The Inanity That Is The "White Male Theory of History"
Great piece by Christian Alejandro Gonzalez at NRO on what he rightly calls "a highly inane interpretation of history -- an interpretation that one might call the White Male Theory of History, or WMTH for short":
As with other pathological political movements and ideas (e.g., support for government censorship, or loathing of liberal democracy), the WTMH comes in rightist and leftist variants....What both the Right and the Left White Male Theories of History share is the fundamental assumption that the telling of history must monomaniacally focus on the actions of white men -- an identity category that is silently assumed to have always existed, but which is in reality a recent concoction. (Homer and Plato were not "white men" in the same way that Donald Trump is a white man.) In the Right WMTH, white men are held to be the epitome of science and progress and glory; in the Left WMTH, they are presented as oppressors, enslavers, and colonizers. In both versions, groups other than whites are assumed to have had little to no agency to decide their future for themselves, whether for good or ill; and even today, they still don't. In both versions, the world's peoples are divided into ludicrous binaries: civilizer vs. barbarian on the right, oppressor vs. victim on the left. In both versions, the cleavages that divided men with white skin are dismissed as unimportant; distinctions in class, nation, ideology, and religion are systematically ignored. For the proponents of the White Male Theory of History, there is whiteness, and there is maleness, and such nuisances as the subtleties of history do not much matter.
...The influence of the WMTH can be most clearly seen in the debate over the record of "Western civilization." The loudest and most obnoxious voices in that debate tend to be rightists and leftists who subscribe to their side's respective version of the WMTH, invariably conflating the history of the West with the history of "white" people. In both cases, historical illiteracy replaces sober thought.
For instance, when Congressman Steve King, Stefan Molyneux, and Faith Goldy hide their white-nationalist prejudices by rattling on about the importance of "defending Western values," they ignore that much of what makes the West great is precisely its efforts, however imperfect, to abandon tribal bigotry and extend legal rights and protections to people who are not white -- an achievement that the Steve Kings of the world rarely trumpet, and that if anything probably oppose. The irony of racists' and sexists' championing a culture that has sought to emancipate minorities and women is, of course, lost on such people.
In a homologous fashion, the leftists who chant that "Western Civ has got to go!" do so because they equate Western values and history with white oppression, thereby neglecting to acknowledge that their demand for political equality and individual dignity for minorities was itself influenced by a Western (not "white") heritage that produced theories of legal, political, and social equality. William F. Buckley made a related point convincingly in his famous debate with James Baldwin. As he put it, "anyone who argued that English civilization ought to have been jettisoned because Catholics were not allowed to vote as late as 1829 and Jews not until 1832 should consider the other possibility. Precisely the reason why they did get the right to vote was because English civilization was not jettisoned." Buckley reached the conclusion that we should not "rush forward to overthrow our civilization because we don't live up to our high ideals.
via @Gurdur
The telling of the history of predominantly white nations is gonna focus on white men, yes, and some women, and some people of other races, but mostly white men because they were doing most of the decision making in white countries.
I am gonna go out on a limb and guess when Chinese people study history, it focuses on the feats of Chinese men and and some Chinese women, and when Arabic people study Arabian history it focuses on Arab men and some Arab women, and when Botswanan school kids study Botswanan history it focuses on Black Botswanan men and a few Black Botswanan women.
NicoleK at January 20, 2019 3:55 AM
Homework!
First, I presume Amy's readers are aware of the stunning thesis from the new book by Lukianoff & Haidt: Social media is hurting our children in very serious ways, especially the girls, who're suffering suicidal impulses and other mental illness from relentless and competitive online scolds. Read some reviews of the book, or find Haidt's late-2018 YouTube appearances if this is news to you.
Second, listen to a few minutes of this podcast, beginning at 26:49— The very thin scrolling timeline is directly below the two portrait pics. Yes, it's hosted by Christians... But Haidt himself is Jewish, and if he can put up with the setting to sell a few books, you should be able to keep an open mind as well.
Third, read this column from the NYTimes. It extends Carl Sagan's thoughts about the connection of minds through books in a fascinating way.
Really... I want you to do or learn about those three things.
American culture is really fucking some things up right now. In these months and years. This is not just an old guy saying those kids need to cut their hair and get a job and get off my lawn and stop with the rock 'n roll. It's one thing for a bunch of bitter, middle-aged goofballs such as ourselves to blow mutual snot in blog comments: But there are new patterns in online interaction (itself only a young adult) that need our best judgment and action if they're to be corrected.
I seriously think Trump and AOC are sides of a coin: If you're enthused by one, you're responsible for the strength of the other as well.
We gotta choke this thing.
Crid at January 20, 2019 4:12 AM
In a not-wholly-unrelated matter, yesterday's social-media outrage is showing stress.
(That old stuff about Cohen and Mueller is soooo 31-hours-ago… Check your Wifi, Grandpa!)
Crid at January 20, 2019 4:21 AM
More from Kmele.
And this quotation from CS Lewis via Douthat, discussing very precisely the thoughts from the podcast linked above.
Sheezus, it's all just a tornadic churn.
Crid at January 20, 2019 4:25 AM
"I seriously think Trump and AOC are sides of a coin: If you're enthused by one, you're responsible for the strength of the other as well."
It's other people, not you, right?
First off - you're right, mostly (the above simply isn't defined by social media, just expedited). Social media feeds the ego of everyone, such that if you have a Facebook or Twitter account, you're likely to think that you matter more than other people, even those with accounts, because your words are the gem and others are the dirt (Look how beautiful my post is! It's even formatted pretty!). It lets people ignore their own issues and fixate on those of others. It's a wonderful example of mob mentality. How often, again, is the mob right?
OTOH, how do you reconcile the generally negative response to Trump tweets and the enthusiasm for AOC's?
I would suggest that Trump knows that there are people who matter that do NOT have Twitter accounts - that matter a LOT.
------
I was at a popular waterfront restaurant in Florida this past week, and of the thirty or so people walking around outside, not in line to eat, every soul was looking at their phone.
I don't know how to fix that other than to make real life more important than the phone. Even when police pull them over, some have to have their binky.
I don't fear invasion by the Borg. They would be consumed with what 7 of 9 was doing.
Radwaste at January 20, 2019 5:34 AM
"The telling of the history of predominantly white nations is gonna focus on white men, yes, and some women, and some people of other races, but mostly white men because they were doing most of the decision making in white countries."
Heh. If they are honest, other countries will also mention that they lived in the Age of the Mud Hut until they got occupied by the British.
Like Botswana. Glad you mentioned them.
Radwaste at January 20, 2019 5:41 AM
> It's other people,
> not you, right?
Pretty much. I don't have my ego on the line for any politician, or faith in any of them as oracular seers of truth or as servants of decency. In particular, Radwaste, I've never ascribed personally admirable qualities to a celebrity whose work I happen to have found entertaining. (Specifically, I thought Movie Star Reagan was full of shit. And Jimmy was a shitty farmer [compared to Billy], and on back it goes.)
> OTOH, how do you reconcile the
> generally negative response to
> Trump tweets and the enthusiasm
> for AOC's?
As follows: These "general" "enthusiasms" are delusion, requiring no "reconciliation." You're far too eager to be flattered, and are manipulated by the tawdriest validation imaginable: Tweets. A Trump voter enchanted by mundane, illiterate denigration of "mainstream media" has no keener view of human affairs than does an unread* "socialist" who presumes that Free Candy is had for the price of some D.C. paperwork.
Neither such voter has earned admiration: Both parade personal neediness as if it were principle.
It ain't.
Crid at January 20, 2019 7:50 AM
No other civilization developed the idea of human rights, of democracy, of the rule of law, of the value of the individual. Only Western Civilization--going way back to the Greeks. The West has had an imperfect but consistent attempt to implement democracy and the rule of law for 2500 years. Not in India, Egypt, China, Japan or the Americas. When Europe was colonial, they were conflicted in their actions. They both exploited but also developed. England stole in India but also built railroads and implemented a civil service that employed locals.
cc at January 20, 2019 7:57 AM
NicoleK points out that history in the West will focus on the history OF the west which was almost entirely european in events and the people who caused them. A Chinese history class in China focuses on chinese history. At any college one can take history classes that focus on China or whatever, but the protesters want to eliminate western history as a subject, which means they do not want to know how we got here. The present did not just appear poof out of nothing. The Greeks and Romans dealt with some of the same problems we face, including dictators and unruly mobs. It is useful to understand out past.
cc at January 20, 2019 8:35 AM
Our Western Civilization evolved out of Greek ideals. Those ideas were studied, and sometimes adopted, by the Romans, who left them scattered throughout Europe through conquest and trade.
Catholic monks, especially in Scotland and Ireland maintained old Greek and Roman texts - copying them when the original could no longer be preserved - and passed them down to later generations for which they formed the foundation for the Medieval Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment.
Through Latin, the Church gave Europe a common language and through Catholicism, a common cultural touchstone.
Those preserved ideas took Europe away from tribalism and toward individualism. The collective identity of the tribe was no longer placed over the individual. People of different tribes began to form a common cultural identity.
Collectivism is a monstrous evil, and identity politics is its handmaid. Through their deliberate ignorance of history, the WMTH scolds would have us back in the dark ages of tribalism.
Conan the Grammarian at January 20, 2019 10:17 AM
"You're far too eager to be flattered, and are manipulated by the tawdriest validation imaginable: Tweets."
Ahh, blinders again. Amazing how many times you just make up something and declare it real.
I don't have a Twitter account. Of those who post here, who is the most dependent on Twitter for content?
Why, you are, Crid. If there is a model of the Common Man on this blog... there you are.
Radwaste at January 20, 2019 7:35 PM
> you just make up something
> and declare it real.
Naw, you're just still unaware of phenomena both beyond and within your own heart.
> I don't have a Twitter account.
- Never said you did.
- You don't need one to read his tweets.
- He's got x,000,000,000 followers no less adoring of him than you are who track him assiduously; that you might not in no wat excuses you from their pathetic rank.
- *HE* obviously relies on his Twitter account and the preeminent instrument of his communication with his zombies.
- If everyone was as thoughtful in composing a timeline and massaging its borders as am I, their lives would be no less enriched than my own, which would a remarkable blessing to conscious thought on a planet of the simple-minded.
- Do you think others go through life looking for "content"?
Perhaps most quintessentially: Do you worry a lot about being perceived as "common"?Crid at January 21, 2019 8:28 AM
"American culture is really fucking some things up right now."
-- M. Mosaddegh, August 19, 1953
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at January 21, 2019 3:04 PM
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