Solzhenitsyn on externalising evil

[Freespeecher]

A recurring theme on these boards (the Sam Smith thread being the latest) is the observation that people that otherwise see themselves as virtuous see no problem with aggressively going after women who go against some element of their ideology.
This applies to TRAs, Momentum, the Woke in general etc.

I've been trying to work my way through 'The Gulag Archipelago' for a while. It's hard going but worth it because of the gems uncovered. I think he below is spot on and, while it applies to many, many groups, it's particularly relevant to those mentioned above.

Essentially, if you fight 'evil' by defining other external individuals and groups as evil and fighting them then there is no requirement for introspection and self-examination. Hence, while I'm sure that some of the leaders are cunning game-players, a lot of their followers would be (and are) genuinely shocked at the idea they're doing anything wrong.

'If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?'

(Sure it's a well-known quote but I think it's worth dusting off every now and again).

Yes Wild Swans was eye opening. Need to order (the abridged) Gulag from Amazon. Can't remember where I read it, but the line about 'resentment can be a murderous force' resonated, and rings true in Communism and Cultural Revolution as described in Wild Swans.
But in the present day, we seem to have resentment/victimhood wearing the mask of social justice targetting the so called evil people/privileged . There is no reasonable debate with these people who absolutely believe/pretend they are on the right side of history, and that their activitism is for the greater good.
This way of PC/woke/virtue signalling thinking pervades through academia, education, public sectors, where it's all about saying the right things, optics of virtue signalling, e.g. instances where police seem more interested in non-crimes than real crimes.
I can't see a way of how truth and integrity will prevail over the insanity.
Sorry for the ramble. Hope that made sense.

I can't but wonder whether this attitude is the result of living in a safe, privileged, liberal society. Which of us has lived through any true challenge to our lives? Covid is the first for most of us. And even Covid has only been a challenge to our physical freedom. Which of us has lived through an era or in a country where thought was repressed? Where the things that we here take for granted are the state's to grant or to confiscate, with no appeal?

It is no coincidence that the clearest writers on freedom are those who have lived under repressive regimes.

Hi Op and others wanting to read it
Can totally recommend listening to the.audible version. Very accessible... you can listen on your daily walk.

It is an astonishing book, and I think I will have to listen to it again.

It's the abridged version on Audible btw. (Feel like I'm an advert for Audible, but its really very good. Since getting it, have 'read many books I have been trying to reading for years)

Apols for the rogue typos

Jelly slice , I also agree that to an extent the sjw attitudes is a first world problem because we take our privileges ( usually hate that word when used in the oppressed vs privileged context of the sjw) so for granted. So for granted that these same people cannot see how they are undermining these very privileges ( freedom, civilised debate) by what they do.

I also think that being seen to be saying the right things, regardless of truth or integrity, are now valued over DOING the (invisible) right things.

However, words are cheap.

I can't but wonder whether this attitude is the result of living in a safe, privileged, liberal society
I think it's a huge part of it. I come from a country with enormous poverty but also pockets of wealth and privilege. Only those with privilege and security can afford to bang on about gender identity being the next frontier in rights. Ask any of the millions who are struggling to support their families day to day whether they thought it was important and they'd have no idea what you were even talking about.

Indeed. If we were to do a new version of Maslow's hierarchy of needs the ostentatiously woke would put "fully expressing one's unique gender identity" on the bottom layer, and everyone who's ever been outside the "all basic needs taken care of navel in need of some gazing" bubble would put it right at the tip of the triangle at the top if they bothered at all.

I can't but wonder whether this attitude is the result of living in a safe, privileged, liberal society

One of the things I admire about Nimco Ali is the way she points out that girls experience FGM because of their sex, not their gender.

One of the things I admire about Nimco Ali is the way she points out that girls experience FGM because of their sex, not their gender

Absolutely! It can be easy to imagine women have achieved equality in the West - and in terms of legal & civil rights that may well be true.....but one need only look at numerous other countries and societies to see exactly what being a woman can mean and entail.....

That is why inter-sectionalist politics does my head in...because it seems itself to be the product of a privileged, western mind-set...which claims not to recognise oppression unless given a handy diagram or table within which to locate it.

Many liberal feminists seem to feel and act as if ( white) women have nothing left to protect, nurture or defend; and they endlessly accuse others of racism or over-looking the sufferings of other, 'less privileged', groups of women. Whereas the truth is, women are women wherever they live, whatever their race, their ethnicity, class background, religion....and if a woman anywhere if the world is sufferering on account of her sex, then we all are. We can only measure progress by reference to the least privileged amongst us.

If a girl in Somalia is suffering FGM, then a girl in Oxford is similarly at risk...and if a new born baby girl is buried in a clay pot in the earth in India...so potentially is a baby girl in Edinburgh......and if an African American woman is being called a 'h'o and 'a bitch' in some rap or drill video..then so am I, here in Liverpool.

Sex matters. Sex is real, and we are all in it together whether we acknowledge it or not.

Actually, I see that we do ‘externalising evil’ a lot on MN....the general narrative is tories are evil, leftists liberals are good. yet Some of these woke, reality denying, activists are the most nasty intolerant virtue signallers there are, and they clearly are high on the power and enjoying being able to claim the moral high ground whilst doing it. Words are cheap.

the general narrative is tories are evil, leftists liberals are good. yet

I couldn't put a specific number on it but I believe the vast majority of voters across the political spectrum have almost identical goals; they merely disagree, often vehemently, on the best way to achieve them.

Actually, I see that we do ‘externalising evil’ a lot on MN

Or any time we think about criminals who do terrible things. No one wants to think of such people as similar to themselves of course, or their crimes in any way being similar to our own failings, but we very much like to dehumanise criminals. Some of the stuff people say about people in prison really gives me the shivers.