The Death Of Individualism -- It's Gotten Its Start On Campus
Andrew Sullivan has a piece in NY Mag that starts out with the question some ask, why we should care what's happening on campus: "These are students, after all. They'll grow up once they leave their cloistered, neo-Marxist safe spaces. The real world isn't like that. You're exaggerating anyway. And so on."
Sullivan explains how this poisons the waters of the culture at large:
When elite universities shift their entire worldview away from liberal education as we have long known it toward the imperatives of an identity-based "social justice" movement, the broader culture is in danger of drifting away from liberal democracy as well. If elites believe that the core truth of our society is a system of interlocking and oppressive power structures based around immutable characteristics like race or sex or sexual orientation, then sooner rather than later, this will be reflected in our culture at large. What matters most of all in these colleges -- your membership in a group that is embedded in a hierarchy of oppression -- will soon enough be what matters in the society as a whole.And, sure enough, the whole concept of an individual who exists apart from group identity is slipping from the discourse. The idea of individual merit -- as opposed to various forms of unearned "privilege" -- is increasingly suspect. The Enlightenment principles that formed the bedrock of the American experiment -- untrammeled free speech, due process, individual (rather than group) rights -- are now routinely understood as mere masks for "white male" power, code words for the oppression of women and nonwhites. Any differences in outcome for various groups must always be a function of "hate," rather than a function of nature or choice or freedom or individual agency. And anyone who questions these assertions is obviously a white supremacist himself.
This is just disgusting:
Many media organizations now have various private, invitation-only Slack groups among their staffers -- and they are often self-segregated into various gender and racial categories along classic campus "safe space" lines. No men are allowed in women's slack; no non-p.o.c.s in the people-of-color slack; and so on. And, of course, there are no such venues for men -- in this Orwellian world, some groups are more equal than others. At The Atlantic, the identity obsession even requires exhaustive analyses of the identity of sources quoted in stories. Ed Yong, a science writer, keeps "a personal list of women and people of color who work in the beats that I usually cover," so he can make sure that he advances diversity even in his quotes.
As a socially awkward kid, I was excluded throughout most of my childhood and teen years from all sorts of groups and cliques.
I'm guessing the people who engage in this behavior -- promoting certain people (of the "correct" color), excluding white people (and especially heterosexual white males) -- are disgusted by the golf clubs that exclude blacks and Jews.
Yet Ed Yong unabashedly discriminates -- sees it as a good thing.
Awful.
How is it any better to use somebody because they are not white than it is to use somebody because they are white?
Via Claire Lehmann, my kind of editor and human being. She tweets in response to that bit about Slack and Yong's racial preference quote list:
Doesn't happen & will never happen at @QuilletteM. How embarrassing & tokenistic. https://t.co/x1M3JRJGN0 pic.twitter.com/kcxdebuvcL
— Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon) February 9, 2018
A response to Claire:
It's sad that they think so lowly of their writers that they wouldn't generally seek diversity of opinion and perspective that they force them into such tokenism. I don't know if that's more insulting to the writers or the people they interview out of obligation.
— Brandon Sparks (@Brandon__Sparks) February 9, 2018
Sullivan winds up with this:
The goal of our culture now is not the emancipation of the individual from the group, but the permanent definition of the individual by the group. We used to call this bigotry. Now we call it being woke. You see: We are all on campus now.
Bee Eye Tee Cee Aaaaache!
Crid at February 10, 2018 3:35 AM
Translation?
Amy Alkon at February 10, 2018 6:31 AM
How individualism leads to more altruism: https://phys.org/news/2017-06-altruism-western-society.html
Amy Alkon at February 10, 2018 6:36 AM
"Beyotch."
(It's how the kids talk, Amy.)
Crid at February 10, 2018 6:40 AM
The great advantage the SJW movement has for people is that it converts you from a nobody barrista or student or professor of studies into a cultural hero, fighting "the man" and oppression. Never mind if the oppression you fight is only in your imagination. Never mind if you are calling perfectly decent people terrible names. There was some of this same fake heroism back in the 60s (yep, I was there)--being a hippie was revolutionary, dontcha know. But it was self-limiting. There wasn't the marxist ideology to hang it on. There were no "studies" profs to give it legitimacy. And everyone was too busy getting high to do much activism. Now, we have the internet, which makes it much worse.
cc at February 10, 2018 10:00 AM
In 25 years, these students will be running for Congress and POTUS. We are doomed !!
Nick at February 10, 2018 10:54 AM
In 25 years, these students will be running for Congress and POTUS. We are doomed !
Nick at February 10, 2018 10:55 AM
The SJW cancer is already spread far and wide in the culture. Just look at Google. Look at the federal government ("Dear Colleague" letter, anyone?).
It is going to be very bad. The elite will love it. Normies will not. E.g., one is homophobic if one believes sexual orientation is not immutable. At the same time, one is transphobic if one is unwilling to date a "man" with a vagina, or a "woman" with a penis. Go figure.
Jay R at February 10, 2018 4:26 PM
Sullivan is kind of late - this has been going on for years - for decades in fact!
charles at February 10, 2018 8:31 PM
I'm curious who claimed "They'll grow up once they leave their cloistered, neo-Marxist safe spaces." As Charles notes this has been going on for quite a while. Since the 70s at least since it happened when my parents went to college. That's roughly 50 years. Everyone I know just said 'Go in. Get your degree in hard science and suffer through the rest. There are too many of them and we can't fix it.'
Ben at February 11, 2018 8:50 AM
Years ago, there was an episode of Grays Anatomy where a paramedic is severely injured and the doctors find out he has a swastika tatoo. He doesnt want the doc assigned to him, who is a black woman resident. She brought the chief of surgery (a black man), but he said no. So she got the ace Asian intern... But he was only happy if the white intern supervised the Asian ace... End of the episode, the ace Asian intern turns to the resident and chews her out for using her for her race. She wasn't asked to do that job because of her interest, skill, or talent, but because she was whiter but not white. I thought this made an eloquent point. To be reduced to superficial traits is dehumanizing... Even if done with better intentions
Shannon at February 11, 2018 12:42 PM
"You see: We are all on campus now."
I think I just peed my pants a little, this literally scares the piss out of me.
bkmale at February 12, 2018 6:30 AM
Given that the American academy appears to be unreformable, it is my sincere hope that it will eventually be reduced to a rump institution, as actual higher education moves on to greener pastures. It'll become a finishing school for the children of wealthy Marxists. Then the rest of us can all ignore it.
Cousin Dave at February 12, 2018 7:06 AM
And by the way, it's nice to have Sully back. He's been in his self-imposed prison for a long time.
Cousin Dave at February 12, 2018 7:07 AM
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