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The Growing Pains of Cultural Development

Left Coast

This Is Water
Staff member
Premium Member
Our society is undergoing a profound cultural shift in terms of our understanding of race and the ongoing systemic effects of racism. As with so many cultural advancements, it was initially met with disdain by the general public and many in positions of authority. Yet the needle is moving and as a society we are slowly coming to see what we were blind to before. And predictably, regressive forces want to hold us back. They predict disaster, the degradation of society, the unraveling of our existing paradigm and social contract (which has usually benefitted them quite nicely).

We saw this with slavery. We saw it with Jim Crow. We saw it, outside racial issues, with biological evolution, or more recently with divorce, same sex marriage, and even climate change.

It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day headlines and individual cases of overcorrection, conflict, and drama. But we should not miss the forest for the trees. Conservatives can see they are losing this culture war, like they have lost so many others. The Right in 10 to 20 years will probably say black lives matter with the ease that so many of them now embrace LGBTQ people.

If history is any guide, we will make it through these growing pains a more just and free society. If you embrace these values, take heart.

Those are my thoughts, anyway. What are yours?
 

King Phenomenon

Well-Known Member
Racism exists because those who are on top are afraid of being oppressed themselves. As we move forward hopefully we learn from our mistakes.

*edit*
 
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Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Our society is undergoing a profound cultural shift in terms of our understanding of race and the ongoing systemic effects of racism. As with so many cultural advancements, it was initially met with disdain by the general public and many in positions of authority. Yet the needle is moving and as a society we are slowly coming to see what we were blind to before. And predictably, regressive forces want to hold us back. They predict disaster, the degradation of society, the unraveling of our existing paradigm and social contract (which has usually benefitted them quite nicely).

We saw this with slavery. We saw it with Jim Crow. We saw it, outside racial issues, with biological evolution, or more recently with divorce, same sex marriage, and even climate change.

It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day headlines and individual cases of overcorrection, conflict, and drama. But we should not miss the forest for the trees. Conservatives can see they are losing this culture war, like they have lost so many others. The Right in 10 to 20 years will probably say black lives matter with the ease that so many of them now embrace LGBTQ people.

If history is any guide, we will make it through these growing pains a more just and free society. If you embrace these values, take heart.

Those are my thoughts, anyway. What are yours?
While I certainly would support a progressive direction of which strides had already been made, I also wouldn't carelessly romanticize something that might actually prove to be something otherwise when all is said and done at the end of the day.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
@Left Coast , I agree. Birth is not a pleasant stroll in the park on a warm Saturday morning. And the old order does not go quietly but rages and fumes on its death bed.

The Mother of the Sri Aurobindo ashram wrote this decades ago. I've seen the truth of her words slowly unfolding.

We are in a very special situation, extremely special, without precedent. We are now witnessing the birth of a new world; it is very young, very weak - not in its essence but in its outer manifestation - not yet recognized, not even felt, denied by the majority. But it is here. It is here, making an effort to grow, absolutely sure of the result. But the road to it is a completely new road which has never before been traced out - nobody has gone there, nobody has done that! It is a beginning, a universal beginning. So it is an absolutely unexpected and unpredictable adventure.

There are people who love adventure. It is these I call, and I tell them this: "I invite you to the great adventure."

It is not a question of repeating spiritually what others have done before us, for our adventure begins beyond that. It is a question of a new creation, entirely new, with all the unforeseen events, the risks, the hazards it entails - a real adventure , whose goal is certain victory, but the road to which is unknown and must be traced out step by step in the unexplored. Something that has never been in this present universe and that will never be again in the same way. If that interests you... well, let us embark. What will happen to you tomorrow - I have no idea.

One must put aside all that has been foreseen, all that has been devised, all that has been constructed, and then.. set off walking into the unknown. And - come what may! There.
 

Left Coast

This Is Water
Staff member
Premium Member
While I certainly would support a progressive direction of which strides had already been made, I also wouldn't carelessly romanticize something that might actually prove to be something otherwise when all is said and done at the end of the day.

And of course, I might be wrong. But the rhythms of recent history suggest otherwise.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Our society is undergoing a profound cultural shift in terms of our understanding of race and the ongoing systemic effects of racism. As with so many cultural advancements, it was initially met with disdain by the general public and many in positions of authority. Yet the needle is moving and as a society we are slowly coming to see what we were blind to before. And predictably, regressive forces want to hold us back. They predict disaster, the degradation of society, the unraveling of our existing paradigm and social contract (which has usually benefitted them quite nicely).

We saw this with slavery. We saw it with Jim Crow. We saw it, outside racial issues, with biological evolution, or more recently with divorce, same sex marriage, and even climate change.

It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day headlines and individual cases of overcorrection, conflict, and drama. But we should not miss the forest for the trees. Conservatives can see they are losing this culture war, like they have lost so many others. The Right in 10 to 20 years will probably say black lives matter with the ease that so many of them now embrace LGBTQ people.

If history is any guide, we will make it through these growing pains a more just and free society. If you embrace these values, take heart.

Those are my thoughts, anyway. What are yours?
I don't see any increased or improved general understanding of race.
(Just a lot of people yelling past each other.)
But I do think it'll result in some good policing reforms.
That's a durn good result for everyone.

Dang it....I've got my hopes up.
 

Left Coast

This Is Water
Staff member
Premium Member
I don't see any increased or improved general understanding of race.
(Just a lot of people yelling past each other.)
But I do think it'll result in some good policing reforms.
That's a durn good result for everyone.

Dang it....I've got my hopes up.

I'm watching people in my own life who I would never dream would be as aware of (and willing to change) systemic racism as they are now. The change is happening, slowly but surely. The yelling is how these things often start.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
I don't see any increased or improved general understanding of race.
(Just a lot of people yelling past each other.)
But I do think it'll result in some good policing reforms.
That's a durn good result for everyone.

Dang it....I've got my hopes up.
Kind of hard to know where to yell amd not yell past people for those who are blind to race. Or yell at the right people when everyone is lumped together in inconsistent, contradictory, and stereotypes ways. Or even just get passed yelling when differences are what make and define an interaction instead of just being people with differences who are people. That people part especially is an afliction that bodes well for none of us. We need not make things harder on ourselves than that being people thing already makes it. But that flood gate was opened a long time ago. And now, somehow, according to the Looney Left, being a decent human being just isn't enough if you're white.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
I'm watching people in my own life who I would never dream would be as aware of (and willing to change) systemic racism as they are now. The change is happening, slowly but surely. The yelling is how these things often start.

I think there's been a lot more than yelling going on.
 

Left Coast

This Is Water
Staff member
Premium Member
I think there's been a lot more than yelling going on.

Indeed! The vast majority of it positive. People are moving beyond their ignorance and defensiveness and actually listening and learning from the experiences and struggles (and deaths) of black people. It's inspiring.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Indeed! The vast majority of it positive. People are moving beyond their ignorance and defensiveness and actually listening and learning from the experiences and struggles (and deaths) of black people. It's inspiring.
Well I admit that I've looked a lot more into history now. My only concern is opportunists and those who manipulate in the name of self-interest by taking advantage of a noble cause.
 

Tambourine

Well-Known Member
Total equanimity within a society. There has never been an example of that.

We are instinctively too tribal to even accomplish that.
Before the first society abolished slavery, no society without slavery had existed.

Before the first society allowed people to vote for their leaders without restrictions, the practice of free and egalitarian elections had never existed before.

Before the first human being started making fire, there had never existed a human-made fireplace.


I always find it interesting how, if we look back at history, it is full of things nobody had ever done before.
 
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