One of my frequent criticisms of religious believers has been the dishonest way in which they profess to humble themselves before a transcendant ideal which, upon closer examination, turns out to be nothing but a projection of their own narcissism. The “true” message of Christianity, for example, amazingly, incredibly, shockingly turns out to be identical with the temperament and culturally shaped beliefs of the speaker. They proclaim themselves lowly servants of a greater whole upon which they nonetheless assert unrestrained creative control. They feign innocence while digging up buried treasure which they themselves planted under cover of psychological darkness.
It’s not much different when it comes to identity politics. White social justice warriors pride themselves on their magnanimity upon ceding “control of the dialogue” to representatives of marginalized groups. If you think you detect a conveniently self-fulfilling prophetic aspect to how those “true” representatives of black interests, feminist interests, etc. are chosen, never fear. There’s a white guy over there with polls, graphs, statistics and unimpeachable rationality who has already figured it all out for you.
February 27, 2013 @ 4:42 pm
Even worse…what if the group identity political warriors hold actually pretty….nasty views? WHo decides that said leader trult represents a "community"? What is a "community" and what if you don;t want to be grouped within it despite certain exterior signifiers like race or ancestry?
I follow a young British blogger whose site is called Back towards the Locus. You should see some of the groups eagerly accomodated at British universities. Urk.
http://bensix.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/teachers-to-be-learnt-from/
One caveat, though. Partly reltated to her own particular interests and fixations (anmd appropriately so in the case of Islamic theocrats and their sympathizers), I would give Ophelia Benson a lot of credit for harping on this very issue of "community"? and self-appointed "spokespeople for the community" over the years. 🙂
February 27, 2013 @ 4:42 pm
Damn I am a terrible typist sometimes!