You always have the most interesting points of view. The world is a strange place full of complexity and nuance, but hardly anyone takes the time to point it out. Thank you for the article.
As a BHS grad I can safely say you are on to something with this analysis. I am so repelled by 'my side' I have started to entertain the possibility that the 'other' is right. but, both are juvenile. You hit it spot on.
I would blame the rise of the Alt-right and Antifa on the idea of progress. Jacques Ellul discusses progress in his book, "The Technological Society". "Technique, in its action on the economy, awakened vast hopes in human hearts. The machine and all that came with it, all it brought in the way of progress, would put into human hands riches perhaps different but as impressive as those of legend. These riches would not be piles of gold or precious stones reserved for the darlings of the gods, but comfort and pleasure for everyone... Everyone was to have in full measure the wherewithal to live... by the end of the nineteenth century people saw in their grasp the moment in which everything would be at the disposal of everyone, in which man, entirely replaced by machine, would have only pleasures and play. We have had to lower our sights... Yet two wars, two "accidents" have in no way affected our glorious conceptions of progress... The hope is still the same, but the human being (now) tells himself that he can only attain Paradise through the destruction of his enemies... When man finds the foe who stands in his way and who alone has barred Paradise to him (be it Jew, Fascist, capitalist, or Communist), he must strike him down, that from the cadaver may grow the exquisite flower the machine had promised... All myths directly or indirectly go back to the myth of Paradise; and the technical productivity man is witnessing seems to have spurred a proliferation of myths."
Both Antifa and the Alt-Right both see themselves as heroes bent on restoring us to Paradise and saving us from Perdition. They both believe in progress (however warped that may be), and they are both dissatisfied with our hollow consumer capitalist society. We were supposed to have it all by now, but due to racial impurity (Alt-right) or fascism (Antifa) we have lost our way. Maybe the biggest myth of all is not that of Paradise, but the idea of progress.
Great article, thank you. We don't often get such even-handed reports from the field.
I'm going to disagree with you on one thing though: "Consumer capitalism HAS impoverished our culture, alienated us from one another, and sapped meaning from our lives." I don't think is true at all. We humans crave novelty and experience (both real and vicarious through books & now movies), and consumer culture gives it to us. Having grown up in a dull small midwest town, I couldn't wait to leave, and I am thrilled that I did.
If you want to decry consumer culture, I think you have to tell us what is going to replace it. The alternatives to it presented by both the left and the right are pretty awful, as this very article demonstrates.
Good article. Misses that both ideologies discussed are straw variants of real under currents of thought which is oddly fitting. They are very weak-hyperbolic identities that only come to dominate when others have been readily denied. It points to a weakened religious substructure that fails to provide meaning or structure, pointing to a steady decline towards populism and moral anarchy by a decline in recognized authority. This framing, like theirs is well articulated but still operating on too superficial level.
Even a moderate position of growing up seems like no less of a larp.
Capitalism is what makes much of what is wonderful in this world. My iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, McIntosh power amplifier, Leica and Nikon cameras, Really Right Stuff tripod, etc, etc are all products that give me great joy and could not exist without capitalism. Even this Substack writing probably would not have existed without the potential reward of attracting subscriptions, in other words, capitalism.
I am disappointed that there seem to be almost no defenders of a system that does so much to improve our lives.
You always have the most interesting points of view. The world is a strange place full of complexity and nuance, but hardly anyone takes the time to point it out. Thank you for the article.
As a BHS grad I can safely say you are on to something with this analysis. I am so repelled by 'my side' I have started to entertain the possibility that the 'other' is right. but, both are juvenile. You hit it spot on.
I would blame the rise of the Alt-right and Antifa on the idea of progress. Jacques Ellul discusses progress in his book, "The Technological Society". "Technique, in its action on the economy, awakened vast hopes in human hearts. The machine and all that came with it, all it brought in the way of progress, would put into human hands riches perhaps different but as impressive as those of legend. These riches would not be piles of gold or precious stones reserved for the darlings of the gods, but comfort and pleasure for everyone... Everyone was to have in full measure the wherewithal to live... by the end of the nineteenth century people saw in their grasp the moment in which everything would be at the disposal of everyone, in which man, entirely replaced by machine, would have only pleasures and play. We have had to lower our sights... Yet two wars, two "accidents" have in no way affected our glorious conceptions of progress... The hope is still the same, but the human being (now) tells himself that he can only attain Paradise through the destruction of his enemies... When man finds the foe who stands in his way and who alone has barred Paradise to him (be it Jew, Fascist, capitalist, or Communist), he must strike him down, that from the cadaver may grow the exquisite flower the machine had promised... All myths directly or indirectly go back to the myth of Paradise; and the technical productivity man is witnessing seems to have spurred a proliferation of myths."
Both Antifa and the Alt-Right both see themselves as heroes bent on restoring us to Paradise and saving us from Perdition. They both believe in progress (however warped that may be), and they are both dissatisfied with our hollow consumer capitalist society. We were supposed to have it all by now, but due to racial impurity (Alt-right) or fascism (Antifa) we have lost our way. Maybe the biggest myth of all is not that of Paradise, but the idea of progress.
Great article, thank you. We don't often get such even-handed reports from the field.
I'm going to disagree with you on one thing though: "Consumer capitalism HAS impoverished our culture, alienated us from one another, and sapped meaning from our lives." I don't think is true at all. We humans crave novelty and experience (both real and vicarious through books & now movies), and consumer culture gives it to us. Having grown up in a dull small midwest town, I couldn't wait to leave, and I am thrilled that I did.
If you want to decry consumer culture, I think you have to tell us what is going to replace it. The alternatives to it presented by both the left and the right are pretty awful, as this very article demonstrates.
Go find
Good article. Misses that both ideologies discussed are straw variants of real under currents of thought which is oddly fitting. They are very weak-hyperbolic identities that only come to dominate when others have been readily denied. It points to a weakened religious substructure that fails to provide meaning or structure, pointing to a steady decline towards populism and moral anarchy by a decline in recognized authority. This framing, like theirs is well articulated but still operating on too superficial level.
Even a moderate position of growing up seems like no less of a larp.
Capitalism is what makes much of what is wonderful in this world. My iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, McIntosh power amplifier, Leica and Nikon cameras, Really Right Stuff tripod, etc, etc are all products that give me great joy and could not exist without capitalism. Even this Substack writing probably would not have existed without the potential reward of attracting subscriptions, in other words, capitalism.
I am disappointed that there seem to be almost no defenders of a system that does so much to improve our lives.