It is fascinating what some seemingly otherwise intelligent people will believe. It is also interesting to me how little educated people actually know. Our education system is a disaster
It is fascinating what some seemingly otherwise intelligent people will believe. It is also interesting to me how little educated people actually know. Our education system is a disaster
History is filled with ostensibly intelligent classes of people who, from the outside, were utterly clueless. The French aristocracy of late 18th century France were surely the best educated people in France and we all know what happened.
The answer lies not so much in intelligence but the belief system that people subscribe to as the "good" and thus morally righteous set of beliefs and values, and that overrides all intelligence. The Ancien Regime in France became helpless because they could not override their inherent belief in the superiority of an aristocratic regime as the good and morally righteous form of governing, after all, it underpinned their value system and to decry it or criticize it was to only criticize yourself in turn. Members of their class who spoke against aristocratic privilege or the divine rights of kings were seen as betrayers, and even fools, for how could one ever allow the uneducated commoners peasantry rule themselves!
The progressive left has clearly evolved sharply away from a hardfast commitment to core American classic liberal liberties (freedom of speech, press, individualism) because they no longer identify those principles as simultaneous with what they now define as the good society. This is not a surprise as historically, the left has been more likely to subscribe to a rousseauesque society where all individuals are subservient to the greater good society because, after all, it's the greater good that counts (notice how this applied equally to socialism and fascism, both are heirs to Rousseau even if coming from different directions).
Even more dangerous is the growing belief among the progressive left that the very same American principles are now a threat to the good society they envision.
So they see no danger or hypocrisy in censorship or pushing certain media narratives or entrenching CRT into academia, for all are required as part of bringing about this new good society.
Agreed. More basically, these kinds of things happen when people believe "the truth" and "the good" are knowable and static things. These beliefs becomes dangerous when they are held by rulers. They happen in any ideology. The (imperfect) antidotes have been democracy and modern science.
"Our education system is a disaster" It's a feature, not a bug. The big lie is that our institutions are capable and willing to prepare young Americans for a truth-seeking, fulfilling path to well-educated citizenry. After secondary education. universities then get to fleece students for tens of thousands, telling you everything you learned in school was a lie. This only "irritates [you] and [while professors] enjoy the illusion of rebelling without ever having to challenge the System's basic values" (thanks Uncle Ted.) At this stage, American history education (exception of slavery and "genocide" chapters) is the only thing holding this nation together, and who knows for how much longer as we spiral into the abyss of idpol and "what can my country do for me" entropy.
Oh, were it so! If true, they could willfully turn away. Our academia are in an ever smaller bubble of limited intelligence, rebreathing their own air in analog terms, or stuck in a feedback loop in digital terms. No fresh air, no sunlight, but they canтАЩt see it. ThatтАЩs not willful ignorance, thatтАЩs blind ignorance.
It is fascinating what some seemingly otherwise intelligent people will believe. It is also interesting to me how little educated people actually know. Our education system is a disaster
History is filled with ostensibly intelligent classes of people who, from the outside, were utterly clueless. The French aristocracy of late 18th century France were surely the best educated people in France and we all know what happened.
The answer lies not so much in intelligence but the belief system that people subscribe to as the "good" and thus morally righteous set of beliefs and values, and that overrides all intelligence. The Ancien Regime in France became helpless because they could not override their inherent belief in the superiority of an aristocratic regime as the good and morally righteous form of governing, after all, it underpinned their value system and to decry it or criticize it was to only criticize yourself in turn. Members of their class who spoke against aristocratic privilege or the divine rights of kings were seen as betrayers, and even fools, for how could one ever allow the uneducated commoners peasantry rule themselves!
The progressive left has clearly evolved sharply away from a hardfast commitment to core American classic liberal liberties (freedom of speech, press, individualism) because they no longer identify those principles as simultaneous with what they now define as the good society. This is not a surprise as historically, the left has been more likely to subscribe to a rousseauesque society where all individuals are subservient to the greater good society because, after all, it's the greater good that counts (notice how this applied equally to socialism and fascism, both are heirs to Rousseau even if coming from different directions).
Even more dangerous is the growing belief among the progressive left that the very same American principles are now a threat to the good society they envision.
So they see no danger or hypocrisy in censorship or pushing certain media narratives or entrenching CRT into academia, for all are required as part of bringing about this new good society.
Agreed. More basically, these kinds of things happen when people believe "the truth" and "the good" are knowable and static things. These beliefs becomes dangerous when they are held by rulers. They happen in any ideology. The (imperfect) antidotes have been democracy and modern science.
ItтАЩs The Hunger Games, but with woke-hunting,virtue signalling, and reality TV instead of staged slaughter.
Nicely written.
"Our education system is a disaster" It's a feature, not a bug. The big lie is that our institutions are capable and willing to prepare young Americans for a truth-seeking, fulfilling path to well-educated citizenry. After secondary education. universities then get to fleece students for tens of thousands, telling you everything you learned in school was a lie. This only "irritates [you] and [while professors] enjoy the illusion of rebelling without ever having to challenge the System's basic values" (thanks Uncle Ted.) At this stage, American history education (exception of slavery and "genocide" chapters) is the only thing holding this nation together, and who knows for how much longer as we spiral into the abyss of idpol and "what can my country do for me" entropy.
Isn't it just willful ignorance?
Oh, were it so! If true, they could willfully turn away. Our academia are in an ever smaller bubble of limited intelligence, rebreathing their own air in analog terms, or stuck in a feedback loop in digital terms. No fresh air, no sunlight, but they canтАЩt see it. ThatтАЩs not willful ignorance, thatтАЩs blind ignorance.