Thanks for reminding me! When I read Marcus' original claim, I balked. But then forgot it because I wanted to respond to the other thread. The principle of leveling the playing field so that any given player has the chance to become an individual is flawed, I think ... somehow, though I don't know how.
What *if* (as Steve put it in his "muffled cries"), there are peaks in the landscape that *require* many non-individuals to form a scaffold for some (as yet unbound) non-individual to become an individual? I'm thinking, here, of the (false) Great Man Theory ... the idea that Einstein was just a better thinker than everyone else ... or I've heard it called the Comprehensive Designer by this guy: https://youtu.be/5gnlhmaM-dM Do we need these archetypes? Do we *need* the many rabble in order for the elite few to become "individuals"? On 12/27/18 1:45 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote: > A really nice observation: > "Trump supporters are not individualists, they are just people trying to > recover privilege they > didn’t earn and now see slipping away" > The same phenomenon can be observed in racism, sexism and nationalism > everywhere, not just in America. It happens for instance in racism where > white people lose their privileges (gained by colonialism in the past) > because they no longer belong to white people only. This kind of backwards > directed racism must be as old as George Washington himself. Or in sexism > where men fear that they lose their privileges because they no longer belong > to men only. Or in nationalism where the native people fear they lose their > privileges of citizenship, social benefits and election rights because > immigrants get the same rights. It is a fear driven version of racism, sexism > or nationalism which can be used by any skilled demagogue to win elections. > - Jochen > > -------- Original message --------From: Marcus Daniels <[email protected]> > Date: 12/26/18 23:43 (GMT+01:00) To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity > Coffee Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] 2019 - The end of > Trumpism > > > David writes: > > “And it would serve "the opposition" to get a clue about the fact that the > vast majority of Trump supporters do not suffer from racism, sexism, > 'genderism', "me-first-ism," > etc. Instead recognize that their primary affliction is individualism - and > even libertarian-ism (despite some obvious contradictions from the religious > among them) - along with corollaries of "anti-government control-ism," > "personal-responsibility-ism," and > "my-values-are-just-as-valid-as-yours-ism." > > The racism and sexism arise from the false supposition that personal > responsibility is all that is required to thrive. They fail to acknowledge > that public policy can level the playing field and give everyone a fair > chance to develop > their own values and priorities for their life – to become individuals. > They are worse than conventional conservatives because they lack any moral > center. They want to see regressive norms because those are the only norms > they can get their head around. -- ☣ uǝlƃ ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
