Arrogance - Quareness Series 179th "Lecture".
It would appear that the more deeply we are embedded in a system, the more we tend to rely on the information it produces/filters/interprets and the less likely we are to be aware of what lies outside its "official" narrative. Any such "protected" attitude when conjoined with the strong psychological incentive we all have to preserve an orderly reality in which we've been right all along, can quickly become one of arrogance if left unchecked. Indeed from within an official narrative bubble, it may not be at all obvious when anything unusual is happening. And the antidote? - a willingness to seek out and listen to "less popular" narratives.
The increasingly specialist nature of our societal structures easily facilitates a growing "paternalistic outlook" tendency with experts regarding their fields as fundamentally sound (despite some "rare hiccups") and thereby seeing a need (or even duty) to protect their knowledgeable status against dissenting views for the benefit of all. However, we're inevitably on the same spectrum of arrogance whenever such protecting involves smugness, scorn, patronising or even abuse. And this can be a surprisingly attractive folly for experts to fall for because of the felt need to be believed by those they perceive as less informed and the frustration involved when met with suspicion rather than trust.
We've seen many displays of such paternalistic arrogance infusing the covid-19 censorship regime e.g. we know better than you do what is good for your mind as well as your body, we control what you read and watch...for your own good of course, etc. Embedded in such is a deeper presumption of intelligent and educated people knowing that because of the advances of science and technology, humanity is better off than ever before and we must educate the retrograde and bring these "proven" modern methods to those so far deprived...for their own good of course. It can be a short step from this "progressive" certitude to forced imposition, blanket censorship and even "never ending" lying...all for the greater good.
Such forms of arrogance seem embedded even deeper in our current mythology of modernity which appears to regard humanity as inherently superior to the rest of life here and thus destined to impose order upon chaos. And this ambition to tame the wild is being increasingly expressed through its scientific concepts of categorisation and quantification as well as in seeking to control the world materially through technology. Greater centralising of authority too mirrors this approach when institutions can wield the same degree of power over people through categorising and quantifying them as part of a vision for a perfectly ordered society.
It's often been said that "with great power comes great responsibility" and given the truth that a lot of evil in our world is done in the name of good (and often with sincerely held belief), there's a hugely relevant responsibility to listen. Science has a responsibility to respect those it studies...not simply treat them as means to the end of knowledge. The medical sector has a responsibility to listen to patients and see them as fully dignified human beings who may have knowledge the medic does not. And the politicians have a responsibility to respect the public and treat us as full sovereign adults...not to engage in manipulating, hiding the truth and "messaging" propaganda. Human beings start out with some natural trust in and respect for authority (e.g. with children relying on their parents) but in a healthy society people gain authority because they have earned respect. Where respect withers and is replaced by fear, we can reasonably suspect some betrayal of trust.
Looking at where we are today and likely now heading, people's trust in our public institutions will continue to wane unless governmental, medical and scientific "authorities" stop manipulating and patronising us...indeed stop cheating and hiding, bullying and censoring, bribing and coercing the public. Given free choice, most people will tend to "obstinately" refuse to go along with what is pushed upon them by those they don't trust. Honesty and humility must prevail all round in order to encourage true voluntary compliance.
It's also the case that true love always holds open the possibility of redemption...never writing anyone off. Even if any are disturbed enough to the point of committing great evil, each individual human remains a vessel of life (or in religious terms a divine soul born of God) and anyone losing sight of this truth is not operating in full reality. It may be argued that the worst of the worst will never change but which of us can know that for certain?
Put-downs, derision, contempt, belittling, punishment, vengeance and write-offs are the tools of scapegoating, war and hate...of us versus them. Dehumanising the enemy frees the warrior from his/her conscience. Once someone is firmly fixed in the category of "deplorable", "villain", "terrorist", "threat to democracy", or other in-group convenient label for "badness", any act may become justifiable in what is perceived as a war of good versus evil. Of course both sides in any conflict may not be equally to blame (especially where there is a clear imbalance of power between abuser and victim) but when the anger of the oppressed turns into hate for the oppressor, the former victims can become the new oppressors if/when they win.
Such an atmosphere of denigration has permeated societies repeatedly throughout human history, particularly during times of great stress when looking for a class of scapegoats upon whom to project blame raises its ugly head. And this dehumanisation of the scapegoat appears to be a crucial part of proceeding towards exclusion, loss of rights, ostracism and even genocide. And the antidote? - comes from understanding that amnesty and disclosure lean upon each other and healing starts with acknowledging that injustice has happened. In short...
amnesty, forgiveness and trust are conditional but they rest on love which is not.
Could it be that the real contagion of the covid era lies with a social disease of dehumanisation, mob morality and sacrificial violence ripping through the social fabric like a shredding machine, severing friendships, and dividing families and communities? It's easy to suspect this given the degree of fear, hate and revulsion directed at those who refused to go along with the "official" rituals and/or ignored the taboos purporting to define one as a fully human member of society. Of course something primal also may lurk beneath any rationale for punishing any perceived architects of the "pandemonia". Rationalising that such is about deterrence and "holding people accountable" can hide more savage impulses masquerading as ideals...lust for revenge, triumphantly stomping over a humiliated enemy, etc. We surely need to be very conscious of the unrealistic madness inherent in seeking to control evil by projecting it onto a sacrificial victim whose removal from society cleanses badness from the world?
This deeper disease has a simple metabolism...feeding on anger and transforming it into hate. Anger powers the response to a violation and is supposed to clear the cause of such. However, the scapegoating virus hijacks that anger force and diverts it onto hate for a proximate or convenient target. Unfortunately it doesn't tend to quickly dissipate thereafter but rather continues to spread throughout society as hate begets hate and so on until all is exhausted. On the other hand anger is free to fulfill its purpose when we refuse to divert it onto hate. It's vital to understand this distinction between anger and hate as long as we're prone to dehumanising and scapegoating each other...making us susceptible to various kinds of totalitarian control.
It's also vital to understand that our world is not mostly divided into two separate strata of perpetrators and victims because the truth of their interlocking is inescapable. Most of us fall into both classes...in various ways and at various times. We may need anger's force to enable change but if we allow it to be diverted into hate, we'll have fallen for tyranny's oldest trick. And in making such distinction between anger and hate we may come to draw back the veil of arrogance and grasp the truth of that other important distinction between love and trust...
contrition can open the doorway but trust must be earned back.
Telling lies to create a world of truth,
Waging war to bring about peace,
Hating in the name of loving...
Today's defining slogans?
Seems there's always rationalisation,
Justified as practical and necessary,
For violating our hearts and integrity.
But such core betrayal can birth a split in the self,
An internal separation making the invented real,
For though reason may have its proper domain,
Making moral choices does not belong there.
In attempting to lead the heart with the mind
We risk making the servant into the master,
With abstraction birthing scared monsters
As we become heartless.
Sean.
Dean of Quareness.
March, 2023.