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A New religiosity: "Woke"

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  • whYNOT changed the title to A New religiosity: "Woke"

Any interest?

JL: "What's scary about wokeness is the portion of people who believe in it are far, far larger than that portion of Bolsheviks..."

In philosophical terms, by the - slow - tectonic shifts of philosophies, this anti-philosophy "Woke" has moved at the speed of light and is embedding deeply into every culture of its target, the West. It is past time that Objectivists can ignore or play it down. One man James Lindsay (and Stephen Hicks) has an enormous conceptual grasp of this cult at every level and must be paid attention.

Do any think it is a rather innocent passing fad? As post-modernism has also not been granted sufficient O'ist attention that I can see.

Politics. Merely one loud and visible by product and symptom of Critical (-) Theory. Just name the issue - social, racial, 'colonial', gender, feminism, equality (etc.) and how many times in latter years did you think: yes, they are not wrong, that's just, those past episodes were not always good, this and these people have my support or sympathy ... to be confronted soon after with the social cause's flip-flop and reversal: E.g. the 'anti-racists' and anti-supremacists reveal that they are the greater racists and the new supremacists. Or, "Cancel Culture" and speech restrictions emerge from the people's natural delicacy of hurting others' feelings. Lindsay registers and identifies the reversal phenomenon. Comes one's realization: With my early support - I did not sign on for THIS. It is my/our capitulation and sacrifice which 'they' demand in compensation and payback.

An appeal to Objectivists. We urgently need to be fiddling less with each 'issue' and sub-issue as they arise and apply ourselves to the over all Woke framework - as a Leftist quasi-religion and cult - to not be too arrogant to learn from and listen to the few intellectuals with expertise. And with understanding attack it at its roots and its manifestations.  But lacking any opposition it has penetrated so efficiently and comprehensively by way of the major institutions, learning, media, social media, corporations and art I'm not sure it is not too late.

 

Edited by whYNOT
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"Woke" isn't the first thing that arisen. Critical Race Theory came before, and before that, the Black Lives Matter movement.

I listened to part of the first clip, but over 3 hours on the second? Objectivism is not about chasing down and refuting every irrationality that arises. Understanding the roots of Objectivism should offer some solace and guidance, at least to someone trying to assemble their own B.S. detector to know that something is amiss and investigate it further.

I have to agree with Yaron Brook here, that the battle for the mind is not going to be won by waging it on the political front. (Actually he says something along the lines that we are not going to change the politics.)

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1 hour ago, dream_weaver said:

"Woke" isn't the first thing that arisen. Critical Race Theory came before, and before that, the Black Lives Matter movement.

 

Woke, as I have seen instances in action and am beginning to understand it is the conglomeration of many things. Aiming at domination. Because of the fact it has not been properly defined, specifically by Objectivists, it has made the inroads it has.

And I am sure you have the order wrong, BLM arrived well after, and largely as consequence of, CRT teachings.

I differ strongly. This is not simply another "irrationality", it is the driving anti-freedom force of this era. And still on the rise with no end in sight. Subjectivist, primacy of consciousness, anti-reason/ individualism - sure, as with any Belief system.

But Objectivists know all that, in principle, when the general populace don't, and can better see these aspects exhibited and infiltrated into the reality of their lives day-to-day. But don't have the intellectual background to put them altogether or fight back.

Lindsay has bridged that reality-philosophical gap very effectively. Where no one else has.

So, do we shrug off this most pressing danger to liberty, reason and individualism from this new Wokeism or combine forces with such as Lindsay to explain it to the larger community and demonstrate its immorality?

NOW- it is all very well for some to say the war won't be won by politics - a bit late - when the inroads into politics have been already made by a 'philosophy' which went mostly unnoticed or whose adherents were patronized complacently for too long. 

 

Edited by whYNOT
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On 6/10/2021 at 3:33 AM, dream_weaver said:

 

I listened to part of the first clip, but over 3 hours on the second? Objectivism is not about chasing down and refuting every irrationality that arises. Understanding the roots of Objectivism should offer some solace and guidance, at least to someone trying to assemble their own B.S. detector to know that something is amiss and investigate it further.

 

At least listen from the 45m mark for about half an hour.

There is enough material that is observably real to all events around one, those anyone can see.

It is not sufficient to understand "the roots of Objectivism", 1. no one exists in a bubble, 2. a mind needs to attain moral clarity. One needs to understand what is now and in future the utmost negation of everything Objectivist, that highly organized cult that's already infected many and insinuating itself into power.

Edited by whYNOT
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I did go back and listen. This is a nice tie-in to the Steven Hicks postmodernism talks.

And article I ran across this morning on Vaccination is Making America Forget a Basic Pandemic Rule also drove the point home. It is filed as https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/06/individualism-still-spoiling-pandemic-response/619133/ and contained at least this following:

From its founding, the United States has cultivated a national mythos around the capacity of individuals to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, ostensibly by their own merits. [Bold mine]

and followed up with this pay-dirt of what is to be cultivated later:

Individualism can be costly in a pandemic. It represents one end of a cultural spectrum with collectivism at the other—independence versus interdependence, “me first” versus “we first.”

Edited by dream_weaver
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57 minutes ago, dream_weaver said:

I did go back and listen. This is a nice tie-in to the Steven Hicks postmodernism talks.

 

I would very much like to hear Hicks and Lindsay getting together, comparing notes. Like Hicks was at the forefront of his field then, Lindsay is now.

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On 6/9/2021 at 5:21 PM, whYNOT said:

We urgently need to be fiddling less with each 'issue' and sub-issue as they arise and apply ourselves to the over all Woke framework - as a Leftist quasi-religion and cult - to not be too arrogant to learn from and listen to the few intellectuals with expertise.

Yes, it's important to grasp the left at an ideological-cultural level. But there is a division of intellectual labor in this effort. Some of us will be better at "fiddling with each issue" and some will be better at analyzing the "overall Woke framework." In any battle you need generals and foot soldiers. Generals look at the big picture (Woke framework) and form strategies and plans. The foot soldiers focus on executing the plans while dealing with particular problems (issues) on the field of battle.

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In one respect, that there are those with greater intellects, vision and knowledge, does the division of intellectual labor hold true, Mr Swig.

As over all, each individual can only be his own combined general and foot soldier. I assume the same for every philosophical thinker here, and Woke isn't anything that can be overcome by single issues, the combat has to be radical and philosophical.

As messenger I am conveying an urgent message to the battlefield by a thinker who has a better grasp than I could have of the roots, causes and nature of this civilisational malaise (which I and any can see plainly the ugly effects of and estimate where it will lead). I think it has not been given more than fleeting attention by O'ists this far.

Edited by whYNOT
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12 minutes ago, whYNOT said:

I think it has not been given more than fleeting attention by O'ists this far.

It was a focus of Objectivists in the late '90s. Then 9/11 happened and the focus changed.

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