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Progressive virtue, performed in public

Buruma, Ian
Publisher:  Le Monde Diplomatique
Date Written:  01/09/2023
Year Published:  2023  
Pages:  1pp  
Resource Type:  Article

Wokeness, however it is defined, has more in common with a religious mindset than a political project, says Ian Buruma.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Weber was keenly aware of the harsh intolerance it could engender. 'This consciousness of divine grace of the elect and holy', he wrote, was accompanied by an attitude toward the sin of one's neighbour, not of sympathetic understanding based on consciousness of one's own weakness, but of hatred and contempt for him as an enemy of God bearing the signs of eternal damnation.

In 1964, the historian Richard Hofstadter diagnosed the 'paranoid style' as a recurrent feature of American politics, whose adherents turned all social conflicts into a 'spiritual wrestling match between good and evil'.
...

The Elect like to talk about the 'structural' nature of oppression, but the public performance of progressive virtue, or indeed of anti-woke attitudes on the right, often becomes a substitute for discussions of serious and systematic reform.
...

There is no doubt that many people benefitted from globalisation - not just corporate CEOs but professors, writers, filmmakers, journalists, actors, conference organisers, foundation managers, and museum curators - in short, precisely the kind of people who tend to make up the Elect.

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