The decay of reason

[kangeiko]

I hardly ever post to feminist anymore. This isn't because I am any less a feminist, or because I have found a better forum to air my views. Rather, it's because of the pandemic descent into 'yeah but, no but' style of debate that seems to have infected much of the so-called 'scholarly' lj communities. Hypothetical questions, it seems, are no-one's friend. Any theory I put together and put out there was rebuffed, but not with a reasoned argument. No - there was no focus on the shortcoming's of my argument, but, rather, an obsession with the "this (gender-related theory) doesn't apply to me, which proves you wrong as it obviously can't exist anywhere else". I find this attitude fascinating. You have never experienced racism through these variety of ways, therefore it doesn't exist? You have never been slighted in this manner, therefore it was imaginary? And these people call themselves feminists.

It isn't limited to feminist forums, either. Any political / social opinion is now being rebuffed with 'yeah but, no but, it doesn't apply to me'. Explain to me how this affects anyone's argument in the slightest? You didn't find the Danish cartoons offensive? That doesn't mean that other people didn't find them offensive. (I am, by the way, most definitely not commenting on whether they should have been published or not as that's an argument for another time. I am merely speculating on the cause of this descent into infantile 'rubber and glue' approach to disagreement.) There seems to be a growing - and frightening - conflating of opinion with fact. Cognitive dissonance is alive and well, and why shouldn't it be? We are losing the ability to look beyond our own narrow-minded views and concede that other people may be just as correct, even if they disagree with us vehemently. Look at those cartoons, for instance: it is now impossible, judging by media opinion, to both support freedom of speech and argue that the cartoons should not have been republished. You pick an opinion in this contested battleground and that is somehow imbued with a 'correctness'. Of course it is - both sides are right! But it does sound awfully like 'the divine right', doesn't it? Reason replaced divine favour; now, opinion, replaces reason.

If anyone disagrees with me, I'm going to ignore you. You're all obviously WRONG WRONG WRONG, because this is my opinion and it is therefore automatically right.

So there.

/steps off the soapbox

Comments

[not-a-mouse.livejournal.com]

hear hear, and such like.

[kangeiko]

see how smoothly everything runs when everyone just agrees with me? :-P

[invisible-al.livejournal.com]

You so should be posting on Barbelith (http://www.barbelith.com) we could use some covering fire in the ongoing effort to educate (http://www.barbelith.com/topic/23954) certain new users.

[erykah101.livejournal.com]

The world's gone mad. Folks in the Western world are having their belief systems rocked daily by the news reports, by governments gone hard line, by religion making a comeback, etc. I think everyone is reacting by trying to have things make sense but they're internalizing it and projecting back through their own emotions and experiences.

You're right. Opinion has become the new reason and I think (this is currently only a half-formed hypothesis by the way, so feel free to counter and twist it) it may be because reason doesn't seem to make as much sense as it used too. We thought we had it all worked out, us over here in the Affluent West with our legacy from the Greeks and the Renaissance. We were post-modern and post-feminist and post-humanist. We were so flipping advanced and educated and well off in our little bubble. Now - since 9/11 and divisive wars and natural disasters - we're learning that the world is much more complex and it's a harsh lesson.

I belong to the school of thought that there is no reason, there is no such thing as complete objectivity; that we are all intrinsically subjective, all the time. The difference now would seem to be that people have stopped attempting to TRY and exercise objective reason and given in completely to their innate subjectivism. This is not a good thing as it leads then to lead to more racism, sexism and all the other horrible -isms out there as people grow less tolerant of others who aren't like them. This then acts like a rock rolling down a hill, gathering speed and making people more and more intrenched in their own opinions and belief systems (or, rather, coping mechanisms).

Striving for objective reason, despite our subjective natures, is what - I feel - makes us "civilised" and keeps us tolerant of each other. It's a bad thing to lose.

[ff-shiprecs.livejournal.com]

Any political / social opinion is now being rebuffed with 'yeah but, no but, it doesn't apply to me'. Explain to me how this affects anyone's argument in the slightest?
I've noticed this to, a lot. It makes discussion and debate a really frustrating exercise anymore.

There seems to be a growing - and frightening - conflating of opinion with fact.
I've noticed it as well. I wonder, though, if it's really more prevalent or if people who have trouble distinguishing the two just have more opportunities to express themselves (and are more comfortable doing so), thanks to technology. As in, more people are joining discussions these days.