On Deprogramming the Critical Anarchist Mindset
We really need to chart a course separate from the culture warriors
A few years ago, I began noticing that there is a problem on the left. It might not even have been a new problem, but it was surely getting more and more prominent. There was a lot of negativity. Everything was now 'oppressive', and needed to be 'dismantled'. Surely, I thought, society could do with some reforms to make life better, especially for disadvantaged minorities, but this excessively negative, 'everything had to go' mentality was not the way to go. Later, I learned that certain philosophical theories, generally under the umbrella of 'postmodern critical theory', was behind this worldview. Basically, these theories see almost everything about the status quo, including values like objectivity and balance, institutions like marriage and family, and even the language we use, as products of identity-group based oppression, and need to be abolished for the sake of the liberation of the oppressed. Given its use of critical theory methods to tear down and 'deconstruct' almost everything, and its overwhelming negativity to almost all existing values and institutions, I later came to call this mindset 'critical anarchism'.
The problem with the critical anarchist worldview is that it leads to an us-vs-them, all-or-none worldview, that makes reformism within the status quo impossible. Either the whole status quo has to be shattered, which would likely lead to widespread chaos, or there would be total paralysis, if the status quo can't be shattered, because of the false belief that the 'system' isn't worth reforming. In either case, nothing positive or productive can ever come out of it. This is why I strongly believe that we must try to deprogram the critical anarchist mindset out of as many progressive movements and people as possible. And it is a fact that the critical anarchist mindset, broadly speaking, has had an influence on many things, even if the complete theory and conclusions of critical anarchism itself has not been fully accepted in every case. For example, the discipline of sociology used to strongly lean towards the 'consensus theory' of Talcott Parsons, but since radicals attacked his work in the 1960s, 'conflict theory', and its more negative view of social relations, has prevailed instead. Herbert Marcuse's celebration of 'the power of negative thinking' and his controversial 1960s work 'Repressive Tolerance' were also influential in promoting this new, more negative view of society, that prevailed in many progressive intellectual circles. This negativity has prevented a full appreciation of the good things inherent in what we already have, and hinders us from developing a positive reformist perspective. Note that I'm not saying that we all need to be sunny optimists; I'm sometimes pretty pessimistic myself personally. However, you've got to appreciate how things work, and why they work well, before you seek to change things to make them even better, and the 'tear it all down' mentality prevents this from happening.
The first step in deprogramming the influence of the critical anarchist worldview is to raise awareness. If one is not aware that this negative worldview is having an effect on many parts of society and life, then one cannot begin to resist its influence. Therefore, especially early on, getting the discussion going on the philosophy behind this worldview, i.e. postmodernism and critical theory, and why they pose a problem for liberal reformism, is important. Since 2018, many more people have been made aware of the existence and influence of these theories, and that is a good thing.
However, awareness of the theory isn't enough. We need to be able to actually deprogram people, especially progressively-inclined people, from its influence. Here, many of the forces that have made widespread awareness possible are actually becoming a hindrance, to put it bluntly. Think about it: if our goal is to change the minds of politically center-left people, the last thing we would want is to have a tribalist culture war over 'wokeism', where 'anti-woke' is coded as right-wing. However, this is exactly what has been happening over the past two years, thanks to certain well-funded 'anti-woke' media outlets and personalities repeatedly linking their criticism of 'wokeness' with supporting right-wing politicians and policies. Some have even shamelessly insisted that you need to support Trump or the Republican Party to be truly anti-woke. As I have said before, these people appear to be primarily serving the electoral cause of the Republican Party (and the British Conservative Party in some cases), and they appear not to be truly interested in changing minds. Therefore, those of us whose goal is to actually change minds, to deprogram progressive circles away from critical anarchism, need to dissociate from these tribalist culture warriors, and pursue our own path going forward.
So where do we go next? I believe we need to actually intellectually expose, and critique, the premises of critical anarchist thinking. Rather than focusing on the specifics of the theories, we need to talk about the inherent wrongful assumptions at the base of all these theories, e.g. the oppressor vs oppressed mindset, and the neglect that real life is naturally full of limitations, whether we like it or not. We also really need to reach out, and build bridges, in good faith. Tribalist culture wars are cheap and shallow, and can only entrench our existing differences. Instead, what we need is something deeper, something that can reach across superficial divides, and change minds through the power of reason. Only then will we be able to win people back to a positive, reformist vision, and start moving away from a state of perpetual polarization.
TaraElla is a singer-songwriter and author, who is the author of the Moral Libertarian Manifesto and the Moral Libertarian book series, which argue that liberalism is still the most moral and effective value system for the West.
She is also the author of The Trans Case Against Queer Theory and The TaraElla Story (her autobiography).