Individualism and Civic Virtue

A great virtue of methodological individualism is that it permits one to view social matters free of overly generalized social categories such as race, gender, class or the like. Is methodological individualism itself an ideology of which to be wary? In a certain sense it may be. It is certainly a pointed, theoretical approach to the social sciences. Nevertheless, it is an approach that requires more restraint and caution when applying than most other currents of a more leftist hue, and certainly some of a rightist hue as well.

But besides the critical treatment of identity categories, an even more important contribution lies in the skepticism toward various social organizations, especially ones that have an ideological bone to pick. One of the primary problems when coming to a coherent and honest assessment of modern social dynamics is the persistent tendency to view politics through the prism of the various networks of political lobbying groups and think tanks that exert, to varying degrees, a distorting influence upon the political discourse. Indeed, some of these groups are even responsible for the discourse concerning identity categories itself. The expansive state itself has of course also laid the groundwork for such lobbying efforts.

One of the reasons that the tendency towards a centralized political apparatus geared towards juggling the concerns of various lobbying groups is so pervasive is that it's so easy to implement. Identity variations give individuals bereft of any other common interest or goal a bonding mechanism. (Eric Hoffer's descriptions of the True Believer may also be of considerable insight in unearthing the psychology of interest group participants.) Eventually these associations congeal into political interests seeking broader cultural accomodation which normally involves some sort of privileged status vis-a-vis the state. Eventually these interests come to dominate various administrative bodies, shutting out other concerns.

In an online article, Mike Adams alludes to some of the opportunity costs as they arose on a North Carolina campus:

• ...there was a small fire in one of our dormitories. The RA in charge of evacuating the students was unsure of what to do but he managed and no one was hurt. His uncertainly was due to the fact that there was no training for fire evacuation. Although not taught about fire evacuation procedures the RAs are taught about hate crimes.

Evidenced here is a dynamic that many of the even socially conservative critics of leftist identity politics lobbying are not apt to point out. Energy focused and organized for one purpose is energy focused away from and neglectful of another. An honorable civic culture focused on traditionally laudable acts of kindness and goodwill and etched upon the consciousness of its administrative stewards is replaced with petty kowtowing to disgruntled pressure groups. One's leadership sensibilities are forged to negotiate the embittered demands of self-absorbed cliques instead of developing to engender a spirit of broad-minded public service. The end result cannot help but be a decay of political culture in the long run.

On the Significance of a Non-ideological Approach to Social Commentary

I've written comments on my personal blog about my feelings about the feminist movement. Those comments appeared there and not on this overtly political blog because to a large extent, the approach that one takes to social issues is deeply informed by personal experience. The feminist penchant "the personal is political" is quite aptly inverted. In social issues, the political is very personal.

On principle, libertarians disagree with state intervention into social life as I have noted briefly on this blog before. However, there is another epistemic dimension to the libertarian approach to social issues that deserves elaboration as well. For just as the stultifying uniformity of the state is the enemy of the dynamism of civil society in political matters, so ideology is the enemy of conrete personal experience in matters of social knowledge. One may even go as far as to say that ideology is the expression of statism in the realm of epistemology.

The tale of political correctness on college campuses and its various bleedings into the broader public discourse has been widely told ad nauseum. Classical readings of Shakespeare are chucked for analyses of Hamlet's supposed Oedipal complex or Shakespeare's own class position in 16th century England. It is quite easy to make literary criticism that is based on a prefigured ideological paradigm, and there has been no shortage of 20th century American "intellectuals" that have come out of the woodwork to do so. One of the main reasons this seems problematic is that it reduces the complexity or even mystery of social life to an easily applicable formula. Moveover, it runs the risk of shutting out what we know we really know about social life because it does not conform to the adopted ideological schema. When compelled to conform to this schema and restrained from acting on what we otherwise know, we move down the road to authoritarianism.

Hence, as I move forward with this blog and attempt to tackle cultural issues, it will be important to take account of the assumptions with which I examine said issues. Simply fitting events into a narrative about gender or class oppression will not do. There must be a thoughtful and even sometimes superficial arbitrary approach to opining on social phenomena, and an admission that it is an expression of personal disposition as much or even in compliment with a conception of The Good for society.