But the ideology is just a cover for the will to destroy. That ideology will pick out a scapegoat group upon which to blame all of the world's woes (capitalists, Jews, heterosexual white males, etc.) and try to stir up popular resentment against that group, in order to get others to join in the destruction.
The misosophists' stance: 'The "correrct" answer 2 + 2 has been defined by the [scapegoat group], and we must forge our own, revolutionary answer in order to liberate the people from these oppressors!'
Philodoxers: Philodoxers neither love nor hate truth: they are unconcerned with it. They want to be thought well of by others, and will believe whatever it is they need to believe for that to happen, whether true or not. Thus the philodoxers will go along with whoever is in charge: consider the bulk of the German people, who went along with the Nazis when they were in charge, and simply became nice liberal democrats once liberal democrats were in charge. But the philodoxers are in a pickle in a time of conflict between the philosophers and the misosophists: they will want to compromise between two positions for which no coherent compromise is possible.
The philodoxers' stance: "Well, both sides are partially right, but both are too extreme: you know, the answer is probably somewhat near four, but we can't be so rigid as to insist that it is exactly four, can we?"
This last point is why the philodoxers, in the current crisis, are on the side of the misosophists: their desire to compromise and get along allows the misosophists to pull them continually into more and more destructive positions, simply by the misosophists taking up more and more radical positions themselves.
Thus:
The philosophers say "2 + 2 = 4."
The misosophists say "2 + 2 = 5 (at this stage of the revolution)."
The philodoxers say, "Well, let's be reasonable: 2 + 2 equals around 4.5, doesn't it?"
Now the misosophists can simply repeat this process, as follows:
The philosophers say "2 + 2 = 4."
The misosophists say "In the name of progress, we now declare that 2 + 2 = 6. Only haters would claim it is 4!"
The philodoxers say, "Come on, can't we get along: 2 + 2 equals around 5, doesn't it?"
The philosophers say "2 + 2 = 4."
The misosophists say "In the name of progress, we now declare that 2 + 2 = 8."
The philodoxers say, "Well, the middle is sensible: 2 + 2 equals around 6, doesn't it?"
The three major categories of actors in Western politics today -- at first these terms may not make sense, but explanation will follow:
- Philosophers
- Misosophists
- Philodoxers
Philosophers: Here, I use the term in its original sense, as "lovers of truth," not in its modern sense of "people who analyze sentences." First and foremost, philosophers are those who recognize an objective order to the world, one not created by human beings, to which humans are obliged to conform their actions. (This order has, as one of its components, an objective moral order.) This recognized order may be called ma'at, or "the way of heaven", or the Tao, or the law of Karma, or the Law, or dharma, etc. Whatever it is called, the recognition of this order lies at the root of every high human civilization.
It is important to note a great lie here: the misosophists have undertaken a great effort to convince the philodoxers that anyone who recognizes that there is an objective moral order also thinks that they have complete mastery of that order. This lie is as absurd as claiming that anyone who thinks there are real scientific facts thinks they know all scientific facts. Nevertheless, this lie has had great effect in getting people to shut down as soon as anyone even starts mentioning objective moral truths.
The philosophers' stance: "2 + 2 = 4"
Misosophists: The misosophists are the haters of truth. They are in rebellion against any order they themselves have not authorized: in short, they are in rebellion against reality. They wish to impose their own wills on the universe, but, since that is not possible, they generally will accept destroying as much as they can, out of spite. (The great mythical archetype of the misosophists, is, of course, Satan.) Typically they will grab at an ideology that justifies their destructiveness: Communism, Nazism, racism, and so on. But the ideology is just a cover for the will to destroy. That ideology will pick out a scapegoat group upon which to blame all of the world's woes (capitalists, Jews, heterosexual white males, etc.) and try to stir up popular resentment against that group, in order to get others to join in the destruction.
The misosophists' stance: 'The "correrct" answer 2 + 2 has been defined by the [scapegoat group], and we must forge our own, revolutionary answer in order to liberate the people from these oppressors!'
Philodoxers: Philodoxers neither love nor hate truth: they are unconcerned with it. They want to be thought well of by others, and will believe whatever it is they need to believe for that to happen, whether true or not. Thus the philodoxers will go along with whoever is in charge: consider the bulk of the German people, who went along with the Nazis when they were in charge, and simply became nice liberal democrats once liberal democrats were in charge. But the philodoxers are in a pickle in a time of conflict between the philosophers and the misosophists: they will want to compromise between two positions for which no coherent compromise is possible.
The philodoxers' stance: "Well, both sides are partially right, but both are too extreme: you know, the answer is probably somewhat near four, but we can't be so rigid as to insist that it is exactly four, can we?"
This last point is why the philodoxers, in the current crisis, are on the side of the misosophists: their desire to compromise and get along allows the misosophists to pull them continually into more and more destructive positions, simply by the misosophists taking up more and more radical positions themselves.
Thus:
The philosophers say "2 + 2 = 4."
The misosophists say "2 + 2 = 5 (at this stage of the revolution)."
The philodoxers say, "Well, let's be reasonable: 2 + 2 equals around 4.5, doesn't it?"
Now the misosophists can simply repeat this process, as follows:
The philosophers say "2 + 2 = 4."
The misosophists say "In the name of progress, we now declare that 2 + 2 = 6. Only haters would claim it is 4!"
The philodoxers say, "Come on, can't we get along: 2 + 2 equals around 5, doesn't it?"
The misosophists say "In the name of progress, we now declare that 2 + 2 = 8."
The philodoxers say, "Well, the middle is sensible: 2 + 2 equals around 6, doesn't it?"
The philosophers say "2 + 2 = 4."
The misosophists say "In the name of progress, we now declare that 2 + 2 = 12."
The philodoxers say, "2 + 2 is kind of near 8, isn't it?"
And so the history of the last couple of centuries!
The misosophists say "In the name of progress, we now declare that 2 + 2 = 12."
The philodoxers say, "2 + 2 is kind of near 8, isn't it?"
And so the history of the last couple of centuries!
And that's with mere addition! When you talk about the zeros of quadratic equations, you really invite the radicals!
ReplyDeleteI once had an interesting conversation with a communist on Twitter who said that only a communist could make a valid criticism of Stalin. Anyone else could only have the motive of undermining communism, and hence did not have any reasonable view.
ReplyDeleteI pointed out to him that by his logic, only capitalists are qualified to critique capitalism. He did not even defend against this charge, and said, "Of course! I am not interested in reforming capitalism, I want its downfall. Why would I bother?"
This man was a peak misophist. He openly claims that neither he nor his opponents should bother being objective about anything. What matters are your goals and your agenda, and everything else to be twisted according to it.