[Leftists] are also prone to weaker levels of emotional regulation and to “extreme acts of solidarity … with groups to which they do not belong originally."[1]It's nigh on inexplicable. My best guess is that leftists are unhappy in their own skin, without either (1) a sense of belonging in the sea of their secular fellow citizens who have varying degrees of understanding or sympathy for life's trials or (2) the comforts of religion, such as they may be.
Anyone who's lived in a high-density urban environment (or a low-density one) knows the kind of isolation that one can experience there. I don't care much for religion but I do remember a particularly hard time I experienced when whispers of Christian insight could be heard in some popular songs. They were very comforting. (If some Christians could shed their propensity to engage in comma patrol in the Bible and focus on that essential appeal I'm speaking of it they might draw more people in or back. But . . . there's little about the general culture that isn't delusional and flaccid.)
Ours is a mobile society too and millions live in our cities without the benefit of extended family. Your social support group is what you may or may not have in your home, in your workplace, or in some social group (in which you must proactively expend energy to participate). The "culture" is something vague and over the horizon. Contrast this with how neighbors in Raleigh, North Carolina, showed up with plates of food. I was amazed but how the "culture" stepped in on autopilot to support neighbors.
Perhaps leftists looking at foreigners or other outgroups reveals that they too are on "the outside" as well and thus will ipso facto be "in solidarity" with the similarly isolated putative majority person. We all have problems of alienation therefore . . . .
Bizarre behavior most often results, not least the sick welcoming of people with primitive ways, superstitious thinking, and hostile intent. Witness the Rachel Donezals of our culture who live a blatant lie. The steroidal Swedish and German "welcoming" pathology.
As I say, I don't subscribe to any flavor of Christianity though I never fail to find something worthwhile in any worship services I attend. God forbid that someone else might have useful suggestions on how to live the good life.
I do wonder about how many churches come across to possibly interested outsiders when they insist on featuring such insipid, mewling hymns. By way of contrast, several centuries ago, I attended a tiny church in the woods while on vacation in northern Michigan and that lot sang hymns with real joy. The stuff to get your blood pumping. Verb. sap.
If people aren't feeling that (or a sense of the transcendent) in the pews, something's wrong. We're paying a huge price for that sense of personal emptiness.
Notes
[1] "Brexit: the Banality of Treason." By Andrew Joyce, The Unz Review, 10/7/19.
Or in another word, tribalism. Except based on some personal characteristic vs some shared community. Dozel wants to belong to a tribe (blacks) and works to 'appear' as such - because appearances are all that is necessary for a characteristic. Being part of a community involves LIVING as part of the community: shared values, shared beliefs, shared culture. Many different types of people can be part of a community - not all sharing the same physical characteristics.
ReplyDeleteAnd the 'level' of characteristic is important, ie "OREOs" are shunned by the larger black community for not being 'black enough'. Think of the educational elite. It is not enough to have graduated college, it has to be the RIGHT college. Recall the sneering of Palin's Idaho (?) college degree.
Othering is a characteristic of the current Left, can't call them Liberals as there is nothing LIBERAL about their deeds/thoughts. Even within the Left, othering - privilege - is rampant.
I fear that this sick identification with the Other can exist quite easily in people who do NOT live in specific communities or contort themselves to adopt the outward appearance of the Other. One of the defining hypocricies of the bleeding hearts is their mouthing the platitudes but making darn sure to reside in white communities.
ReplyDeleteBut, for sure, Dolezal made a fool out of herself by trying to imitate a chemeleon and immerse herself in the black community. Though I'm curious now where it was exactly that she RESIDED.