Censorship in the Social Media Age covers similar territory. Near the beginning it has this quote.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”
? C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology (Making of Modern Theology)
When you get past a few basic laws: violence, theft, and fraud, isn’t that what politics is always about? I suppose I should add in profit for those who can afford to buy government.
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One response to “The New Counter Culture”
Interesting thesis, this is I think the third time I have heard some variation on it in the last year and a half.
It bears noting that the historical precedent you make note of actually goes back as far as the Roman Empire.
One notable exception is Teotihuacan where all of the exact same paradigm were in place and playing out until the uber wealthy merchant class made the fatal decision of not realigning with the shifting Overtone window of public attitude.
The consequences of their decision are as they say, history. Their entire society collapsed and never recovered.
America does not, as you well pint out not seem predisposed to repeat the error of Teotihuacan. Perhaps because of America’s seamless stratification of the social classes.
While the current crop of leftists decry the traditional American model of meritocratic in their more overt messaging, there are still areas where that traditional American ideology still holds powerful sway.
While they may demand redistribution of the 1% financial assets, they are utterly unwilling to engage in any redistribution of their own academic or intellectual achievements.
Before the left and the right can come together and find common cause, mere persecution is not sufficient. As you note, the convergence of causes will be predicated by a commonality. Not just a commonality of persecution.
It will be a commonality of shared ideas. The persecution will peripatetic the accepted of their common shared values.
Values such as you allude to, liberty, freedom, and social acceptance. There is a old saying, commonly referred to as a “Truism”, which is not to be confused with a true statement of fact.
There are no atheists in a foxhole. It does not mean that atheists never find themselves in foxholes, or that everyone finds religion when their life is genuinely threatened.
What it means is that in genuinely perilous situations human beings set aside their preconceived notions in favor of effective survival strategies.
And even this is not a 100 percent situation as Teotihuacan demonstrated. What it means, is exactly what you said, when your back is against the wall, most people tend to be much more willing to ignore differences than to concentrate on them.
The enemy actively attempting to kill you is a far more pressing concern then the idiot who refuses to agree with your moral or ethical differences.