The Western Left's deranged Jew hatred and its defense of Islamic terrorism is consistent with the Left's history of supporting and apologizing for various bloodthirsty tyrants, from of course Lenin and Stalin and Mao to Castro to Foucault's fellating of Ayatollah Khomeini to the support of the PLO in the 70s.
How do people who advertise themselves first and foresmost by their pristine morality and their egalitarian utopianism somehow ALWAYS end up being first to cheerlead for a massacre?
One aspect I think is how we don't ever seem to discuss the dangers of Communism and its many manifestations, how we're all bombarded with warnings about Nazis and fascists and the KKK but how the many crimes of Mao and the Soviets were brushed under the rug in the West—I think because "wanting to make the world a better place" pretty much passes for sacred dogma here, which various political actors don't want to have examined too closely, as it may curtail their grandiose power schemes.
Also, and as you mentioned, the Western Left's boundless compassion is absent when there's no Western actor involved and Arabs can slaughter each other en masse with nary a peep of protest because Western Leftism is an entirely intra-Western phenomenon, their movement having been designed and sold as being a higher moral conscience dedicated to an egalitarian utopian future (which will come into place inevitably once we hand TOTAL POWER to the vanguard class). And as their fantasy of "socialist liberation" involves the eradication of modern capitalism to be replaced by some form of New Man/Noble Savage where the lion lies down with the lamb and "the first shall be last and the last shall be first", this has always involved some vision of cleansing bloodshed, some destruction of the evil ones (kulaks, capitalist roadsters, and of course Jews) to inaugurate their pure New World.
And I guess this leads to my last and main point: those who always imagine themselves having attained superhuman morality always commit the most subhuman crimes. Their ideologies demand it!
The Palestinians are just the latest weapon used to dismantle Western Civ on behalf of a coalition of its opponents, a rogue's gallery of terrorists, theocrats, theorists and other miserable miscreants who devote their lives to destroying what they could never create.
Thanks mate, much appreciated! Apologies for my tardiness, I've been meaning to reply all week. Indeed the litany of the Left's apologies for the worst, most murderous tyrants and regimes is long and distinguished; the Khmer Rouge and the FLN also came to mind reading your list.
I remember coming across some interesting psychology research on moral purity and moral outrage, which linked the two by suggesting that the more that moral purity was demanded by a group, the more the social pressure to engage in very public moral outrage as a signal that one is "on the right side". I always think of this when I see the unhinged cheerleading for a massacre; it is all a performance to demonstrate moral purity.
Everything becomes justified in the name of The Cause. And as I recall from one of your previous comments, the Palestinians to the Western Left are more A Cause than a people; they are elevated to Sacred Cause because the realisation of their demands represents, at least in a microcosm, the ultimate fantasy of the Western Progressive Left; the eradication of Israel as the supposed manifestation of the West's Original Sin.
The Cause—aka the Permanent Revolution for Universal Socialism—is really (I think) a secular Christian heresy that has many wings, some mellow and meliorist, some fanatical and apocalyptic. (Nietzsche referred to both Christianity and socialism as "religion(s) of human suffering".)
But I think here in the 21st century the Cause no longer has to compete with traditional religion or patriotism, all those older cults are either dead and/or exhausted and the Cause now has cornered the market on morality and has set enough young hearts aflame with the passion for revolutionary Justice, with even those who don't join or agree knowing to keep their heads down and mouths shut. And, like you said, people convinced of moral purity feel they can do or say anything, like call Jews Nazis or call America "white supremacist" or call debate "trauma", because as the Cause is true and righteous so is any tactic that helps advance it.
I'm starting to think the West has no defense against this autoimmune disease that attacks its own nation and people and culture in the name of utopian Justice—the liberal class has only been supine and complicit and people seem to go mute and limp when challenged by anyone claiming to be an Official Defender of the Oppressed.
Once people switch to WHO/WHOM morality what inevitably follows is social fracture and discord, tribalism, and an ambient hatred and distrust that works like acid on all our bonds and shared norms. This has always been the hallmark of societies ruled by the Left and this is where the West seems headed.
Thanks! I think you've nailed the crux of it; in the absence of any robust counterbalancing sense of the West, and with Progressivism firmly established as the monotheism in institutions (political, academic. etc.), we're seemingly confined now to watch this Permanent Revolution metastasise indefinitely. There are no checks and balances left, because the small segments left who still believe in the West as an organising concept don't even have that much confidence in what they believe, squared away against the unhinged conviction and moral certitude of The Cause. Grim.
I was hoping to read from you, especially today - and, as expected, it did not disappoint, but moved me to tears.. Thank you, Alan, brilliant, forceful, important.. 🙏🏻🥺
BRAVO such a great piece...
The Western Left's deranged Jew hatred and its defense of Islamic terrorism is consistent with the Left's history of supporting and apologizing for various bloodthirsty tyrants, from of course Lenin and Stalin and Mao to Castro to Foucault's fellating of Ayatollah Khomeini to the support of the PLO in the 70s.
How do people who advertise themselves first and foresmost by their pristine morality and their egalitarian utopianism somehow ALWAYS end up being first to cheerlead for a massacre?
One aspect I think is how we don't ever seem to discuss the dangers of Communism and its many manifestations, how we're all bombarded with warnings about Nazis and fascists and the KKK but how the many crimes of Mao and the Soviets were brushed under the rug in the West—I think because "wanting to make the world a better place" pretty much passes for sacred dogma here, which various political actors don't want to have examined too closely, as it may curtail their grandiose power schemes.
Also, and as you mentioned, the Western Left's boundless compassion is absent when there's no Western actor involved and Arabs can slaughter each other en masse with nary a peep of protest because Western Leftism is an entirely intra-Western phenomenon, their movement having been designed and sold as being a higher moral conscience dedicated to an egalitarian utopian future (which will come into place inevitably once we hand TOTAL POWER to the vanguard class). And as their fantasy of "socialist liberation" involves the eradication of modern capitalism to be replaced by some form of New Man/Noble Savage where the lion lies down with the lamb and "the first shall be last and the last shall be first", this has always involved some vision of cleansing bloodshed, some destruction of the evil ones (kulaks, capitalist roadsters, and of course Jews) to inaugurate their pure New World.
And I guess this leads to my last and main point: those who always imagine themselves having attained superhuman morality always commit the most subhuman crimes. Their ideologies demand it!
The Palestinians are just the latest weapon used to dismantle Western Civ on behalf of a coalition of its opponents, a rogue's gallery of terrorists, theocrats, theorists and other miserable miscreants who devote their lives to destroying what they could never create.
Thanks!
Thanks mate, much appreciated! Apologies for my tardiness, I've been meaning to reply all week. Indeed the litany of the Left's apologies for the worst, most murderous tyrants and regimes is long and distinguished; the Khmer Rouge and the FLN also came to mind reading your list.
I remember coming across some interesting psychology research on moral purity and moral outrage, which linked the two by suggesting that the more that moral purity was demanded by a group, the more the social pressure to engage in very public moral outrage as a signal that one is "on the right side". I always think of this when I see the unhinged cheerleading for a massacre; it is all a performance to demonstrate moral purity.
Everything becomes justified in the name of The Cause. And as I recall from one of your previous comments, the Palestinians to the Western Left are more A Cause than a people; they are elevated to Sacred Cause because the realisation of their demands represents, at least in a microcosm, the ultimate fantasy of the Western Progressive Left; the eradication of Israel as the supposed manifestation of the West's Original Sin.
Thanks and no worries about any delay.
The Cause—aka the Permanent Revolution for Universal Socialism—is really (I think) a secular Christian heresy that has many wings, some mellow and meliorist, some fanatical and apocalyptic. (Nietzsche referred to both Christianity and socialism as "religion(s) of human suffering".)
But I think here in the 21st century the Cause no longer has to compete with traditional religion or patriotism, all those older cults are either dead and/or exhausted and the Cause now has cornered the market on morality and has set enough young hearts aflame with the passion for revolutionary Justice, with even those who don't join or agree knowing to keep their heads down and mouths shut. And, like you said, people convinced of moral purity feel they can do or say anything, like call Jews Nazis or call America "white supremacist" or call debate "trauma", because as the Cause is true and righteous so is any tactic that helps advance it.
I'm starting to think the West has no defense against this autoimmune disease that attacks its own nation and people and culture in the name of utopian Justice—the liberal class has only been supine and complicit and people seem to go mute and limp when challenged by anyone claiming to be an Official Defender of the Oppressed.
Once people switch to WHO/WHOM morality what inevitably follows is social fracture and discord, tribalism, and an ambient hatred and distrust that works like acid on all our bonds and shared norms. This has always been the hallmark of societies ruled by the Left and this is where the West seems headed.
Cheers and looking forward to your next piece....
Thanks! I think you've nailed the crux of it; in the absence of any robust counterbalancing sense of the West, and with Progressivism firmly established as the monotheism in institutions (political, academic. etc.), we're seemingly confined now to watch this Permanent Revolution metastasise indefinitely. There are no checks and balances left, because the small segments left who still believe in the West as an organising concept don't even have that much confidence in what they believe, squared away against the unhinged conviction and moral certitude of The Cause. Grim.
Qualified humanity is not humanitarian and selective empathy is not empathetic…. Often forgotton in the name of “social justice”.
I think a large number of therapists may benefit from reading this essay.
I was hoping to read from you, especially today - and, as expected, it did not disappoint, but moved me to tears.. Thank you, Alan, brilliant, forceful, important.. 🙏🏻🥺
Thanks Mel, I appreciate that :)
Thank you, I really needed to read this today 💛
I'm glad it resonated 🙏🏻
Your best essay yet. Well said, my friend.