So it's a "Pasha Antipov becomes Strelnikov" sort of thing - as it always is. My theory is that it's human nature, our tendency to overdo absolutely everything. We get into a group/a movement/a tribe/a cult/a religion and we plunge into it whole hog, egging each other on, pushing the boundaries, till the original good idea is completely distorted into something unrecognizable. And this defect is only exacerbated by today's online groups, which hasten this destructive process by orders of magnitude. No one is immune.
I've read some of these too and my fave quote is from Adorno:
"I established a theoretical model of thought. How could I have suspected that people would want to implement it with Molotov cocktails?"
And there we see the major chasm between the realm of thought and the real of action.
Refined, gentle and bookish intellectuals can never imagine how angrier and more brutal people will implement their ideas. Every time their theoretical revolutionary fantasies escape the lab, much more is destroyed than built.
No, I disagree with the edit. I've seen how my ideas, stated by me, have been implemented wrongly by children, my peers. I've seen the same with my mother, my cousin... In The Reflections in the Golden Eye, the officer played by Marlon Brando gives precse orders how to prun the greenery, and the private butchers it. It's not just that we shouldn't ascribe malice when stupidity can explain it (I disagree, there are conspiracies), but people's mindsets are vastly varied and lead to gross results and often needless conflicts (see Erin Meyer's "Culture Map").
I was really sad today to read that a writer I used to like reading in Canada, Sarah Anne Lawless, is on the side of the power narrative (definitely Left Fascism!) of PM Trudeau. She used to understand that vast power and money were not protective of the small and vulnerable, or of Nature- I wonder, did she start watching television or something (with all the pharmaceutical ads)?
Yes, I understand. But to read that she does not comprehend who JT is the puppet for, and that they are not in the slightest concerned about health, except for how it can control and domesticate human cattle (they don't believe in the rights of non-human nature), made me sad.
I was reading her posts on Twitter. She was subscribing to the view that "all the truckers" were white supremacists/racists (and I'm sure a few exist, but Drs. Paul Alexander and Roger Hodgkinson don't fit that, nor does law professor Bruce Pardy or the Canadian charter rights lawyers, nor do Sikh truck owners, or Jewish Viva Frei, etc. etc., all supporters of the convoy). Sarah Anne seems to be subscribing to "safetyism," as it's called here in US. If she personally knew of violence against people like herself, I'd excuse, but she is doing exactly what Rhyd is describing in his post today - virtue signalling.
Ah, okay, thanks. I don't do twitter. I do think there is a danger of the truckers' legitimate concerns being co-opted by foreign (US) agendas. I think the situation is complicated and is becoming more muddled as time goes on. I'm not in Ottawa, I don't know any truckers, I don't have complete information about any of it and don't feel I can make a judgment right now. Right wing groups are jubilant about the situation and clearly enjoying their "Trudeau as authoritarian" moment. Left wing groups are claiming that it's an Astroturf situation, that the grievances have been manufactured by Q-Anon conspiracy theorists who deserve to be shut down. I think that probably the truth lies somewhere in between, but like I said, I don't know enough about it to judge.
Points well taken, and that situation reminds me of the US. The only people who have been having problems with govt overreach here have been Right-wing people with whom I would never before have aligned, and prominent Left spokespeople (Dr Naomi Wolf, others) have all observed this. The Left in the US has never had a problem with the World Economic Forum - it was a Left-aligned woman in Philadelphia, Alison McDowell, who educated me about them, not anyone prominent Left or Right. The idea that there are not elites at the top internationally who long for totalitarian governments is a sleepy dream on the part of the Left, as far as I am concerned. Just as the Right may co-opt parts of movements like truckers, so everyone who chants appropriate "Left" aligned slogans does not mean it. Everyone who gets agitated about diversity really does not want to change our economic system or deal with the economic aspects of racism. And having worked for a multinational corporation, and a regulatory office that dealt with multinationals in my life, I don't trust that level at all. And most "liberals" and lefties in the US & Canada blindly do. They trust what in the US is called The Cathedral - the huge power and money structure that tells most liberals what to care about. It's like not worrying about Big Tech but getting all agitated about the Koch Brothers. Both are a problem in my view.
Good one. I was a student during that era and was repulsed by that behavior.
- A talk by Norman Mailer in Berkeley was interrupted by someone in a giant penis costume.
- A student threw rotten fruit at Saul Alinsky who was giving a class I was taking.
And much more.
It wasn't universal, of course, but there was a mood of craziness that encouraged it. I don't think I would call it left fascism. It was too disorganized and incoherent.
The experience soured me on student activism and pushed me in the direction of organized labor and the traditional left.
Wow. This is gold.
So it's a "Pasha Antipov becomes Strelnikov" sort of thing - as it always is. My theory is that it's human nature, our tendency to overdo absolutely everything. We get into a group/a movement/a tribe/a cult/a religion and we plunge into it whole hog, egging each other on, pushing the boundaries, till the original good idea is completely distorted into something unrecognizable. And this defect is only exacerbated by today's online groups, which hasten this destructive process by orders of magnitude. No one is immune.
Was it Nietzsche or Jung who said in time everything becomes its opposite?
I've read some of these too and my fave quote is from Adorno:
"I established a theoretical model of thought. How could I have suspected that people would want to implement it with Molotov cocktails?"
And there we see the major chasm between the realm of thought and the real of action.
Refined, gentle and bookish intellectuals can never imagine how angrier and more brutal people will implement their ideas. Every time their theoretical revolutionary fantasies escape the lab, much more is destroyed than built.
"Refined, gentle and bookish intellectuals can never imagine how angrier and more brutal people will implement their ideas"
I would agree although I would change the word "implement" to "exploit".
And it's done very shrewdly. And totally out in the open.
yes i will accept your edit ;)
No, I disagree with the edit. I've seen how my ideas, stated by me, have been implemented wrongly by children, my peers. I've seen the same with my mother, my cousin... In The Reflections in the Golden Eye, the officer played by Marlon Brando gives precse orders how to prun the greenery, and the private butchers it. It's not just that we shouldn't ascribe malice when stupidity can explain it (I disagree, there are conspiracies), but people's mindsets are vastly varied and lead to gross results and often needless conflicts (see Erin Meyer's "Culture Map").
I was really sad today to read that a writer I used to like reading in Canada, Sarah Anne Lawless, is on the side of the power narrative (definitely Left Fascism!) of PM Trudeau. She used to understand that vast power and money were not protective of the small and vulnerable, or of Nature- I wonder, did she start watching television or something (with all the pharmaceutical ads)?
But I still like her salves.
Yes, I understand. But to read that she does not comprehend who JT is the puppet for, and that they are not in the slightest concerned about health, except for how it can control and domesticate human cattle (they don't believe in the rights of non-human nature), made me sad.
Could you give me a link to her comments? I don't know where to find them. Thanks.
I was reading her posts on Twitter. She was subscribing to the view that "all the truckers" were white supremacists/racists (and I'm sure a few exist, but Drs. Paul Alexander and Roger Hodgkinson don't fit that, nor does law professor Bruce Pardy or the Canadian charter rights lawyers, nor do Sikh truck owners, or Jewish Viva Frei, etc. etc., all supporters of the convoy). Sarah Anne seems to be subscribing to "safetyism," as it's called here in US. If she personally knew of violence against people like herself, I'd excuse, but she is doing exactly what Rhyd is describing in his post today - virtue signalling.
Ah, okay, thanks. I don't do twitter. I do think there is a danger of the truckers' legitimate concerns being co-opted by foreign (US) agendas. I think the situation is complicated and is becoming more muddled as time goes on. I'm not in Ottawa, I don't know any truckers, I don't have complete information about any of it and don't feel I can make a judgment right now. Right wing groups are jubilant about the situation and clearly enjoying their "Trudeau as authoritarian" moment. Left wing groups are claiming that it's an Astroturf situation, that the grievances have been manufactured by Q-Anon conspiracy theorists who deserve to be shut down. I think that probably the truth lies somewhere in between, but like I said, I don't know enough about it to judge.
Points well taken, and that situation reminds me of the US. The only people who have been having problems with govt overreach here have been Right-wing people with whom I would never before have aligned, and prominent Left spokespeople (Dr Naomi Wolf, others) have all observed this. The Left in the US has never had a problem with the World Economic Forum - it was a Left-aligned woman in Philadelphia, Alison McDowell, who educated me about them, not anyone prominent Left or Right. The idea that there are not elites at the top internationally who long for totalitarian governments is a sleepy dream on the part of the Left, as far as I am concerned. Just as the Right may co-opt parts of movements like truckers, so everyone who chants appropriate "Left" aligned slogans does not mean it. Everyone who gets agitated about diversity really does not want to change our economic system or deal with the economic aspects of racism. And having worked for a multinational corporation, and a regulatory office that dealt with multinationals in my life, I don't trust that level at all. And most "liberals" and lefties in the US & Canada blindly do. They trust what in the US is called The Cathedral - the huge power and money structure that tells most liberals what to care about. It's like not worrying about Big Tech but getting all agitated about the Koch Brothers. Both are a problem in my view.
Good one. I was a student during that era and was repulsed by that behavior.
- A talk by Norman Mailer in Berkeley was interrupted by someone in a giant penis costume.
- A student threw rotten fruit at Saul Alinsky who was giving a class I was taking.
And much more.
It wasn't universal, of course, but there was a mood of craziness that encouraged it. I don't think I would call it left fascism. It was too disorganized and incoherent.
The experience soured me on student activism and pushed me in the direction of organized labor and the traditional left.