Postmodern identity politics has caused a moral fragmentation which has fuelled deaths of despair amid rising social isolation and hopelessness. We need to make the case for a new, shared, moral order
I came to this article by searching "Relativism" having read Leo Strauss' essay. Seeing "privatisation" I suspected this would be about the evils of neo-liberalism or smartphones. Or Scotland's Demon: Thatcher. But no, none of that.
As I read through, I wondered when we would get to one of Scotland's finest, Niall Ferguson and his Civilisation: is The West History? His answer was a resounding no, because the rest of the world has adopted the "6 apps" (not smartphone apps, apparently) that made the West so successful, and which PRC seems to be excelling at imitating, despite Xi Jinping's co-opting of "Confucianism".
I'm with @davidwhyte550771 on this, but again was surprised he did not mention Scot Adam Smith much admired in China.
But because you are so convinced the West has lost its way - and because, at the very same time you were writing this piece, another with a decidedly Scottish name and presence, Donald Trump, is rapidly dismantling any coherent notion of the West - here are a few that you may agree with:
Oswald Spengler's 2-volume 1918 and 1922 The Decline of the West.
Spengler’s sweeping, cyclical theory argues that all civilizations pass through life stages, from birth and growth to maturity and eventual decay. His work has been hugely influential, even if controversial, in framing the idea that Western culture is in its winter phase.
Christopher Lasch's 1979 The Culture of Narcissism.
Lasch critiques modern Western society for fostering self-absorption and weakening communal bonds, arguing that this cultural shift contributes to a broader societal decay.
Patrick Buchanan's 2002 The Death of the West.
Offering a more politically charged perspective, Buchanan argues that cultural and demographic shifts threaten the traditional foundations of Western civilisation.
You won't like any of these critiques of modernity:
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer's 1944 The Dialectic of Enlightenment.
A seminal critique of Enlightenment rationality, this work argues that the very rationality meant to liberate humanity also paved the way for domination, instrumental reason, and mass culture, contributing to modern society’s crises.
Herbert Marcuse's 1964 One-Dimensional Man.
Marcuse explores how advanced industrial society promotes a one-dimensional way of thinking that suppresses critical dissent, ultimately stifling freedom and creativity in modern societies.
Jean-François Lyotard's 1979 The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge.
By questioning the grand narratives of modernity, Lyotard describes a shift toward postmodern scepticism about the universal claims of modern knowledge, signalling a crisis of legitimacy in modern ideologies.
But you will like Alasdair MacIntyre's 1981 After Virtue.
MacIntyre contends that modern moral philosophy has fragmented, losing its grounding in classical virtue ethics. This loss, he argues, is at the heart of modernity’s moral and ethical crisis.
Like you, MacIntyre and Strauss also want a return to the Classical philosophy of Aristotle. Well, at least MacIntyre's a Scot.
My undergrad professor once told me I'd like Macintyre, she was correct. Until you mentioned his name with this comment I had overlooked his influence on my much younger self almost 20 years earlier. Thank you, I will need to revisit his works, perhaps I have overlooked how much of that early 20 year old self reading his works resonates and influences me subconsciously.
Great comment, thank you. I'll absolutely check out some of the names on your list I've not confronted (One-Dimensional Man to name one of a couple).
Great comment. Very good. Food for further thought for yours truly.
Remembering how life was before the era of the enlightenment, ie poverty dirt squalor disease starvation and superstition for the majority of people, it is only with the age of reason,scientific exploration, and invention, that humanity has dragged itself out of that. Now in a state generally of comfort and plenty having conquered most diseases, it is typical of humanity in that position to start grumbling. Hence the liberating and burdensome stated by Neitsche. Liberating ,certainly, but burdensome largely I suggest,to those in a position of plenty and comfort who are now able to sit around and contemplate their navel and explore such issues as "what it all means and where are we going now" Be thankful you live now in a time of plenty and reason and look back in horror to what life was generally like centuries ago. A time when religious belief was strong ,Yes, but only through desparately searching for some form of constancy and meaning in desparate and uncertain times. Be thankful you live now.
I have no problem with the scientific method, and my stream of consciousness with this piece isn't a call for a return to religion (I try to explicitly make that clear with 'a moral order without religion'). My fear - which Nietzsche's 'death of God' explored was not so much life becomes burdensome as we materially advance, that is likely true in many respects, but more deeply: without religion, only maintaining an individualist approach to ethics and morality, then how do we possibly maintain society at all? If 'truth' cannot be agreed to outside of personal subjective feelings, we're in deep trouble frankly.
The question 'what constitutes truth' and can we find a way to rediscover a shared concept of a moral order communally as a society is not a self-indulgent question.
Kellyanne Conway's 'alternative truths' and the rise of identity politics 'own lived experience/my personal truth' rubbish grows out of the fact we live in isolated lives with little shared ethical or moral frameworks. This manifests in a selfishness where the devil can take the hindmost and unhappiness is king.
I came to this article by searching "Relativism" having read Leo Strauss' essay. Seeing "privatisation" I suspected this would be about the evils of neo-liberalism or smartphones. Or Scotland's Demon: Thatcher. But no, none of that.
As I read through, I wondered when we would get to one of Scotland's finest, Niall Ferguson and his Civilisation: is The West History? His answer was a resounding no, because the rest of the world has adopted the "6 apps" (not smartphone apps, apparently) that made the West so successful, and which PRC seems to be excelling at imitating, despite Xi Jinping's co-opting of "Confucianism".
I'm with @davidwhyte550771 on this, but again was surprised he did not mention Scot Adam Smith much admired in China.
But because you are so convinced the West has lost its way - and because, at the very same time you were writing this piece, another with a decidedly Scottish name and presence, Donald Trump, is rapidly dismantling any coherent notion of the West - here are a few that you may agree with:
Oswald Spengler's 2-volume 1918 and 1922 The Decline of the West.
Spengler’s sweeping, cyclical theory argues that all civilizations pass through life stages, from birth and growth to maturity and eventual decay. His work has been hugely influential, even if controversial, in framing the idea that Western culture is in its winter phase.
Christopher Lasch's 1979 The Culture of Narcissism.
Lasch critiques modern Western society for fostering self-absorption and weakening communal bonds, arguing that this cultural shift contributes to a broader societal decay.
Patrick Buchanan's 2002 The Death of the West.
Offering a more politically charged perspective, Buchanan argues that cultural and demographic shifts threaten the traditional foundations of Western civilisation.
You won't like any of these critiques of modernity:
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer's 1944 The Dialectic of Enlightenment.
A seminal critique of Enlightenment rationality, this work argues that the very rationality meant to liberate humanity also paved the way for domination, instrumental reason, and mass culture, contributing to modern society’s crises.
Herbert Marcuse's 1964 One-Dimensional Man.
Marcuse explores how advanced industrial society promotes a one-dimensional way of thinking that suppresses critical dissent, ultimately stifling freedom and creativity in modern societies.
Jean-François Lyotard's 1979 The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge.
By questioning the grand narratives of modernity, Lyotard describes a shift toward postmodern scepticism about the universal claims of modern knowledge, signalling a crisis of legitimacy in modern ideologies.
But you will like Alasdair MacIntyre's 1981 After Virtue.
MacIntyre contends that modern moral philosophy has fragmented, losing its grounding in classical virtue ethics. This loss, he argues, is at the heart of modernity’s moral and ethical crisis.
Like you, MacIntyre and Strauss also want a return to the Classical philosophy of Aristotle. Well, at least MacIntyre's a Scot.
My undergrad professor once told me I'd like Macintyre, she was correct. Until you mentioned his name with this comment I had overlooked his influence on my much younger self almost 20 years earlier. Thank you, I will need to revisit his works, perhaps I have overlooked how much of that early 20 year old self reading his works resonates and influences me subconsciously.
Great comment, thank you. I'll absolutely check out some of the names on your list I've not confronted (One-Dimensional Man to name one of a couple).
Great comment. Very good. Food for further thought for yours truly.
Remembering how life was before the era of the enlightenment, ie poverty dirt squalor disease starvation and superstition for the majority of people, it is only with the age of reason,scientific exploration, and invention, that humanity has dragged itself out of that. Now in a state generally of comfort and plenty having conquered most diseases, it is typical of humanity in that position to start grumbling. Hence the liberating and burdensome stated by Neitsche. Liberating ,certainly, but burdensome largely I suggest,to those in a position of plenty and comfort who are now able to sit around and contemplate their navel and explore such issues as "what it all means and where are we going now" Be thankful you live now in a time of plenty and reason and look back in horror to what life was generally like centuries ago. A time when religious belief was strong ,Yes, but only through desparately searching for some form of constancy and meaning in desparate and uncertain times. Be thankful you live now.
I have no problem with the scientific method, and my stream of consciousness with this piece isn't a call for a return to religion (I try to explicitly make that clear with 'a moral order without religion'). My fear - which Nietzsche's 'death of God' explored was not so much life becomes burdensome as we materially advance, that is likely true in many respects, but more deeply: without religion, only maintaining an individualist approach to ethics and morality, then how do we possibly maintain society at all? If 'truth' cannot be agreed to outside of personal subjective feelings, we're in deep trouble frankly.
The question 'what constitutes truth' and can we find a way to rediscover a shared concept of a moral order communally as a society is not a self-indulgent question.
Kellyanne Conway's 'alternative truths' and the rise of identity politics 'own lived experience/my personal truth' rubbish grows out of the fact we live in isolated lives with little shared ethical or moral frameworks. This manifests in a selfishness where the devil can take the hindmost and unhappiness is king.