One way of gauging the power and impact of a social movement is to observe the sort of popular reaction it evokes, whether among its followers or its detractors.
When you don't believe in God, you end up looking for another god to fill in the god-shaped hole. There are things within your control (what you eat, what you say..) and things outside your control (when you die, if you get a major illness...) If you cannot trust and depend on the creator for the latter, you end up trusting and depending on the authorities to save you. Exceptions to this exist of course.
I am inclined to agree that as a general rule, a godless world is inherently more scary, and if we cannot entrust our life to a Father God, there is a very strong temptation to entrust it to a Father Authority of this world.
Hola David, leí tu articulo y me pareció muy interesante. Vengo del video que hiciste con Agustin Laje, soy de Argentina y estudio Historia. Gracias por tu análisis tan enriquecedor!
Notes: In paragraph 9, I believe you mean “non-binary” not “binary”. “Binary” means the traditional assumed Male/Female duality (which is by the way outdated, see the essay link below).
Also in paragraph 11 you have a typo "followin".
Sex Redefined: The idea of two sexes is simplistic, Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum
Thanks Eric. I've made the two initial corrections you've pointed out. I'm not sure why someone would say there are more than two biological sexes... How would that work?
The essay I linked to explains the basic realities. And, since that essay was written we have learned a lot more about epigenetics. Epigenetics refers to the study of how genes are not just a blueprint that is simply automatically switched on like a 3-D printer to create an organism. Throughout an animal or human's life, beginning with the first stages of development in the womb and proceeding until death, our genes are constantly interacting with the environment around us and turning on or off to *change* our biological/hormonal/immune processes so that our body is actively evolving to adapt to changing circumstances. For example it often occurs that of two identical twins, one becomes gay, and one does not.
Sex/gender (it is archaic to separate the two) while almost always resulting in people who biologically either have the traditionally understood 'male' or 'female' base ability to reproduce, does *not* boil down *at all* to simple reproduction (especially in humans). A quick look at our close relatives the Bonobos makes this clear. Human sexuality contributes to our species' survival in highly diverse ways - not merely through conception and birth.
Accordingly, human sex/gender expression in the body and its chemistry falls on a broad *spectrum* between the poles of heterosexual 'male' and heterosexual 'female', with *myriad* sex/gender types falling all along that spectrum. See "Epigenetics Is Implicated in the Basis of Gender Incongruence" at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2021.701017/full
I would say wokeism is indeed a "leftist" phenomenon, in the sense that it draws on Marxist themes connected to alienation and exploitation and recognition, and also tends to draw on some of the traditional leftist causes connected with egalitarianism and "inclusion." I would also say that the manner in which the Woke movement apes religious sentiment (albeit in a distorted, idolatrous manner) is something you will not generally find, at least not in this form, on the right. For example, conservative or right wing activists, while they can be forceful and dismissive toward other points of view, do not treat their own opinions as so sacred that merely questioning them is equivalent to sacrilege and deserves job loss or social exclusion. Notice, for example, that almost all current censorship and "cancel culture" comes from the left, not the right. Of course, there are other ways in which elements of the right may be intolerant or narrow-minded or highly ideologised. But I don't think they embody the sort of immanentised religion - at bottom, absolutisation or divinisation of human opinion - that we see in the Woke movement.
When you don't believe in God, you end up looking for another god to fill in the god-shaped hole. There are things within your control (what you eat, what you say..) and things outside your control (when you die, if you get a major illness...) If you cannot trust and depend on the creator for the latter, you end up trusting and depending on the authorities to save you. Exceptions to this exist of course.
I am inclined to agree that as a general rule, a godless world is inherently more scary, and if we cannot entrust our life to a Father God, there is a very strong temptation to entrust it to a Father Authority of this world.
Thanks. So clearly laid out. The cacophony of opinion is overwhelming so thanks for providing the antithesis to the noise
Thanks Ian. Yes, there is a lot of "cacophany" out there. I do my best to get down to the essentials of the matter. Glad to be of some service!
Hola David, leí tu articulo y me pareció muy interesante. Vengo del video que hiciste con Agustin Laje, soy de Argentina y estudio Historia. Gracias por tu análisis tan enriquecedor!
Muchas gracias Lorena!
Wow great article once again. Great writing and excellent research. Impressed.
Thanks!
Excellent work! Thanks for posting.
Be all hell let loose when the wokey's eventually work out that they've been had!!!!
Thanks Andy!
Notes: In paragraph 9, I believe you mean “non-binary” not “binary”. “Binary” means the traditional assumed Male/Female duality (which is by the way outdated, see the essay link below).
Also in paragraph 11 you have a typo "followin".
Sex Redefined: The idea of two sexes is simplistic, Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum
https://www.nature.com/news/sex-redefined-1.16943
Thanks Eric. I've made the two initial corrections you've pointed out. I'm not sure why someone would say there are more than two biological sexes... How would that work?
The essay I linked to explains the basic realities. And, since that essay was written we have learned a lot more about epigenetics. Epigenetics refers to the study of how genes are not just a blueprint that is simply automatically switched on like a 3-D printer to create an organism. Throughout an animal or human's life, beginning with the first stages of development in the womb and proceeding until death, our genes are constantly interacting with the environment around us and turning on or off to *change* our biological/hormonal/immune processes so that our body is actively evolving to adapt to changing circumstances. For example it often occurs that of two identical twins, one becomes gay, and one does not.
Sex/gender (it is archaic to separate the two) while almost always resulting in people who biologically either have the traditionally understood 'male' or 'female' base ability to reproduce, does *not* boil down *at all* to simple reproduction (especially in humans). A quick look at our close relatives the Bonobos makes this clear. Human sexuality contributes to our species' survival in highly diverse ways - not merely through conception and birth.
Accordingly, human sex/gender expression in the body and its chemistry falls on a broad *spectrum* between the poles of heterosexual 'male' and heterosexual 'female', with *myriad* sex/gender types falling all along that spectrum. See "Epigenetics Is Implicated in the Basis of Gender Incongruence" at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2021.701017/full
Not sure that we will agree on this, but I appreciate the info. Thank you for sharing your perspective.
I would say wokeism is indeed a "leftist" phenomenon, in the sense that it draws on Marxist themes connected to alienation and exploitation and recognition, and also tends to draw on some of the traditional leftist causes connected with egalitarianism and "inclusion." I would also say that the manner in which the Woke movement apes religious sentiment (albeit in a distorted, idolatrous manner) is something you will not generally find, at least not in this form, on the right. For example, conservative or right wing activists, while they can be forceful and dismissive toward other points of view, do not treat their own opinions as so sacred that merely questioning them is equivalent to sacrilege and deserves job loss or social exclusion. Notice, for example, that almost all current censorship and "cancel culture" comes from the left, not the right. Of course, there are other ways in which elements of the right may be intolerant or narrow-minded or highly ideologised. But I don't think they embody the sort of immanentised religion - at bottom, absolutisation or divinisation of human opinion - that we see in the Woke movement.