Tuesday, 31 May 2022
Or as Orwell described it...
From The Critic.
In an interview published in the Telegraph on Friday, Stella Creasy MP talked about feminism, transwomen, JK Rowling and a host of related matters. She said, “I am somebody who would say that a trans woman is an adult human female”. And she cited the suffragette slogan “deeds not words”. I take that at face value: in her interview Creasy is not just saying something, she is also doing something. What, exactly, is she doing? Creasy would say that she is standing up for transwomen. She’s proud of taking a controversial view (and, as she modestly describes herself, of “breaking cover and being controversial”).
But I think that what Creasy is doing — whether she realises it or not — is re-engineering the concept “female”. And I think this is a mistake.
There is a growing approach in philosophy called “conceptual engineering”. It’s a cool name for an interesting project. Indeed, one of my colleagues at the Open University is heavily involved as a conceptual engineer. They look at our concepts and see if they are doing good work — if they are functioning well. If not, then we should try to improve them (“ameliorate” is the key term). The chief thinker behind this is Sally Haslanger; the title of her main work Resisting Reality: Social Constructions and Social Critique gives you a flavour of what she is up to.
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5 comments:
With this trans and similar lunacy, I wonder whether there is a plan, or whether it just develops piecemeal. The normal theory is that there is a game-plan on the left to undermine concepts and make it more likely that we will accept absurd political schemes. If we accept "transwomen", then we'll accept that war is peace and that world government is freedom, etc.
But it might be that the whole process is entirely driven by jerks like Creasy. They get excited by some pile of daftness, and then add their own dollop for the next "radical" to find. If you told her that the moon was made of green cheese, she would bravely campaign for the moon to be made of stripy green soya vegan cheese substitute.
No I think it develops piecemeal. If these people arn't smart enough to treat with reality would they be smart enough to develop a subtle plan of this nature? But these 'daft as a brush'people have been doing this for centuries, what can one say about people who argue with each other to the point of violence and bloodshed over the exact procedures for worship?
I think it is maybe more akin to proving that your fit to be in the clique, and a frontrunner in the "belonging" stakes. Much as was pointed out by Aquinas in the early church discussions, when they argued for days about how many angels could dance on the end of a pin?
lfb_uk
It seems to me that there are some people, mainly left wing, who delight in throwing crap at a wall and seeing if it sticks. The poo flinging requires nothing but opportunity (real or confected). As such there is no overall 'plan', but after a while you get a shit covered wall that's impressive, and also a heap of failed flingings at the base (which are carefully ignored).
Anything about Boris (Partygate, Cummings, Northern Ireland Protocol, wallpaper) is seized whether it is significant, or not. Just keep flinging poo.
It is already instructive that similar opportunities (Beer Gate, definition of woman) of Left Wing behaviour are not seized on so avidly. Tony Blair was not called 'Teflon Tony' for nothing.
You could even make a case that the reason Trump is so reviled by the Democrats was that he was just as adept at flinging poo as them. Although yo have to say that the Democrats are gathering an enormous pile of failed flings. It will all end in tears.
Sam - it probably does develop piecemeal and is driven by jerks like Creasy. People planning it behind closed doors seems unlikely, but once the seed is sown by a few mad academics we don't seem able to ridicule it into oblivion even though it is widely ridiculed online.
Tammly - that seems to be the problem - these people aren't smart enough to treat with reality but are smart enough to jump on a bandwagon. The problem with this one could be jumping off again.
lfb - yes there does appear to be a desire to be frontrunner in the "belonging" stakes. Also the fashionable virtue stakes. As you point out, the have always been people prepared to do this.
DJ - yes there is much to be said for Poo Fling Theory (PFT) as the main political tactic. It seems to be how political parties are forced out of favour for a number of elections until they manage to scrub off the old poo and fling enough of their own.
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