The utopian, inhuman worlds of politics and social science are concerned with groups and categories, not with individual human beings. Thus, many of those who are unhappy with the outcomes of the Brexit referendum and the American presidential election have reacted in a way that reveals a great deal (none of it good) about how they view their fellow human beings: they see caricatures and stereotypes, not individual souls. What the unhappy fail to realize is that, by objectifying others, they are at the same time objectifying themselves, and have in turn transformed themselves into caricatures and stereotypes. This is what happens when one becomes politicized.
Sunday, January 22, 2017
Persons …
… First Known When Lost: Unknowable.
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ReplyDeleteA fantastic post, Frank. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteApologies, correction!
ReplyDeleteOh dear, not again! Could somebody please lay off this ridiculous partisanship? It's hardly not just the unhappy who objectify their fellow human beings. Mostly, we all do it.
I'm also not convinced that the political and the personal stand in opposition. To quote a favourite writer, and one who is much wiser than I: "If you want to explore a political idea in the highest possible way," Saunders says in an interview, "you embody it in the personal because that's something that no one can deny."
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