The foundation of our new moral order is the idea of STIGMA and its eradiction or reversal in the name of Justice and Equality, the sacred abstractions that take the place of God in our liberal, secular dispensation.
"Nobody is setting up a program in unemployed studies, homeless studies or trailer-park studies because these people are not ‘other’ in the relevant sense. To be other in this sense you must bear an ineradicable stigma, one which makes you a victim of socially accepted sadism rather than merely economic selfishness." Richard Rorty
"Stigma, to be honest, is more dangerous than the virus itself. Let's really underline that. Stigma is the most dangerous enemy," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in 2020 at the start of Covid.
That last quote tells you all you need to know about the sacred beliefs of our global technocratic leadership class: at the start of a global pandemic, when it was still possible that we had a new Black Plague on our hands, Stigma was claimed to be more important than life or death itself, a value higher than humans, their families or their societies.
But the goal of this crusade is not the eradication of Stigma, but its reversal or transference, moving from groups and people who once bore it to groups and people who once benefited from it: hence things like anti-racism which is a project to shift the Mark of Cain from black people to white people, or "cis" privilege, which aims to take the shame felt by gay or Trans people and place it on the people who mock or oppose them. (This is all a perfect example of Nietzsche's "Transvaluation of Values").
It seems like human societies always need taboos, In and Out Groups, Good/Evil and their incarnations, and the Crit Theorists were brilliant in how they captured post-Civil Rights morality and gave it a hard-edged Marxist Manichaean twist—with bigotry accusations working for them in the same way as accusations of atheism and heresy worked in prior centuries for prior theocrats.
Social Justice morality seems to me to be the inevitable terminus of secular multiethnic liberal societies, where the Self and its feelings of worth and safety become the new sacred, and as the years pass this new morality may lose some of its punitive force and anger, but I doubt it's going anywhere anytime soon.
I think that idea of shifting stigma is under-appreciated in discussions around current cultural upheaval. What seems fixed is that *someone* is always stigmatized. As if we need it to be so.
it's funny how the people who claim we can move any group X into the homeland of any group Y and all will be well are often vicious tribalists and the (often same) people who claim we must eradicate all stigma are usually found stigmatizing anyone who refuses to go along.
we are tribal beasts who use stigma and scapegoating to make our chosen group stronger and more tightly bonded and to cast out any enemies and/or dissenters—this is also often a way for someone to ascend their tribal hierarchy.
one thing for sure is that we humans will always be blind to our shadows and never be able to see how much we incarnate all we claim to oppose.
That was my first shock realisation, 8 years ago, when I suddenly saw that 'my side' (at that time) had become exactly like those we opposed. (You should still have your own stack BTW 😊)
But here in the comments of Club "I used to be a liberal until liberals denounced and renounced every liberal principle" I like mingling with the crowd but wouldn't want to be up on the stage.
The foundation of our new moral order is the idea of STIGMA and its eradiction or reversal in the name of Justice and Equality, the sacred abstractions that take the place of God in our liberal, secular dispensation.
"Nobody is setting up a program in unemployed studies, homeless studies or trailer-park studies because these people are not ‘other’ in the relevant sense. To be other in this sense you must bear an ineradicable stigma, one which makes you a victim of socially accepted sadism rather than merely economic selfishness." Richard Rorty
"Stigma, to be honest, is more dangerous than the virus itself. Let's really underline that. Stigma is the most dangerous enemy," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in 2020 at the start of Covid.
That last quote tells you all you need to know about the sacred beliefs of our global technocratic leadership class: at the start of a global pandemic, when it was still possible that we had a new Black Plague on our hands, Stigma was claimed to be more important than life or death itself, a value higher than humans, their families or their societies.
But the goal of this crusade is not the eradication of Stigma, but its reversal or transference, moving from groups and people who once bore it to groups and people who once benefited from it: hence things like anti-racism which is a project to shift the Mark of Cain from black people to white people, or "cis" privilege, which aims to take the shame felt by gay or Trans people and place it on the people who mock or oppose them. (This is all a perfect example of Nietzsche's "Transvaluation of Values").
It seems like human societies always need taboos, In and Out Groups, Good/Evil and their incarnations, and the Crit Theorists were brilliant in how they captured post-Civil Rights morality and gave it a hard-edged Marxist Manichaean twist—with bigotry accusations working for them in the same way as accusations of atheism and heresy worked in prior centuries for prior theocrats.
Social Justice morality seems to me to be the inevitable terminus of secular multiethnic liberal societies, where the Self and its feelings of worth and safety become the new sacred, and as the years pass this new morality may lose some of its punitive force and anger, but I doubt it's going anywhere anytime soon.
I think that idea of shifting stigma is under-appreciated in discussions around current cultural upheaval. What seems fixed is that *someone* is always stigmatized. As if we need it to be so.
it's funny how the people who claim we can move any group X into the homeland of any group Y and all will be well are often vicious tribalists and the (often same) people who claim we must eradicate all stigma are usually found stigmatizing anyone who refuses to go along.
we are tribal beasts who use stigma and scapegoating to make our chosen group stronger and more tightly bonded and to cast out any enemies and/or dissenters—this is also often a way for someone to ascend their tribal hierarchy.
one thing for sure is that we humans will always be blind to our shadows and never be able to see how much we incarnate all we claim to oppose.
That was my first shock realisation, 8 years ago, when I suddenly saw that 'my side' (at that time) had become exactly like those we opposed. (You should still have your own stack BTW 😊)
Thanks!
But here in the comments of Club "I used to be a liberal until liberals denounced and renounced every liberal principle" I like mingling with the crowd but wouldn't want to be up on the stage.
Cheers!
…and how do we plane the sacred heights of our moral taboos down to size?
New stories via movies, novels, social media memes
Hopefully the students of Buckingham Uni will be in the vanguard - its a veritable mountain to climb