Friday, March 09, 2007

Post postmodernism: what are the options? (II)

Not ever in my life have I come across such a treacherous and foul piece of thinking as relativism (that includes all its other postmodern relatives [1]). The reason why I would even prefer full-blown communism, is that at least, it states in fairly straight forward terms what it portends to be. You can reason about it, debate it, you can fight it.

Relativism goes far beyond that. There is no underlying reason [3] and there's no debating it: it is an epistemology that tells you your senses and by extension your rationality is unreliable, that any conviction you have about it - or in respect of anything else, for that matter - is just your opinion, and that its fallacies are invalid because they are based on vacuous Western ethnocentricity. It seems to be tailor-made to cause the greatest possible confusion in people's minds. To put it bluntly: it f%#*s with the brain, plays dirty mind-games.

We may not realise it, but every day - whenever we press a button for a connection to the nearest news outlet - we are bombarded with its messages. What then are the consequences of these psi-ops?

1. The politically correct genesis.
Simply said: Darwinism. Life is chance and has by accident developed out of primordial soup. When our time has come, we disintegrate. What we, naked apes, do in the time we walk the earth is inconsequential. The meaning of life is reproduction, the survival of the species, passing on the genes. Once we've reproduced, we become useless. We are a bad, destructive species: better not to reproduce at all if you want to act environmentally responsible. The biggest polluters are babies: not just their nappies, but think of all the pollution they will cause during their lifetime. Planet Earth without us is infinitely better. How all the above figures to adherents of the Gaia hypothesis, I don't wanna know.
Consequence: cynicism - nihilism - uselessness - boredom - survival of the fittest - irrationality - violence - chaos - 'the law of the jungle' - humanity commits suicide in favour of a pristine planet Earth.

2. Your senses are untrustworthy.
End of natural philosophy. Has consequences for science, but is practically status quo.
Consequence: Self-doubt and uncertainty about the world around us. Scientific confusion: ignoring presuppositions of the empirometric method gets official policy status. Related expression: he's taken leave of his senses.

3. Relativism wants you to believe ten impossible things before breakfast.
All is possible, all is relative [4]. Laws of nature are relative and perhaps imaginary. Is it perhaps all a dream, or a parallel universe you can step out of?
Consequences: lots and lots of disappointments.

4. Since there's no truth, there's no such thing as wrong.
Think whatever you will. It is of no consequence. So can everybody else.
Consequence: intellectual chaos. No problem.

5. There's no truth, only personal opinion.
Personal opinion is never really 'wrong', but it can cause offence. Say whatever you will, but never criticize. So-called 'eternal truths' (laws for instance, or religious tenets) are just somebody's opinion. If an opinion is offensive to anyone, it should be exchanged for another that is more agreeable.
Consequences: debate is reduced to small talk about personal tastes. Related expression: there no arguing about tastes (Dutch proverb). No critique, no personal improvement (all good things come at a price, after all). End of tolerance about ideas. Ad hominem attacks: intolerance and disrespect towards the person. The end of freedom of expression, as there will always be an opinion that's offensive to somebody. Legal chaos. Religion is also personal opinion. Practicing exact science has become impossible: technological and scientific progress come to a halt. The Alphas, the Humanities, the Liberal Arts thrive: funding is re-channeled in its direction. Combating disease is no longer tenable.

6. Morally there's no good, there's no evil.
Do whatever your instinct or 'some stuff in your brain' tells you to. Everybody has the right to his own morals. We don't pass judgement on each other's moralities. Forget the past: there's no sin, there's no guilt. Consequences: no sin, no forgiveness. Moral chaos. Legal chaos. The cannibal is happily celebrating his culture and has invited the voodoo queen too lunch; others are ritually slaughtering sheep, while animal rights activists jump up and down for joy at so much unoppressed pluralism.

7. All faiths are equally valid.
But they are all fundamentalisms that must be jettisoned asap. Until such time they are a private matter and have no business in the public space. Muslims have been awfully victimised. They have therefore a right to special consideration (this has nothing to do with decibel production or with nail bombs). Islam, Buddhism, animism, voodoo, paganism, wicka are equal=identical: wicka is Islam.
Consequence: there's no distinction between Kali worship and zen. If human sacrifice is your creed's highest expression of worship, nothing should be standing in its way. But consider yourselves on notice that your faiths are emotionally backward and are ultimately subject to abolition. A prime example if so much ignorance and callousness can be found here (who says there's not a war on?).

8. All ideologies are equally valid.
But they are all fundamentalisms that need to be dumped asap. Communism, socialism, fascism, liberalism, etc. are all Western inspired expressions of ethnocentristic hegemonism. They're all equally bad=identically bad: communism is liberalism.
Consequences: related policies will be abolished forthwith.

9. All cultures are equally valid.
All cultures are equal=identical: cannibalism is pacifism. Not subject to termination.
Consequences: see 7.

10. Western culture is intrinsically bad.
It should consider itself on notice that it will be reduced to a small corner of the whole of human culture, if it behaves. Preferably it will not survive at all.
Consequence: Western morale undermined. Defeatism.

11. Christianity is intrinsically bad.
It will not survive.
Consequence: Christian morale undercut. Its legacy vacuous.

12. Science is Western culture and is intrinsically bad.
Reason, rationality is Western, bad and objective.
Consequences: unspeakable.

It's the seductive voice of a latter day version of World War II siren Tokyo Rose: "Give over, you are bad, you are losing ...losers!" Can you think of any better psi-ops, the untold message that daily spreads from the media, from universities and the pundits? The message to non-Westerners is of course the mirror image.

To be continued: what's next?

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