That’s so cool, I’m not familiar with John Gray, I was just going off my own intuition and understanding, but it’s not surprising if anyone observes liberals long enough and take their history into account they would most likely come to the same conclusions as Mr. Gray
Meliorism is also an interesting term, I wasn’t aware of it until now, but it encapsulates so much of what I find insidious and subtly sinister about the architecture of liberal thought
I agree, the liberal framing of meliorism is so pernicious. This kinda weird, linear concept of progress that posits that every development ultimately benefits us all.
Obviously that’s not true though. I have a little quip that I occasionally dust off when discussing this and it is that meliorism doesn’t account for the invention of the whip.
In more prosaic terms, the Americas really didn’t see the benefits from the development of things like advanced seafaring or gunpowder and it’s undeniable that these advancements of Europe caused an unfathomable amount of suffering, deprivation, and dispossession. But in all honesty I think that’s the pro-colonialism and white supremacy that comes built into liberalism and its idealised notion of meliorism shining through; it’s all pretty great, just as long as you don’t consider brown people!
That’s so cool, I’m not familiar with John Gray, I was just going off my own intuition and understanding, but it’s not surprising if anyone observes liberals long enough and take their history into account they would most likely come to the same conclusions as Mr. Gray
Meliorism is also an interesting term, I wasn’t aware of it until now, but it encapsulates so much of what I find insidious and subtly sinister about the architecture of liberal thought
I agree, the liberal framing of meliorism is so pernicious. This kinda weird, linear concept of progress that posits that every development ultimately benefits us all.
Obviously that’s not true though. I have a little quip that I occasionally dust off when discussing this and it is that meliorism doesn’t account for the invention of the whip.
In more prosaic terms, the Americas really didn’t see the benefits from the development of things like advanced seafaring or gunpowder and it’s undeniable that these advancements of Europe caused an unfathomable amount of suffering, deprivation, and dispossession. But in all honesty I think that’s the pro-colonialism and white supremacy that comes built into liberalism and its idealised notion of meliorism shining through; it’s all pretty great, just as long as you don’t consider brown people!
Sorry bud this made my absolute fucking BAR detector blow up in my hand