The trouble with ideology is that it makes one less than human. For to be human is to acknowledge that no other human is alien from us: that no man is an island: if one is oppressed then it affects all others. To be human is to understand that we are flawed. And that what we can do to help our brother cannot undo the damage that has been done.
But not for the left. They want to account the enemies of the state as less than human, to hate them, to destroy, for they consider that out of the ashes we can be born anew, without conscience, guilt and shame. without damnation: with no heaven and no hell.
And they forget that makes us one with the beasts.
Nothing is more important to the Left than the political “cause” because no personal loyalty — not even to one’s own family — can be permitted to challenge the power of the total State, which arrogates to itself the authority to direct and control every aspect of our lives. Pavlik Morozov’s betrayal of his “reactionary” parents is a model for how the government school system now requires children to reject the moral authority of their parents. Teaching the child to hate Mom and Dad — to despise his parents as ignorant, racist, sexist, homophobic bigots — is the most important lesson of the modern public school, and this lesson is reinforced daily by the educational bureaucrats who are paid with tax dollars to indoctrine children with an anti-religious, anti-family, anti-American ideology. But I’m ranting again, eh?
Godless Commies! We can never hate them as much as they deserve to be hated, nor can we hate them as much as they hate us, because they hate us with a fanatical fury that a Christian cannot even imagine. It would be a sin to hate anyone that much, but the godless Commies don’t believe in sin, and so they are free to indulge their hatred, which is infinite.
The Critical Theory cult promises to create a utopia of “equality,” yet lacks any real creativity, because it is inspired by a spirit of destruction manifested in a limitless lust for power, with which to punish its enemies.
Now, over at Vox’s place, there is a discussion as to how the SJW hatred and pattern of behaviour is akin to that of people with severe personality disorders. That their hate makes them akin to the mad. Which they are not.
Mostly. For most people cannot live according to an ideology, but let their humanity shine through. Because most writers, most readers, most humans don’t consider ideology as much as humanity. They want to be human.
Thought I wonder if the SJW will try to kick Eric Flint out of the Trotskyite Faction for writing that John Ringo is a fine writer. (Eric is correct on this).
There is no reflexive reactionary movement to drag F&SF kicking and screaming back into the Dark Ages when all protagonists had to be white and male (and preferably either engineers or military chaps). The very same people who piss and moan about diversity-for-the-sake-of-it litter their own novels with exactly the same kind of diversity they deplore when their opponents do it.
Yeah, I know they’ll deny it. “The story always comes first!” But the fact is that there is no compelling plot function to Ringo’s inclusion of the gay couple in Under a Graveyard Sky. So why did he put them in the novel? The answer is that, like any good writer—and whatever my (many) political disagreements with John, he’s a damn good writer—he tries to embed his stories into the world he created for them. The world of Black Tide Rising is the modern world, and his novels reflect that—as they should.
And I defy anyone with a single honest bone in their body—just one; even a pinkie bone—to read his depiction of that gay couple and tell the world afterward that he’s a homophobe. Which is not to say, mind you, that John and I would agree on any number of issues that come up around the question of LGBT rights. But that’s a separate matter.
There are real disagreements and divisions lying at the heart of the Recent Unpleasantness. But I wish to hell people would dump the stupid stereotypes so we could get on with a serious discussion and debate.
But, and this is a big, huge stinking issue, the currency of twitter and of the current SJW narrative is stereotypes. And this annoys me. Look, I;m as good as making stereotypes as the next person: hell, I’m trying to make a meme about gamergate being a revolt against the elite trying to control the narratives and myths of our lives at the moment.
But it annoys me. You see — and I am sticking here to science fiction.
- I like Old Man’s War. By John Scalzi. And I don’t like Red Shirts.
- I really like Charles Stross’ Laundry Series. But then, I also like John Ringo’s Zombie Series
- I like both Barry Hugart’s Master Li and Eric Flint’s Joes’ World
- And I like Tolkien’s Leaf by Niggle more than Lord of the Rings (which I really like, and have read multiple times). I like LOTR better than almost all fantasy, except the Earthsea Trilogy by U.K. LeGuin
- I prefer Vox Day and Larry Correa’s fantasy to George Martin or Robert Jordan
- I like both Tom Kratman and Ken McLeod
Because I do not filter my fiction by ideology. I think I’ve cited at least one fascist (if not, let’s add S.M. Stirling — who may not be a fascist, but has written two dystopias that involve slaveholding fascist societies, one of which wins World Wars one through three), at least three socialists, two clear anti puppies and promoters of progressive memes, and people who are or were Puppies (and if you want alt right memes, add Michael Z Williamson, who is getting better and better).
And I forgot Weber and Drake and Ian M Banks… or the older greats.
For good myth is about being human. Not less than human, not more than human. We are neither conscienceless monsters (you must read Kratman’s books in the Posleenverse, where he writes are story of redemption about cannibalistic sauropods). Because not anything that is human is alien to me, I can read and enjoy works written from political and ideological positions I don’t have.
Because I consider they are a man and my brother: when they are pricked, they bleed.
And if we distort this, we lose track of reality, and start to believe our own lies. We no longer consider all human experience as something that we can at least have empathy for. In Jasper’s terms, we become un understandable.
And in that path lies madness, and if not madness chaos in our feelings and relationships. On that path we will build not a new Jerusalem, but a new hell. We will not be as God, but as demons.
And some SJWs see this as good: that if we are all damned and hating we are equal. Follow not their need and listen not to their lies. For therein may not be psychosis, but something far worse.
