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Identity Politics and Tribalism: The New Culture Wars
Has the world gone mad?'…this is a question that we’ve heard time and again during the last years. Everyone is convinced that something is wrong with politics, the culture, and our society, but what exactly is the problem and how can we overcome it?This book will guide the reader through a journey that will connect the dots on the various fronts of the culture wars. There is a thread that links together the various expressions of group and identity conflicts in today’s from Left to Right, from Social Justice Warriors to Trumpites, from feminism to the manosphere, and from critical race theorists to white nationalists.By the end of this book, readers will understand not only the root problem poisoning our culture and society, but also how to rise above it both in our private lives and as citizens.
- GenresPolitics
273 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 24, 2021
7 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 7, 2022
Identity Politics & Tribalism — The New Culture Wars
Nikos Sotirakopoulos ©2021 223 pages
A short book report by Ron Housley (1.3.2022)
I was drawn to this book because of its likelihood of shedding light on the matter of how “critical Theory” is impacting our culture today. Nikos Sotirakopoulos holds a Ph.D. in something called “Political Sociology” and his identification of “tribalism” as part of the problem set this title apart.
I just finished Herbert Marcuse’s “One Dimensional Man” and the current volume is precisely 423.4% more intelligible and completely devoid of Marcuse’s neologisms and unbearably abstruse and oblique writing style. Sotirakopoulos is straight-forward and clear — a compliment which will be considered a criticism by academics, since clarity will be falsely equated with shallowness of content.
The book is more of a survey of trends in the culture, some of which are aligned with the critical Theory movement. There is something of an intricacy to how the various cultural trends have come to influence others, and how some have become dominant while others have been marginalized.
The first thing I would look for in a book of this type is an index; but alas, there was no index. We were given only a bibliography, to show us the range of sources the author consulted. There was more than one occasion where I would have appreciated an index reference.
* * * * * * * * *
In my walk down “critical Theory” lane, one of the stumbling blocks has been the widespread animosity toward objectivity from those promoting the Theory. When cornered with uncomfortable questions, the Theory promoters nearly always resort to dismissing objective truth and objectivity as unattainable. But their problem is always that they seem to be claiming objectivity for their claim that there is no objectivity.
In part because of the discomfort over claiming that there is no objective truth, the academics promoting critical Theory resort to made-up expressions. Sotirakopoulos tries to clarify some of expressions: “instrumental reason,” “lived experience” and “free from external reality.” These are among ones which have become buzz words in the critical Theory’s attempt to promote itself.
The promoters slide from “reason as objective” to “reason as instrumental” all the way to “reason as subjective,” where “instrumental” disguises their embrace of the non-objective. It seems to me that the explicit rejection of objectivity (and of objective truth) is at the center of the culture’s current direction.
This book makes the point that “the loss of confidence in reason” is what drives many people to the “identity politics…(of) clinging to a group.” (p. 45)
It is further pointed out that “…both the left and the right (are) becoming less confident about their philosophical and political principles and thus finding existential conformity in smaller issues” such as their identity group. (p. 72)
So there you have it: reason and objectivity are denigrated by the academics, by the thinking elite, by the professors; and the resulting uncertainty causes a growth of identity groups as the new frame of reference, to take the place of reason itself.
This was the take-away message for me in the first 100 pages.
* * * * * * * * *
The entire postmodernist critical Theory movement continues to perplex those of us out here in the great unwashed. What seems most obvious is the organized thrust against the individual (and against individualism) in order to promote a system supporting a group (a collective) — which in the end always turns out to be minorities.
The critical Theory scholars are uniformly anti-individual and pro-collective. These scholars are in their own “global battle against capitalism,” the system that aligns with protecting the individual. There is nothing more hated in their worldview than a society of individuals, of individual achievement. They dismiss all conversation of meritocracy as a smokescreen for promoting White Supremacy (p. 141). Anything promoting the individual is considered by them as promoting the group that the individual happens to belong to; and they do not allow for the notion of a minority individual succeeding in a contest of merit.
The critical Theory landscape is littered with absurdities that develop naturally once objectivity is abandoned: consider “language is violence;” or “violence is whatever I feel it is” (p 121); or, “to be trained in critical methods” is to believe that “black people or minorities cannot be racist, as they lack power” (p. 136).
Critical race “scholars,” indeed!
Critical race scholars may be at the forefront of the culture’s turn toward racism; they are certainly at the forefront of the war against capitalism.
My own goal here is to grasp the role of critical (race) Theory in the bigger picture of our current cultural decline before it’s too late to reverse directions. The appeal of “identity politics,” with its attendant tribalism, seems to be the appeal to racism itself; and it is today’s appeal to embrace racism that I am hoping to undermine ----- by first coming to an understanding of the dynamics at play all around me. There must be a way to ignite an appeal against critical (race) Theory and in favor of a rational alternative. Nikos Sotirakopoulos has assembled some of the elements that will enable us to see the big picture, and then ultimately to spark the great reversal. Nice job, Nikos.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos ©2021 223 pages
A short book report by Ron Housley (1.3.2022)
I was drawn to this book because of its likelihood of shedding light on the matter of how “critical Theory” is impacting our culture today. Nikos Sotirakopoulos holds a Ph.D. in something called “Political Sociology” and his identification of “tribalism” as part of the problem set this title apart.
I just finished Herbert Marcuse’s “One Dimensional Man” and the current volume is precisely 423.4% more intelligible and completely devoid of Marcuse’s neologisms and unbearably abstruse and oblique writing style. Sotirakopoulos is straight-forward and clear — a compliment which will be considered a criticism by academics, since clarity will be falsely equated with shallowness of content.
The book is more of a survey of trends in the culture, some of which are aligned with the critical Theory movement. There is something of an intricacy to how the various cultural trends have come to influence others, and how some have become dominant while others have been marginalized.
The first thing I would look for in a book of this type is an index; but alas, there was no index. We were given only a bibliography, to show us the range of sources the author consulted. There was more than one occasion where I would have appreciated an index reference.
* * * * * * * * *
In my walk down “critical Theory” lane, one of the stumbling blocks has been the widespread animosity toward objectivity from those promoting the Theory. When cornered with uncomfortable questions, the Theory promoters nearly always resort to dismissing objective truth and objectivity as unattainable. But their problem is always that they seem to be claiming objectivity for their claim that there is no objectivity.
In part because of the discomfort over claiming that there is no objective truth, the academics promoting critical Theory resort to made-up expressions. Sotirakopoulos tries to clarify some of expressions: “instrumental reason,” “lived experience” and “free from external reality.” These are among ones which have become buzz words in the critical Theory’s attempt to promote itself.
The promoters slide from “reason as objective” to “reason as instrumental” all the way to “reason as subjective,” where “instrumental” disguises their embrace of the non-objective. It seems to me that the explicit rejection of objectivity (and of objective truth) is at the center of the culture’s current direction.
This book makes the point that “the loss of confidence in reason” is what drives many people to the “identity politics…(of) clinging to a group.” (p. 45)
It is further pointed out that “…both the left and the right (are) becoming less confident about their philosophical and political principles and thus finding existential conformity in smaller issues” such as their identity group. (p. 72)
So there you have it: reason and objectivity are denigrated by the academics, by the thinking elite, by the professors; and the resulting uncertainty causes a growth of identity groups as the new frame of reference, to take the place of reason itself.
This was the take-away message for me in the first 100 pages.
* * * * * * * * *
The entire postmodernist critical Theory movement continues to perplex those of us out here in the great unwashed. What seems most obvious is the organized thrust against the individual (and against individualism) in order to promote a system supporting a group (a collective) — which in the end always turns out to be minorities.
The critical Theory scholars are uniformly anti-individual and pro-collective. These scholars are in their own “global battle against capitalism,” the system that aligns with protecting the individual. There is nothing more hated in their worldview than a society of individuals, of individual achievement. They dismiss all conversation of meritocracy as a smokescreen for promoting White Supremacy (p. 141). Anything promoting the individual is considered by them as promoting the group that the individual happens to belong to; and they do not allow for the notion of a minority individual succeeding in a contest of merit.
The critical Theory landscape is littered with absurdities that develop naturally once objectivity is abandoned: consider “language is violence;” or “violence is whatever I feel it is” (p 121); or, “to be trained in critical methods” is to believe that “black people or minorities cannot be racist, as they lack power” (p. 136).
Critical race “scholars,” indeed!
Critical race scholars may be at the forefront of the culture’s turn toward racism; they are certainly at the forefront of the war against capitalism.
My own goal here is to grasp the role of critical (race) Theory in the bigger picture of our current cultural decline before it’s too late to reverse directions. The appeal of “identity politics,” with its attendant tribalism, seems to be the appeal to racism itself; and it is today’s appeal to embrace racism that I am hoping to undermine ----- by first coming to an understanding of the dynamics at play all around me. There must be a way to ignite an appeal against critical (race) Theory and in favor of a rational alternative. Nikos Sotirakopoulos has assembled some of the elements that will enable us to see the big picture, and then ultimately to spark the great reversal. Nice job, Nikos.
October 8, 2021
Genealogy of tribalism
I enjoyed this a lot. I bought this to get more insight on the deterministic ideologies within the manosphere. I did not expect such a thorough, top-down look on tribalism and the culture war spanning the past century in particular. Necessary perspective. Hopeful outlook at the end.
I enjoyed this a lot. I bought this to get more insight on the deterministic ideologies within the manosphere. I did not expect such a thorough, top-down look on tribalism and the culture war spanning the past century in particular. Necessary perspective. Hopeful outlook at the end.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews