Over here we have Dr. Stephen Turley suggesting that the Left is dead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukEBAVXGbWs&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR0y-sFckDSNEv6vd4vsTiFLXL4lefxzY6iiTjQfyCHFNytGc3jQ_MSOzAA
I’m not a big fan of Turley. I find his pollyanna optimism grating. He too often reminds me of “Baghdad Bob” insisting that the Iraqis were going to crush the Americans at the very moment American tanks were rolling into Baghdad. Turley, like Baghdad Bob, has optimism in abundance but it is an optimism not based on facts.
Turley, it should be known, is a champion for Civic Nationalism. Civic Nationalism is the idea that in a multicultural / multi-religious social order the citizen can still find a higher allegiance in their commitment to the Nation-State that allows them to look past the cultural and religious differences and so find a National unity. However, in our current climate Civic Nationalism is a non-starter. We have become so balkanized in America that no one, from the different ethnic and religious outposts, are going to come together and hold hands in a Civic Nationalism that Dr. Turley envisions being restored. Civic nationalism might well survive the heterogeneity of the 1950’s but there is no way that Ilhan Omar, Jerry Falwell Jr. and Jonathan Greenblatt as examples are going to hold hands on the basis of civic Nationalism. The days of Eisenhower are forever gone. Civic Nationalism, in order to work, has to provide rallying points for people of differing faiths and ethnicities to find common ground. At this point in history in our current climate can anyone possibly imagine what those rallying points could be? I can’t.
Second, I could make the case, contra Turley, that Globalism is indeed a form of tribalism. It is the attempt of one Tribe to become the Tribe that rules over all other Tribes by convincing all other Tribes that they have no ethnic identity. Only one certain Tribe can have ethnic identity to the end of ruling all the former tribes who has now lost their respective identities. That has already largely worked here in the States to a large degree so that the majority people group no longer self identify with their people group.
Third, Even if the paragraph above is wrong, Globalism is NOT modernity. Globalism is post-modernity where everyone gets to make up their own truths. Postmodernity teaches that borders are imaginary. Postmodernity teachers that race is a social construct. Postmodernity says get rid of all people group identifiers with the purpose of uniting all people globally. So, I don’t agree with Turley when he implies that Globalism is the child of modernity.
Fourth, Turley says, “The left is dead. They just don’t know it.” Well, for being dead they sure are making a good deal of noise right now. I think we will have to wait for November to see if the Left is dead or not. I hope Turley is right. Everything I see around me suggests otherwise.
Hello my friend. This is Stephen Turley, not Jonathan. He’s a well-known figure in the Classical education circles in which I run. I’ve also wondered where his profound optimism comes from, as it does not seem to spring from a “long-game” postmillennialism. Perhaps he’s been too much in our CCE bubble where unity is easier to come by (though it is still hard in significant ways!)
Thank you Joshua for that correction.
And Yes … unity is hard to come by. If we would just worry about Truth, unity (broad or narrow) would take care of itself.
One tribe is colonising all the other tribes, as in the first civil war, where slavery was exploited to include all the tribes, except one.
Am i correct in assuming that whilst race is a not a social construct, racism is?
Yes, I’d have to agree that racism is a social construct.
Good insight.