Friday, October 28, 2011

Think for a Change (18): Being a Good Straight, White Man

2 comments:

  1. This doesn't seem radical enough to me. As a white male in the south, I think you are assuming that the moral hierarchy on which bad-scripts are based has been widely rejected, and that all there is left to do is to recognize and replace bad scripts with PC scripts. But the moral hierarchy -- which places straight-white-males above women, gays, and other people (and which places non-human animals so far down the list that their pain doesn't matter at all) -- tends to get in the way. At some point people just have to get the big picture: that there is no morally relevant attribute possessed by straight-white-males that makes them inherently more deserving of a good life than . Without some theoretical house cleaning, people will find it extremely hard to recognize bad scripts, much less have the motivation to replace them. If one can explain to someone why it's wrong to eat meat -- and vegan-ism is the ultimate PC behavior -- it it will then be easier for them (and everyone who asks) to understanding why the more subtle scripts you discuss are harmful to other people, because the entire hierarchy is now questioned.

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  2. Hi, and thanks for writing! Ultimately, I agree with you. I do think that the big picture has to be seen and accepted for there to be some serious changes. However, these ideas are specifically addressing those who appear to want to reject the unjust hierarchies and who think that they already do in their actions. For those who want to be traitors, then, and assuming that they are already on board with the larger project, the next step is to be able to identify how social dominance becomes a habituated way of being for they may have not yet recognized that they are still participating in the "status quo", despite their best intentions.

    But again, I agree with you. As far as speaking to the other portion of the population who doesn't question the values that ground social hierarchy, this will not be enough.

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