Identity politics: Victim or Victor? Either way, we all lose.

As with many things, life’s experiences change perspectives. Or perhaps I should say bring into focus old suspicions while disabusing us of prejudices and naivety. I was fortunate enough to have attended a high school where the teaching staff taught us how to think. We were required to investigate all the major totalitarian ideologies. Note I said how to think rather than what. Our teachers allowed us to draw our own conclusions. The opposite appears to be true today. From nursery school to postgraduate school students are being told how they should view the world, particularly with regard to the role the state should play in shaping and guiding society. And therein lies the problem, reshaping society is NOT the proper role of the state. Somehow many have forgotten that our elected representatives were elected to represent their constituents, NOT redefine them. Which is exactly what was wrong with every single totalitarian ideology we studied.

How did we go so wrong? Where did the idea that government should reshape us originate? In partial answer to that question I invite you to read a previous blog of mine, “The coopting of liberalism by social progressives”: https://therealistsadvocate.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-coopting-of-liberalism-by-social.html . We have a great deal of confusion as to the actual meaning of words today. Words are powerful tools. We should choose to use them precisely and carefully. Words hold profound meanings. Words not only serve to help define but also to create a new reality. I cannot think of another time in history when words have taken on such radically new meanings. Gay no longer means happy. Tolerance has come to mean tolerating the intolerable. Postmodern liberals have become both illiberal and authoritarian. The alt-right is suffering from its own delusional pursuit of identity politics by claiming the superiority of one group above that of another. Few today have an understanding of Classical Liberalism and the importance it places on the sovereign individual, which is why liberal has taken on the opposite meaning from its original one.

In the not too distant past, that is in my pre-Norway days of hosting and booking music, I paid little attention to any of this unless I was confronted with something so contradictory that I would comment on it yet do little else. I was naïve and hopelessly lost in my own pursuit of good times or too busily engaged with quality improvement training with industry, something which I took very seriously and still do. But that ended as most things inevitably do. I had met my Norwegian wife while developing a course for improving business leadership. Since I was retired and in love, it was possible for me to move to Norway to be with her where I also hoped to sell our program to industry. Norway woke me up, however. To say that no one was interested in first time quality in Norway is an understatement. However, I saw something there which I feared could fracture their society. I was so disturbed by it that I had to dig deeper. Well, watch out what you wish for! Little by little I began to see the role that identity politics was playing in reshaping Scandinavia. It was becoming more and more evident that the postmodern left was waging a culture war against traditional Norwegian society and its values. In the face of this I saw the emergence of alt-right activism. I saw frightening parallels from Europe’s pre-WWII past. The potential for modern day leftists and the radical right to renew their fight over which version of collectivism is superior. Neither group understood the concept of the sovereign individual. Neither understood why constitutional law which limits the power of the state by recognizing the primacy of the individual is vital in creating responsible, limited, good governance. Which still seems to me very peculiar since Norwegians make such a big fuss over Syttende Mai, their national constitution holiday.

Scandinavia is particularly prone to a collectivist mindset. There is a principle deeply imbedded in the Scandic psyche known as “Janteloven” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante . This simply put is "tall poppy syndrome" or “crab in a bucket syndrome" where if one crab tries to crawl out of a fisherman's bucket to avoid being eaten other crabs will pull it back down. In Norway you must avoid at all costs thinking you are special or sticking your head above the herd. The idea of the “sovereign individual” is viewed with great suspicion. Those who know me can possibly understand how this affected me, I was horrified. And, I needed to understand why I was so bothered by it. Fortunately, I am married to a woman who has struggled with Janteloven her entire life. She is uniquely remarkable which sets her apart for criticism from her peers yet very Norwegian as well, which is why I will say little else about her other than to state this. She explained how Postmodernism combined with Cultural Marxism was undermining her culture. She also explained that due to the Nazis appropriating Norwegian culture as some perverse symbol of Germanic perfection too much interest in cultural heritage and history might get you labelled a neo-Nazi. What to me seemed even odder is that there is no such stigma attached to being a communist.

To explain the radical leftist position, when it became obvious that capitalism had been far too successful in raising the masses out of poverty a proletarian uprising in the western world became very unlikely. As a result, communism needed to be reinvented if its proponents were to continue to promote it. No longer would it be defined as a class struggle of worker versus the boss. The Critical Theory of Cultural Marxism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_theory redefined the communist struggle as one of victim versus victimizing oppressor. Critical Theory pits what they define as oppressed identity groups against the white European male patriarchy which has been labelled as the oppressor. Therefore this explains how the radical left perceives the identity game. It also goes without saying that under this new paradigm an oppressive hierarchy will still exist. The new hierarchy has now become one of a powerful postmodern political elite (insert Justin Trudeau) who use a very thinly veiled guise of defending the little guy while becoming wealthy on the backs of the common citizen. If a citizen complains about this they are accused of bigotry or worse, being "a deplorable"! However, there is no reason that the identity politics game should be played to lose. After all why be a victim? If the radical postmodern left is going to paint the victimizer as the white male patriarchy, why not be a part of that patriarchy and play the identity politics game to win? In this we see the emergence of the same sort of insanity that infected Europe in the 1930’s which led up to WWII resulting in the death and oppression of countless millions.

The alternative to this madness is obvious yet, so few seem to see it. The difference between individuals is far greater than the differences between groups of individuals. True diversity lies ONLY at an individual level. Which is why I identify as a Classical Liberal, a philosophy which places primacy on the sovereign individual. I believe that the law must remain blind to race, creed, sex, colour, affiliations, status and wealth for all to be treated equally and fairly. Assigning special status to certain groups whom the state deems to be oppressed cannot create equity by favouring one identity group above that of another. Yet this is exactly what is happening all throughout the western world. For this reason I believe in the complete separation of church and state. We must ensure all matters of faith remain personal. I believe in an end to all government cronyism and favourtism of special interest groups. Diversity is not achieved through promoting a society where people look different yet sound the same. Neither is the solution a society where people all look the same while promoting a common cultural identity. The solution is the Rule of Law. A Constitutional Law which defends the inherent God given rights of each sovereign person AND his or her obligations to society. Rights are not a licence to do whatever you wish. To you so called alt-righters, IF you really think your culture defines the epitome of civil society then this places an enormous burden upon you to carry that tradition on nobly and improve upon it just as your ancestors did! You have no right to take pride in what they did simply because you share their DNA! I invite both the postmodern left and the alt-right to stop playing the identity game! It is ONLY by changing ourselves as sovereign individuals that we will change society for the better. Identity politics and collectivism are not only divisive, they are the fundamental reasons for all the murderous and brutal conflicts of the 20^th Century. Learn to think for yourselves and stop marching with your posse believing you understand the problem. I invite you to first find out just who you are as a sovereign person prior to attempting to change the world since neither the postmodern left or the alt-right are changing it for the better!