The exhortation—Believe in your own free will, and use it for the best!—applies to everyone, regardless of race. We all have ancestral histories, cultural milieus in which we grew up, inherited genomes. But we all also have many choices to make, many opportunities to do better rather than worse; we have only to seize them.
Yes wokeism has the characteristics of a religion, but it also fits the model of Mussolini style facism as described in this article.
Kotkin, no radical, asks in the final paragraph:
Will a citizenry, dependent on transfer payments and increasingly voiceless, still put up a fight? To slow fascism’s spread, either from China or from within, requires a re-awakening of the spirit of resistance to authority that has long marked human progress and now seems far too rare.
Thanks. Pithy statement. I’ve sent it to a friend who still allows discussion and is not possible as John said with “ unreflective zealotry”. I’ve fo,,owed you two as often as I can and watched the honing of your thoughts. Would we can all grow past the zealot Elect or equally zealot white nationalist zealots
Glenn, this "aria" is an eloquent - and compelling - summation of what I've heard you say for a long time. I am not black but am blessed with many black friends. Their accomplishments and achievements are impressive - impressive not because they are black, but because they are leading exceptional lives by any standard. It can be done and IS being done. Every community has exceptional people, but let's go back to the standard set by MLK, Jr.. Please, no more CRT! Let's follow the lead of scholars like you, Ian Rowe, John McWhorter, Coleman Hughes, Shelby Steele, Thomas Sowell, Jason Riley - and many others - to showcase what can be done with one's life if you take advantage of the opportunities open to all Americans.
Thank you, loved the aria! Free will is seen as some quaint and dusty old concept, very much out of style throughout American society. But the power within each of us to choose our path is a universal and sacred gift for all human beings. I feel that it is disempowering and even cowardly to accept these stories of fated predestination from the left or the right, from above or below. It is not that we have absolute free will—of course not. Every one of us is limited in ways we cannot change. But where are the places, big or small, that we CAN grow and change, as individuals, as communities, as a society? There is a moral courage that must be mustered to find the power in our hearts and minds to choose a better life. Thank you for reminding people of this truth.
There are three narratives for racial gaps, and I agree with you that two of them deny agency to blacks. The third is the narrative that I think you prefer, which is that some of the gap comes from choices that too many blacks make with respect to marriage, school, etc. See https://arnoldkling.substack.com/p/notes-on-racial-gaps
The book "The Mind Club" makes the insightful point that we tend to frame moral situations in terms of an unfeeling chooser and a helpless feeler, with the former having all of the agency in the setting and the latter having none. But real human beings have both the capacity to choose and the capacity to feel. To categorize someone as having only one and not the other is dehumanizing. http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/speculation-on-the-psychology-of-woke/
The exhortation—Believe in your own free will, and use it for the best!—applies to everyone, regardless of race. We all have ancestral histories, cultural milieus in which we grew up, inherited genomes. But we all also have many choices to make, many opportunities to do better rather than worse; we have only to seize them.
Call Sign "Maverick"
https://onevoicebecametwo.life/2021/07/05/call-sign-maverick/
This piece by Joel Kotkin in UnHerd relates to what Glenn is saying in his aria.
https://unherd.com/2021/07/how-the-democrats-fell-for-mussolini/
Yes wokeism has the characteristics of a religion, but it also fits the model of Mussolini style facism as described in this article.
Kotkin, no radical, asks in the final paragraph:
Will a citizenry, dependent on transfer payments and increasingly voiceless, still put up a fight? To slow fascism’s spread, either from China or from within, requires a re-awakening of the spirit of resistance to authority that has long marked human progress and now seems far too rare.
Thanks. Pithy statement. I’ve sent it to a friend who still allows discussion and is not possible as John said with “ unreflective zealotry”. I’ve fo,,owed you two as often as I can and watched the honing of your thoughts. Would we can all grow past the zealot Elect or equally zealot white nationalist zealots
Glenn, this "aria" is an eloquent - and compelling - summation of what I've heard you say for a long time. I am not black but am blessed with many black friends. Their accomplishments and achievements are impressive - impressive not because they are black, but because they are leading exceptional lives by any standard. It can be done and IS being done. Every community has exceptional people, but let's go back to the standard set by MLK, Jr.. Please, no more CRT! Let's follow the lead of scholars like you, Ian Rowe, John McWhorter, Coleman Hughes, Shelby Steele, Thomas Sowell, Jason Riley - and many others - to showcase what can be done with one's life if you take advantage of the opportunities open to all Americans.
Thank you, loved the aria! Free will is seen as some quaint and dusty old concept, very much out of style throughout American society. But the power within each of us to choose our path is a universal and sacred gift for all human beings. I feel that it is disempowering and even cowardly to accept these stories of fated predestination from the left or the right, from above or below. It is not that we have absolute free will—of course not. Every one of us is limited in ways we cannot change. But where are the places, big or small, that we CAN grow and change, as individuals, as communities, as a society? There is a moral courage that must be mustered to find the power in our hearts and minds to choose a better life. Thank you for reminding people of this truth.
Incredible...
There are three narratives for racial gaps, and I agree with you that two of them deny agency to blacks. The third is the narrative that I think you prefer, which is that some of the gap comes from choices that too many blacks make with respect to marriage, school, etc. See https://arnoldkling.substack.com/p/notes-on-racial-gaps
The book "The Mind Club" makes the insightful point that we tend to frame moral situations in terms of an unfeeling chooser and a helpless feeler, with the former having all of the agency in the setting and the latter having none. But real human beings have both the capacity to choose and the capacity to feel. To categorize someone as having only one and not the other is dehumanizing. http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/speculation-on-the-psychology-of-woke/
Love you Glenn loury. My life is better because you share your brilliance.
Thank you, Glenn Loury! You’re a magnificent writer, thinker and human being! Happy July 4th.