The spirit of resentment forms the dark heart of Marxism, its viral load, to pursue the analogy, and the dialectic its protective mechanism of transport. For Marxism to affect and infect its host, though, it must exploit its weaknesses. One vulnerability is clearly the existence of actual injustices in society, of which there is an endless supply. The other is the susceptibility of a proportion of the population with above average narcissistic tendencies. Though most people are narcissists to some degree, people with several traits associated with narcissistic personality disorder5 are highly susceptible to radical ideologies, not only leftist, but also far-right, Islamist, and animal rights and environmentalist extremism, for example.
Author: Don Trubshaw
Don Trubshaw is a co-founder of the website Societal Values. He has a PhD in the philosophy and sociology of education and teaches in Higher Education.
Compassion and politics: a dangerous mix
Once, driving in a foreign land many years ago, I passed a person walking alone on a dark, unlit country road. As random, irrational violent thoughts cross all our minds from time to time, I had an unbidden image of attacking them. Instead of just dismissing the impulse through fear, anger or humour, as those… Continue reading Compassion and politics: a dangerous mix
Marriage in the Twenty First Century
In 2008 I authored a piece for an international organisation entitled ‘A Charter for Marriage: Reconsidering the Foundations of Marriage for Twenty First Century Secular and Multifaith Britain’. I saw it doing two things: first, finding a centre ground between the patriarchal cultures of Britain’s immigrant communities, who valued marriage as the centre of extended… Continue reading Marriage in the Twenty First Century
The Economic Future of the Nation: Human Value and Institutional Wealth
Introduction Until the present crisis and the cessation of most social and economic activity the main concern in people’s minds was the economic challenges and opportunities created by Brexit. By contrast with the challenges ahead presented by the economic fallout of the national lockdown, those posed by Brexit now seem insignificant. Predictions vary as to… Continue reading The Economic Future of the Nation: Human Value and Institutional Wealth
Privacy at the Dawn of the Totalitarian Digital State
What we witness today in Xinjiang, with the mass surveillance, incarceration and re-education of the Uighur population, is not just a violation of the fundamental rights of those people but a testing ground for the total surveillance society. 2020 will see the completion of China’s compulsory enrolment of every one of its citizens in a… Continue reading Privacy at the Dawn of the Totalitarian Digital State
Are we witnessing the death of freedom?
Don Trubshaw There have been voices raised against the flow in recent weeks, decrying the imposition of authoritarian measures in an attempt to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control. Some see in this the death of freedom. While I am sympathetic to these voices, I believe that the present crisis is only exposing a fundamental… Continue reading Are we witnessing the death of freedom?
The Politics and Economics of Trust in a Time of Crisis
In the present crisis precipitated by the Covid 19 virus there is an elephant in the room. It is a type of Utilitarian argument that the political considerations of the strategy that should be enacted – irrespective of the scientific advice – should be driven by the interests of the greatest number. In its harshest… Continue reading The Politics and Economics of Trust in a Time of Crisis
Book Review: Yoram Hazony, The Virtue of Nationalism
New York, Basic Books, 2018; 285 pages, paper, US$30 The Virtue of Nationalism, by the Israeli theologian and political philosopher Yoram Hazony, is being hailed by some as an important statement of the underpinning political ideology in the age of Brexit, Trump, Modi, Xi, Abe, Erdogan, Putin and of independence proclamations around the world, from… Continue reading Book Review: Yoram Hazony, The Virtue of Nationalism
Beauty: more than the eye of the beholder (part 3)
In memory of Roger Scruton (1944-2020) Changes in the apperception of the beautiful across historical time and the very individuality of the experience of beauty, have led to a false doctrine of the relativity of beauty. In fact, the history of the development of knowledge supports an alternative view, that the variability across time and… Continue reading Beauty: more than the eye of the beholder (part 3)
The Political Logic of the Excluded Middle
For several years the received opinion is that the middle ground of politics has been abandoned here in the UK, in America and in much of Europe. There is, indeed, a superficial plausibility to this assertion, evidenced by the intemperate language of much of political debate. However, I believe that the underlying reality is quite… Continue reading The Political Logic of the Excluded Middle