Cynical Theories: Difference between revisions

Cynical Theories (view source)

Revision as of 00:28, 13 December 2020

230 bytes added , 13 December 2020

→‎The theory of Theory

Amwelladmin

Bureaucrats, Interface administrators, Administrators

82,882

edits

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 So I wouldn’t fancy {{author|Helen Pluckrose}}’s mentions right now. (There’s a simple answer to dealing with crappy mentions, by the way, folks: {{maxim|get off Twitter}}.)
-====The theory of Theory====
+====The [[Theory]] of [[Theory]]====
-Anyway. Call it what you will: [[critical theory]], social justice theory, applied (''post''?) [[post-modernism]], “Theory” with a capital “T” or just raving bonkers wokeness — it defies categorisation and critical appraisal by deliberate design. {{br|Cynical Theories}} wilfully transgresses its hermeneutical boundaries and pins it down, articulating, examining and shining an unflattering light on it and the ways it subverts traditional liberal values of openness, enquiry and reasoned debate that have, in truth, delivered most of the social progress of the past half-century.
+Anyway. Call it what you will: [[critical [[Theory]]]], social justice [[Theory]], applied (''post''?) [[post-modernism]], “Theory” with a capital “T” or just raving bonkers wokeness — it defies categorisation and critical appraisal by deliberate design. {{br|Cynical Theories}} wilfully transgresses its [[Hermeneutic|hermeneutical]] boundaries and pins it down, articulating, examining and shining an unflattering light on it and the ways it subverts traditional liberal values of openness, enquiry and reasoned debate that have, in truth, delivered most of the social progress of the past half-century.
-To be sure, life for the marginalised is by no means perfect, but progress is a journey; we’re in a far better place than we were, and (notwithstanding the recent lurch to the right) we are still headed in a fair direction with a tailwind of basic liberal aspiration. Progress is a journey ''away'' from an unsatisfactory now, not towards a utopian later.
+To be sure, life for the marginalised is hardly perfect, but progress is a journey; we’re in a far better place than we were, and (notwithstanding the recent lurch to the right) we are still headed in a fair direction with a tailwind of basic liberal aspiration. Progress is a journey ''away'' from an unsatisfactory now, not towards a utopian later. And in any society, however enlightened, ''someone'' has to be at the margins — assuming the end goal isn’t some kind of Stepford Wives arrangement.
-So, the objectives of social justice have had to re-calibrate, to nurture those nascent green shoots of power, and to give social justice campaigners something to complain about. This is exactly as Theory diagnoses about other sociopolitical power structures: once people have intellectual and economic power, through their organisation, they do not lightly give it up. And as Theory has shifted its sights downrange from what has been accomplished to what is outstanding — and this is a bit of a moving target — its hostility to criticism has deepened.  It has become illiberal. Its own language games and the power structures they comprise — by its own Theory, that’s what they are — have sanctified, and challenge to them more sacrilegious, through time. And so we find ourselves at a cancel culture, with even [[David Hume]] cast into the abyss. “Theory” has somehow escaped ''theory'', has leeched out of the academy and transformed into doctrinaire, real-world militancy.
+So, the objectives of social justice have had to re-calibrate, to nurture those nascent green shoots of power, and to give social justice campaigners something to complain about. This is exactly as [[Theory]] diagnoses about other socio-political power structures: once people have intellectual and economic power, through their organisation, they do not lightly give it up. And as [[Theory]] has shifted its sights downrange from what has been accomplished to what is outstanding — and this is a bit of a moving target — its hostility to criticism has deepened.  It has become illiberal. Its own language games and the power structures they comprise — by its own [[Theory]], that’s what they are — have sanctified, and challenge to them more sacrilegious, through time. And so we find ourselves at a cancel culture, with even [[David Hume]] cast into the abyss. “[[Theory]]” has somehow escaped ''theory'', has leeched out of the academy and transformed into doctrinaire, real-world militancy.
-All this is, of course, highly ironic: Theory has become what it most despises.
+All this is, of course, highly ironic: [[Theory]] has become what it most despises.
+It is very easy, and [[Theory|Theorists]] are prone to do it, to confuse a robust criticism of [[Theory]] itself with a rejection of the underlying concern to address actual inequities perpetrated on marginalised groups. But to question [[Theory]] is not  to be racist. Yet at its extremes, [[Theory]] says exactly this, and indeed goes further: any white or male person is irredeemably oppressive, ''whether or not they would quarrel with [[Theory]]''. If these are the rules it's not like we of the privileged have much of a choice, so we might as well enjoy it. But there aren’t the rules, needless to say.
-It is very easy, and Theorists are prone to do it, to confuse a robust criticism of Theory itself with a rejection of the underlying concern to address actual inequities perpetrated on marginalised groups. But to question Theory is not  to be racist. Yet at its extremes, Theory says exactly this, and indeed goes further: any white or male person is irredeemably oppressive, ''whether or not they would quarrel with Theory''. If these are the rules it's not like we of the privileged have much of a choice, so we might as well enjoy it. But there aren’t the rules, needless to say.
 ====A hermeneutical transgression====
 But suddenly going all fascist on everything is neither necessary nor productive. {{Author|Helen Pluckrose}} and {{Author|James Lindsay}} are not the first to set all this out, of course — {{author|Douglas Murray}}’s magnificently scathing {{br|The Madness of Crowds}} ploughed the same furrow, but unlike Murray, Pluckrose and Lindsay hail from the left, so are harder for Theorists to dismiss out of hand. And where Murray hurls (well-aimed) thunderbolts, {{br|Critical Theories}} ''examines'' the various strains of Theory in measured, careful tones. Its dismemberment is all the more effective for it.