Article: Wokeness: Old Religion in a New Bottle

[TomAiello]

https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/0...97Cdb31DYWC7sM

Definitely worth the time to read and think about. There are a lot of interesting thoughts here. I've just ordered his book to go deeper into them.

[Sean K.]

Interesting bit from the article: "The line that I use is that, if you believe that your ordinary political opponents are not merely mistaken, but are evil, you have ceased to do politics and begun to do religion."

Not sure I can agree. Probably largely depends on what one's definition of "evil" is. Is intentionally infringing upon another's natural, negative liberty inherently evil or merely a mistake?

and......

"Now, younger people are not going to put up with the hypocrisy of knowing you are a good person but not actually doing anything." Ironic, in light of the blatant hypocrisy in many other areas exhibited by these same 'younger' people.

[TomAiello]

I actually think he's pretty spot on about the evil/reliigion/politics matrix. You see this all the time with social media mobs. They can't just disagree, which is what happened in old fashioned 'civil' politics. Now, you have to attack anyone who disagrees with you as morally reprehensible.

Have you read 'The Smallest Minority'? (https://www.amazon.com/Smallest-Mino.../dp/1621579689)

There are a lot of the same themes with regard to mob rule (which Williamson renders in the original greek form as Ochlocracy). And I really see it a lot in social media mobs that frenzy into action on these issues. I actually want to make my kids read some of this when they are slightly older, to prepare them for their inevitable social media tarring-and-feathering. Assuming that their political views turn out to be even remotely similar to their parents (and in the case of my older daughter I think that's likely because she already has some political views), they're definitely going to be the target of this kind of mob action during their lives, especially during their college years.


> Is intentionally infringing upon another's natural, negative liberty inherently evil or merely a mistake?

I think it's a mistake to think that such infringements are not evil. People supporting them are only making a mistake. That mistake is in not understanding the evils of the actions they support. I don't really see the average supporter of socialism as evil--merely mistaken. Most of the time they are motivated by good intentions (to try to make the world better for everyone around them). They are simply mistaken, both in thinking that the policies they support will achieve that end, and in thinking that infringing the rights of others is somehow 'good' when it is dressed in the cloak of majoritarianism.

[TomAiello]

Another thought;

I think the 'politics as religion' themes really resonated with me because I've often thought the same things.

I feel like the modern political scene is basically a religion--the Church of the Almighty State. Anyone who questions the power of the Almighty State to right all wrongs and solve all problems, and especially anyone who questions the True Benevolence of the Almighty State, is immediately branded a heretic. I've often felt like a heretic--a lonely voice crying out against the dominant religious dogma of our era.

Modern leftists have largely replaced the all knowing, all powerful, all good, deity of previous generations with an all knowing, all powerful, all good state. Yet at the same time they reject the idea of an all powerful and all good deity. It boggles my mind that they refuse to believe in a God, but somehow think that the government is some sort of secular substitute. Modern statist atheists have replaced a supernatural deity with a secular one, yet still they cling to their faith, confident in the omnipotence and benevolence of their God. As an atheist, the inherent hypocrisy and contradiction in this widely held modern belief system frustrates and horrifies me.

What's that Rush line? His mind is not for rent to any God or Government? That's how I feel. It seems like the 'enlightened' elite of the modern world has merely substituted a Government for the old gods, and continues to rent their minds to it without question. Substituting some idealized conception of majority rule and government action for a supernatural deity does not make them atheists--it just makes them a far more dangerous cult.