Yesterday, Stacy McCain published an insightful essay on the Cultural Survival Instinct, which provides a penetrating look inside the way Leftists think.
His explanation of ‘false consciousness’ is especially informative. A highlight:
When the prophecies of Marx and Lenin failed — when the proletariat masses did not rally to the revolutionary banner, rise up and slaughter their capitalist oppressors — the Frankfurt School intellectuals elaborated in new language an old idea of Marx’s, “false consciousness.” If a member of the proletariat did not act in accordance with the Marxist prescription of his class interest, then he was obviously blinded by some sort of religious or cultural belief that the capitalist regime had propagated as a means to make the slave embrace his slavery.
“False consciousness” interprets the individual’s allegiances to faith, family or flag as impediments to the realization of the Left’s radical-egalitarian utopian dream. Accusing the average American (or average Norwegian) of “racism” or “xenophobia” or some other irrational prejudice, diagnosing the Left’s opposition as suffering from psychiatric disorders that threaten the nation with fascism, are tactics so familiar that it is truly surprising that so few people recognize them as what they really are, a species of Marxist propaganda.
So many people, especially Americans, fail to realize just how deeply Marxist Thinking has penetrated our Culture, especially when it comes to politics [which, for the Left In America, concerns every aspect of life]. For example: Without question, it is accepted that all prejudice is ‘evil’ — this is a Leftist belief [and ironic, considering the Left claims it doesn't believe in Absolute Truth, which leads them, logically, to believe that 'Good' and 'Evil' are relativistic concepts]. Prejudice, of course, is neutral — there is the kind that serves a nefarious purpose, there is a kind that, as Edmund Burke wrote serves a good and noble purpose:
YOU see, Sir, that in this enlightened age I am bold enough to confess that we are generally men of untaught feelings, that, instead of casting away all our old prejudices, we cherish them to a very considerable degree, and, to take more shame to ourselves, we cherish them because they are prejudices; and the longer they have lasted and the more generally they have prevailed, the more we cherish them. We are afraid to put men to live and trade each on his own private stock of reason, because we suspect that this stock in each man is small, and that the individuals would do better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of nations and of ages. Many of our men of speculation, instead of exploding general prejudices, employ their sagacity to discover the latent wisdom which prevails in them. If they find what they seek, and they seldom fail, they think it more wise to continue the prejudice, with the reason involved, than to cast away the coat of prejudice and to leave nothing but the naked reason; because prejudice, with its reason, has a motive to give action to that reason, and an affection which will give it permanence. Prejudice is of ready application in the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of decision skeptical, puzzled, and unresolved. Prejudice renders a man’s virtue his habit, and not a series of unconnected acts. Through just prejudice, his duty becomes a part of his nature. [Reflections On The Revolution In France]
This kind of thinking used to be considered normal. It held that high designation because centuries of experience had taught men that it was wise thinking, that it aided men in maintaining their Virtue — a necessary ingredient in the effort to preserve Freedom and Liberty.
In our regressive age, this statement of Mr. Burke brands him as a Raaaaacist! — or, at the very least, and apologist for racists.
In the Comments section of his post, Stacy offered this response to a commentator that is worth quoting in full:
The persistence of tribalism or ethnocentrism — to remove the tendentious pejorative of "racism" from the discussion — in the 21st century should tell us that we are fundamentally misguided if we suppose that this profound tendency of human nature can be eradicated altogether. If you could somehow prevent people from discriminating on the basis of race or ethnicity, they would discriminate on some other basis that would be equally unfair and harmful. Such a policy would, in other words, merely redistribute the unfairness.
It is ridiculous when, in the course of discussion among allegedly educated and intelligent people, liberals start jumping up and down to exclaim that RACISM IS BAD — as if anyone were arguing otherwise — in a sort of Denunciation Derby, where it becomes a contest to see who can offer the most eloquent condemnation of whatever incident (e.g., the death of Trayvon Martin) has inspired the discussion.
You saw something quite similar in regard to the Steubenville rape case. Once the Denunciation Derby began, anyone who disputed the Left’s attempt to make this a symbolic indictment — of America’s "rape culture," whatever the hell that means — was accused of being pro-rape. Whereas the Left has spent decades proclaiming their devotion to the Due Process rights of accused criminals, they completely reversed themselves in regard to the Steubenville case, so that anyone who refused to join their digital lynch-mob was subjected to outrageous harassment.
Only if you take a step back from such controversies and attempt to appraise the situation objectively — "What’s really happening here?" — is it possible to understand how the Left is manipulating the narrative for political purposes.
Mankind will never abolish racism, nor is it possible to abolish murder or rape. Yet the Left is forever trying to convince us that there is a utopia of sinless perfection to which they could lead us, if only we’d submit to their superior judgment.
To paraphrase that now-overused cliche: life is what it is.
Human Beings will always remain as they are. The only thing we can hope to improve is their behavior.
But this cannot be done via force; it must arise out of an individual’s exercising of his Free Will, without any physical or mental reservation.
To be a Leftist is to reject Reality, which means they all reject Life and Free Will.
As Gerhart Niemeyer wrote:
‘…Whoever entertains a view of history that destroys the present and past and locates all values exclusively in some human future, is…barred from common sense. Whoever acts under the illusion that man can create a new man, a new world, or a new society lives in a dream-world and is barred from common sense. …Common sense is political sobriety that is fully aware of human limits inherent in the human condition.’ [Aftersight And Foresight, 'Conservatism And The New Political Theory']
In their efforts to drug man into a ‘right way of thinking’, a ‘true consciousness’, the Left seeks to turn all men into gods, which they believe will bring about Heaven On Earth, Immanentize The Eschaton.
In other words, they seek to do what cannot be done, what is not possible. Therefore, all of their efforts will fail.
The trouble is, all of their efforts involve the participation of their fellow Human Beings, whether voluntary or compelled, and said efforts inevitably lead to the gas oven or the guillotine when things go badly [as they always do].
