I was to a liberal acquaintance the other day. Of course his roof is covered with solar panels. And he talked about how a black acquaintance was given the royal treatment at his alma mater. And he was pleased as how his dad got acquainted with lesbians when he attended a carving class.
What is this guy telling us with all this fashionable nonsense? We call it “virtue signaling.” but I feel I need to understand this virtue-signaling at a deeper level.
Here’s a long piece about how California screws the poor with its green energy policies. The educated class and the administrative state know they are saving the planet. But meanwhile they are making life horrible for ordinary people and poor people. What’s the disconnect?
Then there are the yard signs I see in my liberal neighborhood whenever I go up the hill for a walk. The Black Lives Matter signs. The WeBelieve signs. The “Equality Never Hurt Anyone” sign. Oh, and the Ridwell boxes, which are most obvious on the street with the best views. Not to mention the Rainbow flags and Progress Pride flags that are still flying well after the end of Pride Month.
I suppose that, at the heart of it, these people are advertising to the world that they are not just ordinary dumb Americans. No, they are special, in the way advertised in the Allyship narrative: The “Allies” are fighting with the “Oppressed Peoples” against the “White Oppressors.”
Of course, we all know what a bad thing dogmatic rigidity is in religious believers. Think of the Inquisition! But I think that all believers have a tendency towards an uncritical view of their own beliefs and a hypercritical view of other beliefs. That’s the whole point of a religious belief. To put some nagging question to bed.
I also think that, to get anything done in this world, you need to buckle down, ignore the critics and your own doubts, and forge ahead. But, in accordance with the ancient truth that many are called but few are chosen, there is a problem. Whatever it is that we have thrown our faith and our energy into, chances are that we won’t conquer the world with it. In fact, our brilliant idea will probably fail.
We know what many people do when their idea starts failing. They double down. They insist that with one more Big Push they will break through to success. I like to use Crane Brinton’s analysis in The Anatomy of Revolution to understand this. For revolutionaries, facing the failure of their dreams, often amp it up into a Reign of Terror or a Great Purge. Because if something is going wrong, it must be the malevolence of aristos, of wreckers and saboteurs, or of racist-sexist-homophobes.
Or the disappointed believers decide to burn it all down. Here’s a piece reporting on opinion polls about the Supreme Court that say that lots of Democrats want to elect the court, or abolish it, or give the UN a veto. It’s interesting to me because it violates Sowerby’s Law from The Secret Garden that you don’t get to have the whole orange: you don’t get to have Supreme Court decisions your way forever and a day. Susan Sowerby promulgated that law to her children, if you see what I mean. Yeah. I get it. Liberals want anything except a Supreme Court that cuts the throat of liberal sacred cows. That is, as they say, “inconceivable!” And don’t forget that it was the son of The New Yorker’s great editor William Shawn that expressed that notion in The Princess Bride.
All this is fine, but I sure would appreciate an “aha” moment one night in bed. A moment that would explain the whole thing in 3D and Technicolor. Because right now I feel I am crawling around, not quite getting the whole thing.
Still, one thing I’ve learned is that the more I study and wonder about a question, the more likely I am to have an “aha” moment. Stay tuned.