The last couple months have been definitive, if you ask me.
First, our lefty friends utterly abandoned all the principles of our Anglo-Saxon legal tradition in their hate-filled attacks on a nominee to the Supreme Court. "Believe all women" they cried.
Second, our lefty friends utterly abandoned all principles of decency when they took out after a white Catholic teenager wearing a MAGA hat in the face of a Native American mostly peaceful protester.
I think the two events show our human propensity to go with our faith rather than the facts. And I think that this is both natural and physical.
In other words, I propose that to "keep the faith" with your tribe or your religion, or your family, or the place you work is a fundamental part of being human. I propose that the reason we humans are alive today is in part because of this blind allegiance to "our" side, and our blind hatred for the "other" side.
And I like to say that the big reason for humans "keeping the faith" has been the necessity of defending our own little patch of food-growing land from other people. Nothing wrong with other people. It's just that only one tribe or village at a time can occupy a patch of land and harvest its food. Same thing goes for chimpanzees where the males defend their patch of food-growing land from the males in the neighboring troop. If you don't defend your patch of land from competitors then you soon will be out of food. Curtains, according to philosopher Bugs Bunny.
But then came cities, and then the industrial revolution, and the world changed. All of a sudden, it didn't really matter who owned the patch of land. Because now humans could trade for everything. Now the only thing that mattered was deploying a skill that you could trade for the necessaries of life.
I don't think we really appreciate what a staggering change this is.
By the way, do you remember that "H" word chap? One of the basic principles he propagated in his book was the obvious fact that a people needed to live on their own food-growing land.
Formerly, what humans needed was a firm tribal solidarity so that, at a moment's notice, its young men could be mobilized to defend the border of its patch of land. I dare say that the whole panoply of tribal culture that involves worshiping the same god, loving our tribe, and hating the next tribe over, is all a part of the human need, right until yesterday, to defend the patch of land.
But now everything has changed. Now the question is not how do we figure out new ways to defend our patch of land from other people. Now the question is how do I figure out new ways to increase my skills and create products and services, all so that other people will buy my labor and purchase my products and services.
Do you see the difference? Formerly, other people were a danger. Today, other people are an opportunity.
So, the world has changed.
But, obviously, there are bound to be people that don't get it. And there are bound to be people that, after repeated demonstrations of fundamental transformation, still don't get it. That, after all is what religion and culture and politics is all about. You hold onto your religious, cultural, and political faith even though you are getting signals that everything has changed.
So when Marx and Engels said, in the years when the industrial revolution was starting to hit Germany, that nothing had changed, that the old domination of feudal lords over agricultural peasants would be replaced by the domination of the bourgeoisie over the industrial workers, they had a point. It stood to reason that once the rising bourgeoisie had achieved political and economic hegemony it would rule and dominate just like the feudal barons of old.
Only Marx and Engels were wrong. The bourgeoisie did not become a new feudal elite, and exploit the workers into the ground. They were willing to dilute their power by giving the workers the vote. I like to say that the reason this happened was because the bourgeoisie was not that interested in power.
Too bad, because by the time that the facts on the ground indicated that Marx and Engels were wrong, the two agitators had been transformed into the prophets of a new religion, a religion of believers in the holy commitment to advocate for the wretched of the earth and lead them in a political movement against the bourgeoisie and its program of domination and exploitation that the prophets had foretold.
But I don't want you to think that this disinterest in power demonstrated any particular virtue in the bourgeoisie. It is just that in the bourgeois religion and culture and experience it pays to get along with other people as co-workers, as customers, as clients, as lenders, as borrowers. So that is what bourgeois people do.
The problem is that the movement that Marx and Engels created is based on the old principle of implacable opposition between my group and your group. It didn't matter that the facts on the ground belied the lefty faith in class conflict. Humans live by faith. And when our human faith is challenged we tend to redouble our faith rather than question it. By the time that facts on the ground indicated that Marx and Engels were wrong the new religion was in the saddle and propagating its faith all over the world.
And just in time a new generation of prophets arose. When World War I demonstrated that the old class conflict theory was problematic, because the workers identified with their nation before their class, a new generation of prophets prophesied the white male exploitation of women and minorities.
OK, so in the Sixties, the males and the whites were persuaded to accede to Civil Rights Acts to guarantee rights for women and minorities. Once again, the broad middle class demonstrated that it was not that interested in power. It was perfectly willing to allow women and minorities into the charmed circle of male white privilege. (Dirty little secret: it is not power that makes the world go round, not any more; so the evil white male monsters were not giving up the philosopher's stone or the Ring of Power).
But the Faith! The Faith in the power of educated enlightened activists to Smash the Power! Just because the world has demonstrated that Power is not the only thing, or not even much of a thing at all, that has nothing to do with the Faith of educated white ruling-class activists of good family in the sacred calling of activism to save the wretched of the earth from oppression and exploitation with the Ring of Transformative Political Power.
And this is what we are seeing. People, especially white liberal ruling-class people, are interpreting the images of the day in the light of their faith. In the affair of Brett Kavanaugh the faithful did not see the monstrous injustice of using un-corroborated accusations from high-school days. What mattered was their faith in abortion and their terror that their abortion rights might some day be reduced -- and this from women mostly beyond their child-bearing years. People, especially white liberal ruling-class people, are interpreting the Covington Kid as a smirking toxic white male oppressor. They do not see the vile racism of black religious cultists that had spent a hour yelling vile racist, sexist, homophobic slurs at the kids. They do not see the vile bigotry of a Native American forcing his drumming culture in the faces of people that maybe weren't all that interested in Native American drumming culture. They saw nothing except what their faith taught them to see: a white male kid in a MAGA hat "smirking" at a helpless Native American victim.
My point is that the faith of our liberal masters believes in a world in which racism sexism and homophobia are everywhere. It is not surprising that, in faithful observance of their faith, our liberal masters do in fact find racism, sexism, and homophobia everywhere they expect to find it. That is the whole point of faith.
And our liberal masters are utterly oblivious of the fact that their program of Affirmative Action that became diversity and inclusion is racism and sexism, straight up. Their program uses government power to privilege people according to their race and gender.
But have some compassion for these poor deluded ruling-class folks. They are merely believing and practicing what they have been carefully taught, to hate and to fear the people that their teachers have told them are racists, sexists, and homophobes.
At some point, I think, our liberal masters are going to experience a crisis of belief, when the world will start to crash in on their walled garden of faith, and it will suddenly start to dawn on them that everything they believe is a lie, including "and" and "the."
In my view these crises of belief occur in witch-hunting events that we also call a Reign of Terror, a Great Purge, or a Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The crisis occurs because the saving faith of a revolution is not quite delivering on its promises. So the faithful amp up the voltage, because obviously the only way to bring on the millennium is to start eletrocuting the heretics.
And then the whole thing collapses in a Thermidorian Reaction.
Of course, this natural and physical process of purging might take years, even decades. But you never know. It might all be over tomorrow, or possibly November 4, 2020.
First, our lefty friends utterly abandoned all the principles of our Anglo-Saxon legal tradition in their hate-filled attacks on a nominee to the Supreme Court. "Believe all women" they cried.
Second, our lefty friends utterly abandoned all principles of decency when they took out after a white Catholic teenager wearing a MAGA hat in the face of a Native American mostly peaceful protester.
I think the two events show our human propensity to go with our faith rather than the facts. And I think that this is both natural and physical.
In other words, I propose that to "keep the faith" with your tribe or your religion, or your family, or the place you work is a fundamental part of being human. I propose that the reason we humans are alive today is in part because of this blind allegiance to "our" side, and our blind hatred for the "other" side.
And I like to say that the big reason for humans "keeping the faith" has been the necessity of defending our own little patch of food-growing land from other people. Nothing wrong with other people. It's just that only one tribe or village at a time can occupy a patch of land and harvest its food. Same thing goes for chimpanzees where the males defend their patch of food-growing land from the males in the neighboring troop. If you don't defend your patch of land from competitors then you soon will be out of food. Curtains, according to philosopher Bugs Bunny.
But then came cities, and then the industrial revolution, and the world changed. All of a sudden, it didn't really matter who owned the patch of land. Because now humans could trade for everything. Now the only thing that mattered was deploying a skill that you could trade for the necessaries of life.
I don't think we really appreciate what a staggering change this is.
By the way, do you remember that "H" word chap? One of the basic principles he propagated in his book was the obvious fact that a people needed to live on their own food-growing land.
Formerly, what humans needed was a firm tribal solidarity so that, at a moment's notice, its young men could be mobilized to defend the border of its patch of land. I dare say that the whole panoply of tribal culture that involves worshiping the same god, loving our tribe, and hating the next tribe over, is all a part of the human need, right until yesterday, to defend the patch of land.
But now everything has changed. Now the question is not how do we figure out new ways to defend our patch of land from other people. Now the question is how do I figure out new ways to increase my skills and create products and services, all so that other people will buy my labor and purchase my products and services.
Do you see the difference? Formerly, other people were a danger. Today, other people are an opportunity.
So, the world has changed.
But, obviously, there are bound to be people that don't get it. And there are bound to be people that, after repeated demonstrations of fundamental transformation, still don't get it. That, after all is what religion and culture and politics is all about. You hold onto your religious, cultural, and political faith even though you are getting signals that everything has changed.
So when Marx and Engels said, in the years when the industrial revolution was starting to hit Germany, that nothing had changed, that the old domination of feudal lords over agricultural peasants would be replaced by the domination of the bourgeoisie over the industrial workers, they had a point. It stood to reason that once the rising bourgeoisie had achieved political and economic hegemony it would rule and dominate just like the feudal barons of old.
Only Marx and Engels were wrong. The bourgeoisie did not become a new feudal elite, and exploit the workers into the ground. They were willing to dilute their power by giving the workers the vote. I like to say that the reason this happened was because the bourgeoisie was not that interested in power.
Too bad, because by the time that the facts on the ground indicated that Marx and Engels were wrong, the two agitators had been transformed into the prophets of a new religion, a religion of believers in the holy commitment to advocate for the wretched of the earth and lead them in a political movement against the bourgeoisie and its program of domination and exploitation that the prophets had foretold.
But I don't want you to think that this disinterest in power demonstrated any particular virtue in the bourgeoisie. It is just that in the bourgeois religion and culture and experience it pays to get along with other people as co-workers, as customers, as clients, as lenders, as borrowers. So that is what bourgeois people do.
The problem is that the movement that Marx and Engels created is based on the old principle of implacable opposition between my group and your group. It didn't matter that the facts on the ground belied the lefty faith in class conflict. Humans live by faith. And when our human faith is challenged we tend to redouble our faith rather than question it. By the time that facts on the ground indicated that Marx and Engels were wrong the new religion was in the saddle and propagating its faith all over the world.
And just in time a new generation of prophets arose. When World War I demonstrated that the old class conflict theory was problematic, because the workers identified with their nation before their class, a new generation of prophets prophesied the white male exploitation of women and minorities.
OK, so in the Sixties, the males and the whites were persuaded to accede to Civil Rights Acts to guarantee rights for women and minorities. Once again, the broad middle class demonstrated that it was not that interested in power. It was perfectly willing to allow women and minorities into the charmed circle of male white privilege. (Dirty little secret: it is not power that makes the world go round, not any more; so the evil white male monsters were not giving up the philosopher's stone or the Ring of Power).
But the Faith! The Faith in the power of educated enlightened activists to Smash the Power! Just because the world has demonstrated that Power is not the only thing, or not even much of a thing at all, that has nothing to do with the Faith of educated white ruling-class activists of good family in the sacred calling of activism to save the wretched of the earth from oppression and exploitation with the Ring of Transformative Political Power.
And this is what we are seeing. People, especially white liberal ruling-class people, are interpreting the images of the day in the light of their faith. In the affair of Brett Kavanaugh the faithful did not see the monstrous injustice of using un-corroborated accusations from high-school days. What mattered was their faith in abortion and their terror that their abortion rights might some day be reduced -- and this from women mostly beyond their child-bearing years. People, especially white liberal ruling-class people, are interpreting the Covington Kid as a smirking toxic white male oppressor. They do not see the vile racism of black religious cultists that had spent a hour yelling vile racist, sexist, homophobic slurs at the kids. They do not see the vile bigotry of a Native American forcing his drumming culture in the faces of people that maybe weren't all that interested in Native American drumming culture. They saw nothing except what their faith taught them to see: a white male kid in a MAGA hat "smirking" at a helpless Native American victim.
My point is that the faith of our liberal masters believes in a world in which racism sexism and homophobia are everywhere. It is not surprising that, in faithful observance of their faith, our liberal masters do in fact find racism, sexism, and homophobia everywhere they expect to find it. That is the whole point of faith.
And our liberal masters are utterly oblivious of the fact that their program of Affirmative Action that became diversity and inclusion is racism and sexism, straight up. Their program uses government power to privilege people according to their race and gender.
But have some compassion for these poor deluded ruling-class folks. They are merely believing and practicing what they have been carefully taught, to hate and to fear the people that their teachers have told them are racists, sexists, and homophobes.
At some point, I think, our liberal masters are going to experience a crisis of belief, when the world will start to crash in on their walled garden of faith, and it will suddenly start to dawn on them that everything they believe is a lie, including "and" and "the."
In my view these crises of belief occur in witch-hunting events that we also call a Reign of Terror, a Great Purge, or a Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The crisis occurs because the saving faith of a revolution is not quite delivering on its promises. So the faithful amp up the voltage, because obviously the only way to bring on the millennium is to start eletrocuting the heretics.
And then the whole thing collapses in a Thermidorian Reaction.
Of course, this natural and physical process of purging might take years, even decades. But you never know. It might all be over tomorrow, or possibly November 4, 2020.
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