A Very Interesting Essay

[carebear]

Heroism, Modernism, and the Utopian Impulse

James Bowman


http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/17/bowman.htm

 

[Fletch]

Seems simplistic and facile to me. I read the basic theses as:

- Mistrust institutions whose purpose is to do good for individuals. Only individuals can do any good.
- Refusing to engage destructive forces on their own terms equals not engaging them at all. You must become like an enemy to fight them.
- Those who think there is any solution to violence that does not involve more violence are living in a fool's paradise.

As an aside, Bowman throws in the tidbit that if the current administration is a pathetic cluster#$!!, it is not their fault, only the fault of our failed liberal utopia.

 

[carebear]

I don't see that at all.

I see him pointing out that merely deciding upon the utopian reality you desire (including passing legislation) does nothing to create that reality. It merely allows one to feel as if the goal has been accomplished without doing anything concrete or arduous.

Also he notes that the more a particular goal contravenes basic human nature the less likely it is to be achieved without real action or leadership by individuals willing to act alone, perhaps against their own short-term best interest.

He also points out the very real modern trend toward diminishing the meaning of that "willingness to act against one's own short-term self-interest" (heroism) due to an utterly wrong-headed mindset shift that states by recognizing an individual we are inherently demeaning the group. Which is nonsense.

Everybody is a "hero" and no one is better than anyone else.