Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence and thereby eventually lose all ability to defend ourselves and those we love. - Julian Assange
I very much liked the Helen Razer article Dr Gob referenced. It reminds me of one of the characteristics of the humanist tendencies in European civilisation - the temptation* to resort to platitudes that demonstrate politically correct thinking (DoubleThink?) rather than taking concrete action in complicated situations. Often, demonstrating that one thinks the Right Things is more important than actual constructive behaviour.
(* Not always acted upon)
Which is not surprising given the overall self-interest and self-centeredness you’d naturally expect in creatures of evolution. Perhaps the political beliefs we’re vocal about are nothing but mating signals. And we like our pussy progressive, thank you very much.
I thought Dr Gob mentioned an article that appeared in The Conversation, but didn’t see it in the show notes. Am I remembering things right? If so, can I get the link?
John O’Malley expressed the point on the dark side of humanism better than I in “Four Cultures of the West”:
Culture three [humanistic culture], meanwhile, harbors a weakness for platitudes and a tendency to mistake them for solutions. It postures and is clever.
The other three cultures of four (non-exhaustive) cultures of the West he identifies - see below, along with his shorthand description of their more apparent dark sides.
One - Prophetic culture
Fanaticism is never far from culture one. Hitler fits the profile.
Two - Academic/professional culture
Culture two must fight the tendency to feed upon itself and to slide into a sterile intellectualism, carping and corrosive in its analysis of everything that crosses its path.
Four - Artistic culture
Culture four - kitsch, “entertainment,” smoke and mirrors.