Re: US Foreign Policy Is A War On Disobedience - Caitlin Johnstone Archived Message
Posted by turtleman on July 8, 2019, 1:17 pm, in reply to "Re: US Foreign Policy Is A War On Disobedience - Caitlin Johnstone"
"it never came anywhere close to having a universal reach. I posited the notion that State Violence and State Control militates against such ideas gaining universal traction." Actually, the traditional values of honesty, kindness, dignity, courage and self-control have long been universally recognized as the true and good ideal. Are these ideals universally achieved by individuals. No. Of course not. Nor will it ever be universally achieved. Nurture and education is one thing, but engineering humanity in any direction is a pretty bad idea. And it seemed you were conflating the state, the culture and the individual. I was talking about the individual imperative to be strong, honest and smart, and the need for teachers and writers to inspire individuals in that direction. I reiterate this in light of those blundering lines from CJ, in the context of this culture-wide trend to promote inverse values born out of ressentiment, ingratitude, self-delusion, narcissism and rage. And I am NOT accusing CJ of intentionally promoting irrational radicalism. I am simply pointing out the potential effect of those lines in question on some of her fans stewed in Grievance Studies and so on. And I simply wanted to emphasize the danger of peddling the need for "wildly new" ideas. The truth is neither new nor old! A few hundred years of wildly new ideas and directions have brought us swiftly to the edge of the abyss. I am accusing neither you nor CJ of pushing us closer to that abyss, or abandoning good values. I am simply pointing out errors of thinking that encourage, and ally ourselves with insidious characters and philosophical trends. Like it or lump it, and no offense or confusion intended. turtleman
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