Destruction Does Not Have to Be Rational

Dr. Bastiat observed in his recent post The Prevention of Rational Politics:

So why do leftists vote for things that they can’t even agree on themselves? And why do they change their belief systems so often? Trans-sexual rights are popular now, but were unheard of just a few years ago. What ever happened to baby seals and The War on Poverty? Why do they keep changing their beliefs, and why are their beliefs so difficult to nail down? * * * Our political system, and thus our country, cannot withstand the intentional destruction of rational thought and thoughtful dialogue.

One response is that the modern Marxist mode is not about a positive coherent vision but about the destruction of that which supposedly prevents something more positive (or at least more authentic) from emerging. Once academics drifted away from the silliness of Marxist economics (which might involve confronting math) into critical theory, leftism became more conspicuously evil, more nihilistic but far more honest about its true nature.

The quasi-mystical powers of “systemic” racism and the mandatory discoveries of endless new sources of guilt is a feature, not a bug, in the methodology of Foucault as captured by the invaluable Roger Scruton:

He knows the illusoriness of values, and finds his identity in a life lived without the easy deceptions which rule the lives of others. Since he has no values, his thought and action can be given only a negative guarantee. He must fortify himself by unmasking the deceptions of others. Moreover, this unmasking cannot be done once and for all. It must be perpetually renewed, so as to fill the moral vacuum which lies at the heart of existence. Only if there is some readily identifiable and, so to speak, renewable opponent, can this struggle for authenticity – which is in fact the most acute struggle for existence – be sustained. The enemy must be a fount of humbug and deception; he must also possess elaborate and secret power, power sustained through the very system of lies which underscores his values. Such an enemy deserves unmasking, and there is a kind of heroic virtue in his assailant, who frees the world from the stranglehold of secret influence. Roger Scruton, Thinkers of the New Left (Harlow: Longman), p.32. as quoted by Mark Dooley. Roger Scruton: The Philosopher on Dover Beach: An Intellectual Biography (p. 22). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Those “easy deceptions” are faith, aesthetics, patriotism, community ties, literary heritage, comedy, and anything else that prevents self-conscious beings with personhood from being reduced to desacralized objects. The “deceptions” that shape our lives, bind us together, and predispose us to recognize the transcendent qualities of human nature in others must be "unmasked" and thus destroyed.

It is fitting and diagnostic that Kamala Harris offers no vision, not a single positive proposal for change, not even a hint, a slogan, or even a well-crafted predominant lie about a bright future because her candidacy is solely about empowering the Foucaultian forces who seek the power to destroy, undermine, redefine and atomize American life.

She says that Donald Trump caused all of the nation's problems during the last four years merely by existing, which is true if all that matters is the language used to describe outcomes and events. Conservatives in general and Trump in particular keep disrupting the project of making the language of news, politics, and government uniformly subject to a self-appointed Foucaultian elite. Winston keeps seeing the actual number of fingers O'Brien is holding up.

Many conservatives still don't fully grasp the futility of arguing with those who think that the very idea of debate and rational discourse is itself a lie that must be "unmasked." Dissent is "misinformation" or even "insurrection" and motivated by "_isms" and "-phobias."

Destruction does not have to make sense, especially when it is about destroying every referent or criterion for finding truth and meaning. We are confronted by a movement driven by empty people who need to destroy to feel authentic and self-affirmed. We must not only defeat that project but find ways to invite them back to a fuller humanity so as to root out the evil and make politics rational, constructive, and affirmational.