Eating and Sleeping With the Enemy The problem is that even though people know this, many cannot live with it. So they go to extremes, to extremes that leave the majority of humans as the enemy of the minority. The fact is that many leftists want to impose a totalitarian regime on humanity, where everyone is enslaved, where minorities are subjugated and silenced, where a totalitarian state demands total submission. If this sounds like an exaggeration, then I invite you to read the following chapter, written by a Harvard academic who has studied this issue at length. The title says it all: How to Build an Inclusive Democracy Without Losing It. My take on what they wrote is that this so-called "wokiness" (i.e., leftist identity politics) will have to stop eventually, unless the whole world goes down the tubes. (That's more than a little ironic.) And it's interesting that they are targeting minority groups. The reason for that is that the Left has a hard time convincing people that their ideas will benefit everyone. People can see that for themselves. Therefore, they are focusing on minorities, because minorities are easier to fool. Another aspect of this is that minorities (who have been "gifted" with all sorts of privileges) seem to be the prime people behind "progressive" action. So there is more than just a question of having to educate the public on why Leftism is dangerous to them. This is also a matter of self-preservation. I'm not saying that Leftism is a religion, a cult, or a cult of some sort. I'm just saying that Leftists tend to be more interested in ideas, ideas and ideas, than in anything else. And at the end of the day, ideas are what get people to do stuff, and I don't think many of these people want to participate in any of the action. It is very confusing, because many people tend to feel as if their very identity is being threatened by the Right. But this is a self-deception, because the Right is actually a set of ideas, while Leftism is not. And unless this is stopped, it will continue to degenerate into the same pattern: The Right wants what is good for everyone, while the Left wants what is good for a few. And the Right needs to understand that the more the Left uses ideas, the more people will come to despise Leftists for it. As for the Leftists, they will eventually realize that an effective Leftist movement is one that includes as many people as possible. So in that regard, the Right wins if it can find common ground with the Left. At this point I'm going to pause for a few days to get my thoughts in order. And then I'll go on to the next part of this series, on Western Culture and its decline. But meanwhile, if you enjoyed this series, please check out other parts of the blog by clicking on this icon: Thursday, October 2, 2014 Once Again, a Note about Race, Ethnicity, and Culture I've just started my series on Race and Ethnicity in America. The first thing to say about this series is that one cannot discuss any of this without talking about what constitutes the basis for understanding a person's identity. And I don't believe it's possible to do this without an understanding of what constitutes a culture, which is basically a way of life. For me, there is a difference between a culture, which is the set of values and beliefs, and ethnicity, which is a set of markers (i.e., physical appearance) that people have. But this is not a simple, straightforward concept. Let's take one of the simplest categories: the idea of race. For many years, the dominant notion of race was the idea of a black/white division. And while that did help identify certain ethnic groups, it did not really explain much. It was in fact mostly used for political purposes, to separate certain groups and give them special privileges. It wasn't long until some people began to challenge this, because they realized that there are different kinds of blacks. There are all sorts of colors and colors; there are many shades and shades. Of course that does not mean that some black people do not wish to have a black identity, but rather that some black people have very different beliefs and ways of living. And so this also means that if you are black, you can have any number of cultures that represent your identity. It also means that there is a big difference between saying "I am black" and "I am black African-American." There are different interpretations of the color black. It doesn't necessarily refer to skin color. For example, there is a theory that says black is more of a spiritual thing. And as one writer put it, "black people have to remember their roots and where they come from in the vastness of time." This goes all the way back to ancient Egypt and the Nile River. People then believed that the Nile was inhabited by the spirit of the dead and was therefore black. In fact, this theory states that most human beings, regardless of race or skin color, are white; but some are black and some are red. The theory also mentions that black people were once white. Now, I don't know if any of this is true or not. It may well be that the colors are a projection of human imagination, similar to how people make up their own gods and how they imagine their own god; but there is some truth in this. There is also another common theme in all these theories: that of the origin of human beings. And, again, this does not seem like the sort of thing to be taken seriously. But the idea that humans are descended from another species is not as far-fetched as people might imagine. Anthropologists have written many books about this. They even have a term for it: human zoology. Ancient Egyptians had a tradition of human origins. The Ancient Greeks did the same, as did many ancient cultures in many parts of the world. Some people say that these beliefs are wrong; others say they are right. Anyway, that's just one side of it. It's fascinating to think about these kinds of ideas and how they connect. I know this is a somewhat unusual topic, but people need to know that any concept of race, or any kind of identity, is a cultural construct. And just as there are different cultures, there are different human races, and the idea of race is also very flexible. There is no such thing as a single "black race" (although there are certainly some blacks who would like to think so). You can also find many different views of who has what skin color, etc. And that's true for other ethnic groups as well. Of course some people like to argue that it's only blacks and whites, but this is a form of white privilege; i.e., the belief that because they are white they can only have white identities. But there are plenty of black people who wish to be identified as African, Asian, or Pacific Islander. The key point is that there is a lot of choice when it comes to ethnic identity. And a lot of those choices don't fit neatly into boxes that others have defined for us. So this is what I mean by "cultural construct." The whole point is that all these identities are not so much "real" as they are "imagined." I think people need to have a better understanding of this, because there are many people who think that being white is defined by its racial identity. There are others who define their identities in terms of their place in the socioeconomic pecking order. There are also many who think that having a particular culture (i.e., one defined by its own traditions and beliefs) is defined by skin color or ethnic background. It's just not so. (As usual, I want to stress that I am not saying that all white people are bad; I'm just trying to make sense of this idea of identity.) So this post is just a starting point. I'll be back to this series at some point, but meanwhile, I'll be posting more material here on my other blogs. Saturday, July 12, 2014 The End of American Exceptionalism I think it's becoming very clear that the United States is not very exceptional. And I'm not even talking about race or ethnicity or gender or age or religion. It's true that America has always been "exceptional," but this time it is more like being exceptional for all the wrong reasons. For many people, the United States was a beacon of freedom, of equal opportunity and social justice, of a society that offered all these things and more. But there are many people who now question if this is the case. And I can't blame them. The point is that the United States, once a beacon of freedom and equality, now sees itself as an aggressive power that violates the sovereignty of weaker nations, and this has caused resentment