Thursday 13 April 2023

The new elite: the rise of the progressive aristocracy | The Spectator

The woke revolution does not simply aim to remedy past injustice. 'The only remedy to racist discrimination,' writes Kendi, 'is antiracist discrimination.' The idea is some groups by virtue of their history of marginalisation and exploitation are wiser and more moral than others. The belief that racism is not confined to intentional acts of discrimination but woven into the DNA of society implies white people are automatically guilty of harbouring racist thoughts and seeing the world through racist eyes. Racial minorities inevitably enjoy a higher moral status than whites but they also enjoy something equally important – greater access to understanding and moral wisdom. This is why the woke habitually invoke 'lived experience' and 'my truth'. Conversely, white people are guilty of original sin until they do what the kulaks were supposed to do and abolish themselves as a class. 'Abolish whiteness!' says Cambridge academic Priyamvada Gopal. 'White lives don't matter. As white lives.'

These race-based arguments bring with them the exhumation of the pre-modern habit of judging people based on group characteristics rather than individual achievement. History is repeating itself as both tragedy and farce at the same time.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-new-elite-the-rise-of-the-progressive-aristocracy/


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