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Mea Maxima Culpa

Entry 2117, on 2021-04-01 at 21:27:14 (Rating 5, Politics)

There is a long tradition of using blame and guilt to denigrate people. The easiest way to control someone is to make them feel inadequate, inferior, or culpable in some way. If the person already thinks they are inferior then they will be much easier to control.

The first example of this I always think of is the Christian Church. The culture of blame and guilt there is very obvious. The idea is that all people are sinners, and that Jesus - through his church of course - is the only way to overcome that guilt and to become a better person.

Looking at it that way it is reprehensible and manipulative nonsense, and that should be obvious. But it isn't. The people under the influence of that institution cannot see how they are being manipulated. It is even quite feasible to say that those in charge of the church genuinely believe the sin and redemption story, and are unaware of how exploitative it really is.

There are two great quotes which come to mind when I think about this issue. The first is "there's a sucker born every minute " which is associated with PT Barnum. The other is "it’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled" which is attributed to Mark Twain.

So the suckers are people who are easily manipulated, but I suspect that in many cases that's what they actually want. Maybe they do feel guilty about some parts of their lives, and want a chance at redemption. Maybe they feel the need to be controlled by an authority figure, and prefer to remove a lot of the responsibility of decision making from themselves. Or maybe they have been born into a tradition which has controlled their minds from an early age.

But while the church might be the most obvious example of where this mind control technique is successfully used, there are others as well. Yes, this gets back to a theme I have concentrated on to some extent recently: the horrible and completely dishonest mind control techniques utilising guilt favoured by the modern "woke" community.

What have we got to be guilty about, according to these dangerous and dishonest tyrants? Well, primarily being successful, and not belonging to a minority group.

As a member of the very worst possible group - a white, straight, older, atheist, professional male - I should feel the most guilt, according to them.

I am white, so obviously I am racist, the cause of every problem non-white communities have, a perpetuator of slavery, and the underlying cause of everything from poverty in black communities to the larger proportion of non-white people in prison.

And being straight I am obviously homophobic, transphobic, and the ultimate reason that trans people have a high suicide rate.

And as an older person it is all my fault that capitalism has caused so much inequality over the last 50 years, that climate change is going to destroy the world, and that the natural world is being systematically destroyed.

And as an atheist I am obviously Islamophobic. So I am to blame for not only the attacks against Muslims, but also all the attacks they carry out against others, because they are just reacting to non-Muslim threats against their sincerely held beliefs.

And as a professional I ignore the plight of the unemployed, the homeless, and the disadvantaged in society, because I dishonestly accumulate wealth for my own benefit to the detriment of those less privileged.

And finally, the worst possible crime: I am male. So I am misogynistic, I am entirely responsible for all of the misdeeds of the patriarchy, I am responsible for the epidemic of sexual assault, lower pay for women, and their repression in general.

Hopefully you will have got to this point and realised how utterly stupid this all is, but many people actually take it seriously. The woke bullies think it is true - at least I presume they do, because the alternative is that they know it's BS but use it to gain political power anyway. Actually, I would prefer they were that cynical and manipulative because really believing such garbage is even more scary!

But the real problem is the victims of this narrative who go along with it. It sickens me to see entirely innocent people being subjected to humiliating actions because of some imagined crime they played no part in, and actually accepting it as justified.

For example, am I responsible for the colonisation of New Zealand? Well no, that pre-dates me by a century or two. Actually, I wish I was though, because I think it is the best thing that ever happened to this country, and that includes to the original inhabitants.

Am I responsible for slavery? Quite the opposite. Slavery imposed by white settlers in this country was never a major issue. But slavery of people from one Maori tribe by members of another was far more common (at least for the lucky ones who weren't killed or eaten instead). So if you want to talk about slavery, I will take responsibility for helping end it!

In fact, the abolition of slavery was largely due to efforts by the British. Remember that slavery within Africa - not involving colonial powers - happened long before the American slave trade started, and many of the slaves were provided to the slavers by black Africans.

What about all of those other heinous crimes? Well my basic philosophy for life involves two major elements: freedom and truth. I want the optimum freedom for myself and for others. So I am not in any way going to criticise other people's lifestyles, including their religion, sexual preferences, or anything else. If I treat these "minority groups" just like everyone else, so how am I to blame for any issues they may have?

The truth part of my philosophy is a bit more dangerous. That does mean that my opinions - including those included in this blog post - might be seen as challenging, or controversial, or even bigoted. For example, discussing the major issues I have with trans athletes is not because I am anti-trans, it is because I am pro-women. In fact, it is more because I am pro-truth. The truth is these trans people who started as men and now want to compete in women's sport are not women, and generally men are better at most sports than women, so it is unfair for them to participate.

You can see in that example above how the two truths: that trans men are not women, and that women are inferior to men in most sports, are both true but still challenging to some.

So do I have anything I need to be guilty of? Well, not because of any of those categories I belong to (white, male, etc). I make mistakes and feel guilt like everyone else. But there is nothing systemic on inherent in it just because of my unavoidable demographic groupings.

But the woke crowd - whose beliefs really resemble a religion far more than they might like to admit - will never accept that. Peccavi nimis, cogitatione, verbo, opere et omissione: mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Comment 10 (6498) by OJB on 2021-04-08 at 10:31:52: (view earlier comments)

Let's try a metaphor here. Imagine we are all in a race. I do a moderate amount of training and do quite well in the race. Other people just turn up on the day, whine about being poorly prepared, and finish last. Do I have privilege in that race?

If privilege was real, I would have been given a motorbike to ride to make sure I win that race. I don't see one anywhere.

I know that in the past some groups in society have had genuine disadvantages, but I don't see that now. All I see is them being given extra rights which I don't have yet they still lose the race. We need to find out what the losers are doing wrong, not try to blame the winners.

BTW, I'm not making any claims here based on race, gender, or any other intrinsic characteristics. I'm making a claim based on culture, which can (and should) be fixed.

Comment 11 (6499) by Anonymous on 2021-04-08 at 13:37:53:

Well, that's not really a metaphor, but rather a story. If I extend the story, lets say the people you describe as "just turning up on the day" do so because: (1) They have three jobs to pay the rent and have tons time to train, or (2) Were malnourished because3 they can't afford to eat nutritious food, or (3) Don't have training facilities in their low socioeconomic neighbourhood. So yes, you were privileged in that race, you just didn't realise it.
Your personal responsibility/effort argument just doesn't hold water.

So, people have had disadvantages in the past but not now. Are you seriously denying that disadvantage isn't perpetuated (in most cases)?

The "problem" with "quoting the cases where disadvantaged people escaped that environment" is that people, perhaps such as yourself, then use those individual stories as a stick to criticise those who couldn't escape their situations.

Comment 12 (6500) by OJB on 2021-04-08 at 17:05:20:

I'm sure there are some people who have genuinely made a significant effort to improve their lives, but have just not succeeded for reasons beyond their control. Then there are others who make bad decisions and really have themselves primarily to blame. Either way, I still don't have privilege, I just have made the right decisions.

Disadvantage can be perpetuated, but another possible reason is that there is a perpetuated cultural issue where some groups are more interested in acting as victims instead of actually improving their lives. Not having those particular disadvantages (whatever the reason for them) is not the same as having privilege.

It's not so much about criticising those who don't escape; it's more asking the question: why do some escape and others not? One possible answer is that the people who don't escape just don't follow the right path. Bit whatever the reason, I still don't have privilege.

Comment 13 (6503) by El equilibrador on 2021-04-09 at 09:12:20:

Awesome - we are in agreement! People's suffering may (through bad decisions and/or behaviour) or may not be due to anything they do or did. In some cases, it is just not possible to escape their upbringing. In some cases, it is. The bottom line is that we can't make sweeping, generalised comments about why they are in their current situations.

Comment 14 (6504) by OJB on 2021-04-09 at 09:55:41:

Yes, there are multiple reasons people end up in a bad situation. Sometimes it is primarily deficiencies in themselves, sometimes it is mainly due to events beyond their control. But it has nothing to do with my alleged privilege!

Bad decisions, bad luck, or whatever else which other people suffer from does not mean that I have privilege. It just means I was skilled or lucky enough to avoid the problems affecting them. Of course, I have my own problems, which I don't whine about, and don't blame on others.

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