[BRIEF NOTE] On jadedness

[rfmcdonald]

Castrovalva's ever-thoughtful Richard takes on what he calls the subject of modern Spenglerism, named after early 20th century German writer Oswald Spengler, that phenomenon of recognizing/believing in a fixed cycle of civilizational being existing independently of--ignorant of--human volition. His immediate target? Anti-humanist British philosopher John Gray? His daring beliefs, Richard suggests, actually reflect only common wisdom presented in a sort of world-weary fashion and don't necessarily address critics or issues of substance.

If the current recession can be described as a counterpart to the great depression, it's hardly surprising that writers might respond to the times in a similar fashion to what is described above, which was why I found myself wondering whether John Gray might not count as our modern Spengler. Gray is in many ways the perfect embodiment of the spirit of our times; a self-styled contrarian whose arguments actually reflect an essentially mainstream view. Having had to live under a 'third way' government without any idea of political narrative and whose pragmatic approach to government resulted in little more than inconsistency, I do grow slightly weary of Gray tilting at windmills of Enlightenment political thinking.

More:

Firstly, while Gray is certainly correct that communist denialists tend to exculpate their ideology by claiming the cultural revolution as an aberration, he comes quite close to some of Marx's tactics in that last paragraph, suggesting that objections to his ideas represent a covert proof of them. Popper disdained that sort of circular argument in Freud and Marx and would doubtless take a similar view of the above. Even without that, it seems a little disingenuous to cite communism as an Enlightenment project without mentioning that the ideas of pluralism and democracy that opposed it had the same pedigree; those ideas being the ones that provide the normative basis against which Gray himself can critique Kant for racism or Comte for conservatism. More pressingly, it's doubtful that the opponents that Gray is addressing here really exist in any meaningful form; believers in a Marxist or Hegelian conception of progress as a form of historical inevitability must be few and far between. His references to the Euston Manifesto ignore the problem that its signatories were a relatively small group without substantial influence; had they or like-minded individuals not existed recent historical events would have run exactly the same course. For all their references to democracy, it somewhat strains credulity to take the view that the political elites that instigated the Iraq war were especially motivated by ideals of progress rather than by religious faith or simple expediency. Certainly, if that was the case it left precious little trace on the domestic policies of either the British or American governments of that time.

The whole Castrovalva post is great, and comes highly recommended by me as a suggestion as to one trend that's going on. For me, it's value lies in the fact that it makes me consider whether or not I'm committing these mistakes of interpretation and communication. Integrity's important, y'know.