One reason this society is like standing in a cold rain storm: there is no agreed-upon way to be a good person, short of that weird form of politeness that consists in deference to all except when there is personal gain immediately at hand.
Modern politeness is this strange sado-masochistic role in which the correct thing to do, always, is to surrender whatever you have to the group in the form of an individual. Money, sex, time, labor. Give it up. Unless there is something you can argue (justify) as entitled to you. Then, you should elbow others out of the way and take it.
This code of behavior arises from the notion of equality. Equality is an idea starting with a conclusion, and working back to a precept, which is like debugging an equation except that the equation is being defined by the debugging. The result is backward thinking.
Under equality, we assume everyone is equal in validity. In theory this means that their equal valid actions will turn out roughly equally well. When they do not, we are forced into confrontation with reality. Reality is rewarding that which is sane, and rejecting that which is not. In doing so, it’s not being very equal.
Because of this unexpected outcome, we go into cognitive dissonance mode. If we can’t win in reality, we will win in the social sphere of what others think. That way when our equally valid attemps fail, there’s an audience to comfort us and tell us we’re still equally valid.
The only thing that threatens this audience is someone who rises above it and succeeds.
It will attempt to tear that person down. Even better, it will define itself by not being that person. It will invent a social standard of “being nice” that includes not being that person. Everyone is OK as long as we are equal.
The end result of this is that people define themselves not by what they prefer, but by what they prefer not to be. They also do this on the level of appearance, which means they have no idea what it is they are actually avoiding. We all become actors, dancing around dangerous topics and ignoring reality.
Several layers of consequence down the line, this type of thinking has taken us to a new place. In that place, we are isolated on two levels. First, we distrust each other. Second, we are isolated from any idea of what it is we would actually prefer to be or to become. Each person lives as an isolato, or person who refuses to not live alone out of distrust of others.
In this world, we know nothing of ourselves except “I’m not a not-nice and not-cool person like that guy.” This allows fear to lead us. We see ourselves in stasis, defending against the threat of being not-nice or not-cool. We become poisonous and offensive.
The amazing paradox of modernity is that for a place ruled by a socially-dictated consensual reality, it remains one of the most isolating possible places to live.
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i live in lebanon, where we still have a closely knit community and a still strong (but slowly degrading) familial molecule. a friend of mine who lives in a lebanese village, decided to leave for france and work there. within a few years, he bought his old mom a plane ticket and she came to spend the summer in his apartment in the 16eme arrondissement, a chic paris neighborhood. during his absence while at work, his mom, in her typical mediterranean conviviality, prepared a dish, filled a big portion and knocked on the neighbor’s door to offer them lunch. they declined and closed the door in her face. 10 minutes later, the police was at her door asking her why she was ‘harrassing her neighbors and attempting to poison them with a “strange smelling brew”…. viva emptiness indeed…
Heartbreaking. Doubly so when we think that all of us would like to live in a community with compassionate neighbors.
Socialism=to do with people.
Socialist=one who lives his life in terms of people.
If your existence is lived only in terms of people, where did the rest of the world go? What happened to ‘life’? Are you actually living it?
To be social means you are subscribing to an arbitrary ruleset, that has nothing to do with reality. It is good to be able to socialize, and any civilization requires this. But when the balance between reality and socializing is lost, you end up with what we’ve ended up with. Insanity!
Healthy socialization requires deference to reality, before it can exist.
Not vice-versa.
Is it any wonder these people ascribe all of reality to “social construction”?
They are accurately describing their own approach to reality. To them, reality is known only through a social construction. They don’t have the calmness and presence of mind to perceive it directly.
Socialism = we’re going to make everyone equal in freedom, validity and wealth. This inevitably means reducing standards to “competition” which is based on tangible measurements like hours worked, money, how hip your new Ke$ha ringtone is, etc.
The opposite is social Darwinism plus a sense of tradition. It’s not linear competition, but those who uphold the values. That is a more complex measurement the proles and serfs will never understand.
“Socialism = we’re going to make everyone equal in freedom, validity and wealth”
Any supporting reference, please?
[...] we are isolated now and modern politeness is terrible, it’s the idea that we’re all equal and have equally valid opinions, so we must surrender to the group, instead of the wise men stating how things should be http://www.amerika.org/social-reality/isolato/ [...]